16 Bridge St, Rostrevor, Co.Down

No. 16 Bridge Street is a two-storey terraced building of around 1850, with a chemist's shop at ground floor and a dwelling above, situated on the north-east side of Bridge Street within the Rostrevor Conservation Area. The architect is not known. The building has a rectangular plan facing south-west, with two separate single-storey monopitched rear returns added later.

The pitched roof is clad in fibre cement tiles with black clay ridge tiles and projecting eaves. To the front, half-round metal rainwater guttering discharges to a cast iron polygonal hopper and a circular-section cast iron downpipe, shared with No. 18 next door. A rectangular chimney stack, also shared with No. 18, rises to the south-east and carries two buff clay pots and two terracotta clay pots.

Principal (south-west) elevation

The front elevation faces the public footpath along Bridge Street and is finished in painted lined render with square-headed openings. It is divided into two parts: the chemist's shopfront to the north-west, and a single residential bay to the south-east.

The residential bay has a four-panelled painted timber door opening onto a single granite step, with a square-headed fanlight above, brass furniture, and a double-hung 6-over-6 sliding timber sash window on the first floor directly above. A brass pestle-and-mortar motif is fixed at first-floor level between the shopfront and this doorway, and a projecting modern wall-mounted metal sign displays a green cross and the name "McKeevers Chemists".

The shopfront has a glazed square-headed opening flanked by wide painted timber panels with moulded timber corbels at their tops, which appear to be survivals of an earlier shopfront. The shop window has an aluminium frame; the shop door, positioned to the south-east side of the window, is aluminium-framed with glazed upper and lower halves. Modern signage is mounted on a projecting roller shutter casing with fluorescent lighting above and "McKeevers Chemists" in raised lettering. At first-floor level, centred over the shopfront, is a tripartite window: a double-hung 4-over-4 sliding timber sash in the centre with timber mullions and 4-pane fixed sidelights to either side.

North-west and south-east elevations

The building is attached to No. 14 Bridge Street on the north-west and to No. 18 Bridge Street on the south-east.

Rear (north-east) elevation

The rear elevation is finished in painted textured render with uPVC rainwater goods. It consists of a two-storey block fronted on the north-west by a long monopitched rear return serving the chemist's, and on the south-east by a smaller monopitched rear return serving the dwelling, with a larger monopitched outbuilding attached to the north-east end of the latter.

The fenestration at the rear is irregular. Four uPVC casement windows were recently installed at first-floor level: the two central windows are diminutive, while those to either side are two-part side-opening casements. A three-part uPVC casement window sits at ground-floor level in the walling between the rear returns, looking onto a concrete yard; the north-east end of the yard is raised and set to lawn, accessed via a short flight of concrete steps, and enclosed along the site boundaries by smooth rendered walling.

The chemist's rear return to the north-west has a corrugated asbestos roof. Its south-east elevation has a wide top-opening timber casement window, a smaller uPVC casement window, and a painted sheet metal door, with slim concrete cills throughout. The dwelling's rear return to the south-east has a monopitched fibre cement tile roof with a skylight, and a painted flush timber door with a glazed upper half to its north-west elevation. Abutting this return to the north-east is a store built of coursed reconstituted stone blocks, with a painted flush timber door and a three-part timber casement window to the north-east side of the door.

Setting

No. 16 forms part of a terrace on the north-east side of Bridge Street — formerly known as Post Office Street — which runs from Rostrevor's Square at its north-west end down to a triple-span bridge over the Rostrevor River at its south-east end. The terrace is mainly composed of shops with dwellings above, and No. 16 contributes to the coherent character of this group through its similar scale, proportions, and modest detailing.

Historical background

A building on or near the site of Nos. 14–16 Bridge Street was recorded on the Townland Valuation Town Plan of around 1834 as a simple rectangular structure with a rear outbuilding, valued in the Townland Valuations of 1838 at £7 8s. This earlier building was almost certainly not the present structure, as its recorded dimensions do not correspond to those of the current buildings; it was likely replaced by the present pair of buildings around 1850.

The Rostrevor Conservation Area Guide records that in 1752 the village consisted of only a few cottages, but that by the early 19th century it had developed a tree-lined Square and a quay half a mile distant. Bridge Street had been fully developed by the turn of the 19th century. Steady population growth throughout the century coincided with the arrival of the tramway from Warrenpoint in 1875 and the construction of the Rostrevor Hotel in 1876.

Griffith's Valuation of 1861 set the rateable value of No. 16 at £10 and recorded that the building was initially leased to a Mr William Steward by the estate of Robert Martin. Occupants changed frequently over the following decades. By the turn of the 20th century, Bernard Dunne — a local auctioneer and draper — was operating a shop from the premises. The 1901 Census of Ireland described the building as a second-class dwelling of nine rooms, with a stable, barn, and turf house among the outbuildings to the rear. It was in the first decade of the 20th century that Post Office Street was renamed Bridge Street. The Dunne family continued to occupy No. 16 until the 1960s.

The First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57) raised the rateable value to £18 and recorded that ownership had passed to David Sinton, a local grocer, while Michael Dunne remained in residence. Around 1968, the property was taken on by Kevin Durkin, who established a chemist's shop there. By the close of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72), the rateable value had risen substantially to £45. No. 16 Bridge Street was included in the Rostrevor Conservation Area in 1979 and was subsequently listed in 1981.

Materials: The roof is fibre cement tile; rainwater goods are cast iron to the front and uPVC to the rear; walling is rendered throughout; windows to the front are timber sliding sash, with timber casement and uPVC windows to the rear.