27 William Street, Cookstown, Co Tyrone, BT80 8AX

27 William Street is a three-storey terraced house and pub, built around 1840, on the west side of William Street in the commercial district of Cookstown, County Tyrone. It forms part of a ten-bay matching terrace arranged in a 3/2/3/2 bay rhythm alongside the adjacent buildings at numbers 23 and 25 (formerly recorded together) and number 29. Number 29 has since been altered beyond recognition, reducing what was originally a matching group of four to three coherent properties. The terrace is early Victorian in character, designed in a Regency style, and makes a significant contribution to the historic streetscape of this part of Cookstown. However, a significant number of alterations and window replacements mean the building does not merit listed status as a structure of special architectural or historic interest.

The building is roughly rectangular in plan, with a three-storey pitched-roof return to the rear. Behind that is a further two-storey pitched extension, and beyond that a single-storey flat-roofed extension. The two-storey extension incorporates a coach arch at ground floor level, which leads through to a series of two-storey rendered outbuildings. Walling throughout is rendered, with raised plaster decorative features. The roof is pitched and slated, with a rendered chimney stack finished with a profiled stepped capping. Rainwater goods are replacement aluminium.

The principal front elevation faces east, directly onto William Street. At ground floor level, to the right (south), there is a replacement pub front comprising a square-headed double doorway with a glazed overlight to the right, and a matching double door to the left, with a central square-headed single-light window set on a concrete sill between them. Painted metal grilles are fitted to the window. The pub front is surmounted by a projecting timber signboard with raised lettering. To the left (north) of the ground floor is an integral coach arch. At first floor level there are square-headed replacement timber casement windows. All windows are set on painted cut-stone sills, with the classical proportions reducing as the building rises through its upper storeys. The windows are recessed into elliptical-headed vertical bays, and at the springer level of these Regency-style elliptical-headed arches there is projecting carved stone cornicing. Modern vertical uPVC signage attachments have been added to the upper levels.

The three-storey rear return is rendered and contains a mixture of timber and replacement uPVC casement and sliding sash windows. A metal fire escape stair serves the first floor. The two-storey pitched-roof extension has replacement uPVC windows with protective metal grilles, and the single-storey flat-roofed extension has a similar arrangement of window openings. Square-headed timber doors serve the extensions. To the rear, access from the street is via the integral coach arch, and there is a wrought-iron gate to the rear elevation.

The site of the present numbers 23, 25 and 27 William Street is shown as already developed on the Ordnance Survey map of 1833 to 1834. The 1835 valuation records the entire plot as occupied by a large, mainly thatched inn in the possession of a Hugh Espey. That inn measured 45 feet by 22 feet by 14½ feet in height, with a return of 19½ by 16½ by 15 feet, a ballroom of 56 by 26 by 14 feet, and a substantial range of outbuildings measuring 64 by 16½ by 13, 13 by 19 by 9, 40½ by 18½ by 9, 26½ by 15½ by 12, 15½ by 35 by 11, and 18 by 5½ by 10 feet respectively. The whole was rated for rating purposes at £19 7s 4d. By 1838 the property had passed to a Mrs Espey and the rateable value had risen to £34. Sometime between 1838 and 1859 the old building was demolished and the present block erected. The Regency character of the terrace, with its large recessed arches, suggests a date closer to 1838 than to 1859, hence the estimated construction date of around 1840.

In the 1859 valuation, the property now numbered 23 is recorded as occupied by a grocer, James Devlin, with Thomas Black as the immediate lessor, and the building rated at £31. By 1885 the rateable value had risen to £39, suggesting a rear addition to the building at some point before that date. In 1892 the lease was acquired by Francis P. Devlin, who also appears to have occupied the premises. Early 1900s trade directories list the business as James Devlin and Sons, grocers, wholesale and retail spirit dealers, and agricultural seed merchants, indicating that the property was being used as licensed premises by that time. In 1944 a Thomas A. Quinn is recorded as the tenant, and by 1969 a Harry Quinn is noted as both tenant and freeholder.