21-23 Molesworth Street, Cookstown, Co Tyrone, BT80 8NX

21–23 Molesworth Street is a three-storey sandstone terraced public house built around 1861, originally constructed as a single dwelling by William S. Crawford. It forms part of a long, largely uniform terrace of mixed three-storey buildings running along Molesworth Street, built in stages between 1850 and 1880 and now largely converted to shops, pubs and offices. The building is an important element of the 19th-century built heritage of Cookstown, and its external proportions and style make a positive contribution to the group value of the street. The terrace as a whole — numbers 19 to 53 Molesworth Street — reflects the urbanisation and increasing prosperity of Cookstown during this period, particularly the arrival of the railway.

The building is long, narrow and rectangular in plan, set with its north elevation facing the street. It stretches back to the south, where an L-shaped two-storey addition faces onto a rear courtyard. Access to this courtyard is via a shared integral coach arch at ground-floor level on the left of the main front elevation, which forms part of the adjacent property at number 25. The L-shaped two-storey addition to the rear contains a pub and nightclub.

On the street elevation, the ground floor is partially clad in ceramic tiles — a later intervention that detracts somewhat from the overall composition — and is separated from the first floor by a continuous projecting stone course. The upper storeys retain the original sandstone finish. The ground floor contains two painted timber doorways: the doorway to the right is recessed into a painted timber plank surround laid horizontally, with an overlight above; the doorway to the left is a plain timber double door. The ground floor also has a mixture of single-light and triple-light replacement windows with cut stone sills and decorative grilles. The upper floors have replacement timber casement windows with cut stone lintels. Banded rusticated quoins mark the edges of the front elevation, and decorative wrought-iron torches are attached to the upper levels between each bay. At eaves level there is a projecting stone cornice, with exposed aluminium gutters and downpipes to the front elevation. The roof is finished in natural slate, consistent with the uniform terrace, and flanked by brick chimneys.

The rear south elevation is partially visible from the courtyard and has small replacement timber window openings fitted with metal grilles. Rainwater goods to the rear are a mixture of uPVC.

The returns and later additions are as follows. The two-storey return has stone cladding to a ground-floor single-storey projection dating from around 1990. At ground level this return has a single recessed timber door surmounted by a horizontal timber fascia and uPVC guttering. The upper storey contains two 3-over-6 sliding timber sash windows along with additional replacement timber windows. The return has an artificial slate roof and a plain rendered chimney. A further two-storey flat-roofed rear return, dating from around 1960, has similar finishes and an irregular arrangement of window and door openings with both timber and uPVC windows and doors.

The rear courtyard is overlooked by the adjacent property at number 25. The returns of number 21 and number 25 directly abut a building referred to as "the Hall" to the south — a two-storey structure with modern cladding, brash lighting and additions, and an irregular mixture of door and window openings.

The building sits in the north-east of Cookstown town centre as part of the uniform matching three-storey terrace.

The property's documented history begins with its construction around 1861 by William S. Crawford, at which point it had a rateable valuation of £25 and comprised what are now numbers 21 and 23 as a single dwelling. Stables were added to the rear in 1868, raising the rateable value to £30. By 1870 an Alexander Molloy is recorded as resident; the property was noted as vacant in 1872, with Crawford returning in 1873. That same year the rateable value rose by £10 to £40, indicating the completion of a substantial addition — almost certainly the present number 25. A further rise to £47 in 1877 suggests additional works, possibly involving the outbuildings to the rear. In 1889 the ground floor of the 1873 addition at number 25 was leased as a separate shop, initially to a Joseph Burnett (apparently a butcher) and then in 1893 to a Charles Rankin. In 1891 a shed was added to the rear of the main block covering the present numbers 21–23, raising the rateable value to £50; the following year the main block is formally recorded as a public house, though it may well have been used as one for some time before — possibly even from the outset. Joseph C. Crawford took over both the tenancy and the pub lease, as well as the shop lease, in 1894. In 1907 the pub lease was acquired by Edward Allen, who also held the neighbouring pub to the west, and a James McGuckin became tenant. Crawford retained the shop lease; the shop is recorded as occupied by James McCulla in 1905 and Joseph Donnelly in 1907. In 1909 McGuckin acquired the pub lease and sublet the living quarters and rear garden to a George R. Bear.

Around 1924, a significant reorganisation of the property took place: number 21 emerged as a single separate entity, while numbers 23 and 25 were subdivided into several concerns. In 1924, what is now number 23 and number 25 were recorded as comprising a shop and room, two rooms on the first floor front left, two rooms on the first floor front right, a room on the first floor to the rear, two rooms on the second floor left, two rooms on the second floor right, and a garage at the rear.

After around 1924, the part that is now number 21 was occupied by William and Robert McGuckin in 1930. By 1936, a T.A. and A.A. Quinn were in occupation, with a John C. Eastwood as leaseholder. William Eastwood became occupant and leaseholder in 1949, succeeded by Edward Quinn in 1954, with Thomas A. Quinn — probably the same T.A. Quinn noted above — as tenant. Sometime in the early 1930s the large outbuilding to the rear was subdivided into four separate properties; by 1951–52 these appear to have been amalgamated and extended to form a cinema, operated by Thomas A. Quinn, who retained it until at least 1972.

For the part now numbered 23, by 1936 it was recorded as a separate property from number 25, divided into an office occupied by the auctioneers and property salesmen Bear and McKeown, with George R. Bear himself living in the rooms above. By 1950 the former living quarters had been vacated and four separate offices are recorded, two of them rented by Northern Ireland government departments — the Ministry of Finance and the National Assistance Board for Northern Ireland. By 1972, six separate properties are recorded within the building: five offices and a flat on the second floor.

This listing record incorporates the two buildings formerly recorded separately as HB09/13/017B and HB09/13/017C.