6 Loy Street, Cookstown, Co Tyrone, BT80 8PE

6 Loy Street, Cookstown

A large mid-Victorian townhouse built around 1867-68 by James McMillan on a lease from the Gunning/Moore estate, with outbuildings added to the rear in 1869. The house was originally rated at £40, increased to £45 upon completion of the outbuildings. It served as a private residence until 1905, when it was converted to an RIC Barrack. The valuer's notebook from that conversion records the building contained eight bedrooms, a sitting room, office, store, day room and mess room, designed to accommodate eighteen men and the head constable's family, with capacity for a further ten men. The building remained in use as a police (RUC) station until 1972, reverting to use as a dwelling house by September 1973. It now operates as a multi-use facility housing a volunteer centre, chiropodist, Chinese clinic, and hair studio.

The building is a three-storey attached townhouse of rectangular plan with a three-storey flat-roofed return to the rear. It is set back from Loy Street behind a low boundary wall with replacement metal railings, accessed via a vehicle entrance gate and pedestrian entrance with simple rusticated square pillars and pyramidal stone caps. The entrance parking area is finished with tarmac.

The external walls are rendered and painted. The front west elevation facing the street features rusticated render to the ground floor and smooth render to the upper levels, with diamond-pointed quoins at ground level and chamfered quoins above. A rendered band separates the ground level from upper storeys. The main entrance has an elliptical head and is flanked with semi-circular headed sidelights, each flanked by pilasters with elaborate carved console brackets with acanthus stops. The pilasters support an entablature above which sits a segmental-headed fanlight, all contained within a segmental-headed opening flanked by panelled pilasters and decorative carved surround. Two flat-roofed canted bay windows flank the doorway, fitted with replacement uPVC windows but retaining carved timber sills and projecting cornicing.

The first floor displays a semi-circular headed central tri-partite window with 1/1 timber sash frames set within a chamfered carved stone surround, with paired round-headed windows to each side, similarly dressed in stone. The second floor contains a square-headed central tri-partite window with 1/1 timber sash frames, set within a cut-stone surround with central keystone.

The north side elevation is gable-ended with two replacement uPVC windows on each floor. The rear east elevation is similarly fitted with replacement uPVC windows. The return features an irregular assortment of replacement uPVC casement windows and timber sliding sash, with a pointed arched stained glass window on its east elevation. A painted metal escape staircase rises from the ground floor to the second floor.

The roof is covered with artificial slate and fitted with cast-iron rainwater goods. Original chimneys have been removed.

The building has undergone substantial alterations following its changes of use. Although well maintained, these collective changes have resulted in a structure that lacks sufficient architectural or historic interest to warrant listing.