Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB03/17/002 A

Address :
13 Kingsgate Street Coleraine Co. Londonderry BT52 1LB

Townland:
Coleraine

---

Survey 2:
B2

Date of Listing:
22/06/1977 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Shop - Terrace

Former Use
Shop - Terrace

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

---

OS Map No:
13-13NW

IG Ref:
C8503 3245

---

Owner Category

Commercial

Exterior Description And Setting

A two-bay three-storey terraced commercial premises; built c.1830 with Art-Nouveau-style shop-front installed in 1917; located to the south side of Kingsgate Street in Coleraine town centre. Square on plan with large two-storey flat-roof extension to rear. Pitched natural slate roof with raised masonry verges and rendered chimney stack to gable. Cast-iron half-round rainwater goods on projecting masonry eaves. Walling is painted ruled-and-lined render with quoins. Windows are 1/1 panes in timber sliding sash in moulded architraves with keystone and projecting painted sills; plate glass windows to ground floor shop-front. The principal elevation faces north and is two bays wide at upper floors with toothed quoins to edge at ends. Ground floor Edwardian shop-front has recessed porch to northwest corner, flanked by plate glass windows on timber stall risers; timber frame has curved timber spandrels with carved decoration and multi-paned top lights. Porch has curved glazing both sides of entrance door and is floored with modern tiles. Entrance door has a single glazed panel and an original Art-Nouveau-style brass pull handle; the door is surmounted by multi-paned fanlight. Modern fascia has scrolled consoles to northwest corner over square column. The east elevation is abutted by adjoining building (HB03/17/002B). The south (rear) elevation is fully abutted by a large two-storey modern extension. The west elevation has a window to upper floors at left and shopfront (as described above) at ground floor left within the exposed portion of the gable wall; abutted at right by the adjoining building (HB03/01/001F). Setting: Street-fronted, forming a pair with HB03/17/002B, and adjoining an earlier terrace to west (HB03/17/001A-F). Enclosed yard to rear. Roof: Natural slate Walling : Ruled and lined render Windows: 1/1 panes within timber sash, without horns RWG: Cast-iron

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

Number 13 Kingsgate Street was demolished and reconstructed in the 1990s, retaining the original shopfront. The building originally formed a single dwelling house with number 15 that was later divided into two shops. The house is shown on the first edition OS map of Coleraine dating from 1830 and the distinctive curved shop window was installed in 1917 (Valuation records). Kingsgate Street marks the position of a former gateway to the fortified town of Coleraine, earthern ramparts surrounded by a ditch having been constructed at the time of plantation in 1611 (Mullin). By 1622 what was formerly known as the ‘East Gate’ of the town had been fitted with a small gate and drawbridge 12 feet wide ‘having a small timber room over...slated’ (Mullin). By 1710, however the town gates had been dismantled, although the ramparts remained in the Kingsgate area for some years. By the first edition OS map of 1830 no rampart was evident on the south side of Kingsgate Street and the former line of the rampart had been built over by numbers 1, 3, 5 and 7. The Townland Valuation (1828-40) records numbers 13 and 15 as a single building occupied by Alexander Cuthbert who operated a tannery and leather cutting business on the premises. Alexander Cuthbert was a successful businessman and became a Town Commissioner in the 1840s and 50s. By 1852 he had moved to a house called Northbrook, away from his tannery. Cuthbert carried out an international trade in iron, boots, linseed oil and paint, trading with Canada and Melbourne (New Directory 1839; PRONI D3300/118/2). The Townland Valuation values the house and offices at £21 and lists a number of thatched and shingled stores and sheds to the rear of the building. By the time of Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) the building had been divided into two and revalued at £23 and £20. Number thirteen was in use as the town’s police barracks and by this time had a single-storey return, a single-storey rear extension and a two-storey outbuilding. In 1861 the valuation of the building was raised to £26 and then £28 indicating improvements or additions. At around the same time the building was taken over by Robert Dunlop and then Constantia Dunlop in 1873. A bakery was added to the site at around this period and the valuation was again raised to £33.10s. Subsequent occupiers were John Hammersley (1879) D Henderson (1882) James Henderson (1883) Robert M Reid (1884) and Robert Dysart (1891), but the building continued to be owned by Constantia Dunlop. In 1892 the building was split into several holdings, a house and shop on the ground floor valued at £10, a house on the upper floors valued at £10 and a bakery, outbuildings and garden valued at £4.10s and 10s for the garden. Further outbuildings were separately valued at £9. At the time of the 1911 census the building was occupied by two families. Alexander Thompson, house painter, lived with his wife and four young children and Edward Irwin, mill owner, lived with his two sisters, probably in the upper part of the house. By 1903 the bakery to the rear was no longer in operation and the buildings were used as stores. In 1917 the entire building was taken over by butcher Daniel McGrath and a new shop window was installed and improvements made at a cost of £350. The accommodation then comprised a shop, breakfast room, kitchen, pantry drawing room, bedroom, bathroom and WC and three rooms on the attic floor. To the rear was a slaughterhouse and valuer’s notes of the 1930s show several byres to the rear of the shop. By the 1930s one of the byres with a loft over was used as a garage, three byres were for seven animals and one for ten and a box was used as a mincing room with a one horse power crossley engine. The shop was described as ‘exceptionally good for this part of the town’. In the 1940s the shop and outbuildings were again let separately from the offices in the upper part of the building, which were occupied by the Antrim Electricity Distribution Company Ltd followed by a succession of tenants. The premises remained a butcher’s until the 1970s when it became a clothing shop. In the 1980s extensions and alterations were carried out and in the 1990s the shop was entirely demolished and rebuilt in the style of the original, retaining the original shopfront (HB file) References: Primary Sources 1. PRONI OS/6/5/7/1 First Edition OS Map 1830 2. PRONI OS/6/5/7/2 Second Edition OS map 1849-50 3. PRONI OS/6/5/7/3 Third Edition OS Map 1904 4. PRONI OS/6/5/7/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1923 5. PRONI OS/6/5/7/5 Fifth Edition OS Map 1949 6. PRONI VAL/1/B/542A-D Townland Valuation (1828-40) 7. PRONI VAL/2/B/5/3/D Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) 8. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/9A-N Annual Revisions (1864-1929) 9. PRONI VAL/3/C/6/4 First General Revaluation 1933-57 10. PRONI VAL/3/D/6/2/A/12 First General Revaluation 1933-57 11. HB file – 03/17/002A 12. New Directory 1839 13. 1901/11 census online 14. PRONI D3300/118/2 – Cuthbert family papers Secondary Sources 1. Girvan, W D “Historic Buildings, Groups of Buildings, Areas of Architectural Importance in Coleraine and Portstewart” Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1971-2 2. Mullin, Rev T H “Coleraine in by-gone centuries” Belfast: Century Services Ltd, 1976 3. Mullin, Rev T H “Coleraine in Georgian Times” Belfast: Century Services Ltd, 1977

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation H-. Alterations detracting from building J. Setting K. Group value

Historic Interest

X. Local Interest R. Age

Evaluation

A two-bay three-storey terraced commercial premises with Art-Nouveau-style shopfront; built c.1830 and located to the south side of Kingsgate Street in Coleraine town centre. Forming a group of two with HB03/17/002B, as a group the buildings make an important contribution to the historic character of the Coleraine streetscape.

General Comments

Date of Survey

16 December 2012