Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB03/10/035

Address :
Former Post Office 12 Causeway Street Portrush Co. Antrim BT56 8AJ

Townland:
Portrush

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Survey 2:
B2

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

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Library

Former Use
Post Office

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
6-09

IG Ref:
C8590 4050

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Owner Category

Exterior Description And Setting

A three-storey five-bay red-brick and sandstone, eclectic freestyle former Post Office, now library, built 1907. Located to the west side of Causeway Street in Portrush town centre. Rectangular on plan with single-storey return and large modern extension to rear (of little interest). Hipped natural slate roof, terracotta ridge tiles and red-brick chimneystacks having moulded sandstone caps; shaped parapet with sandstone caping. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods on projecting timber eaves with exposed rafter tails. Walling is alternate courses of stretcher and header-bonded red-brick with sandstone dressings to upper floors; ashlar sandstone to ground floor with band rustication; modillioned cornice above second floor windows; continuous sill course to ground floor windows. Windows are 6/6 timber-framed sliding sash with horns and projecting sandstone sills; ground floor and first floor windows each have recessed ashlar reveals and advanced voussoirs, exaggerated staged keystone to ground floor windows. Plain ashlar architraves to second floor. Symmetrical principal elevation is northwest facing and comprises recessed central bay, three openings wide to each floor, flanked by advanced bays, two openings wide and identical (with the exception of entrance door to left side). Central bay has neo-Baroque detailing dominated by replacement segmental entrance door, pedimented central first floor window with console brackets and carved detailing. Apron panels to first floor windows interlock with the keyblocks of the windows below; that to centre is carved “E/R” to either side of central crown; the rusticated banding beneath is carved with “POST OFFICE”; apron panels to either side are carved with festoons. Side bays are dominated by heavy cornice above first floor. Plain aprons to first floor windows. Entrance door to left has original raised-and-fielded six-panel timber door with peep hole and cast-iron knocker and knob. Door is surmounted by a three-pane transom light and keyblock. Cartouche to either side above second floor windows. The southeast elevation is abutted by adjoining building. The southwest (rear) elevation has five evenly-spaced windows to upper floors; abutted at left by the single-storey return; timber-sheeted door with three-pane transom and window to ground floor right. Return has four multi-paned segmental-headed windows and modern timber-sheeted fire doors to southeast elevation; abutted to southwest by the large modern extension. The northwest elevation has a window to second and first floor right. Setting: Street-fronted and situated to the northern end of Causeway Street within the commercial area, forming part of a terrace fairly inconsistent in style and character. Directly to northwest is a four-storey modern building with apartments over commercial units. Enclosed yard to rear accessed from Causeway Street by gate to northwest wall. Roof: Natural slate Walling: Stretcher and header-bonded red-brick and sandstone Windows: Timber sash RWG: Cast-iron

Architects

Cochrane, Robert

Historical Information

Portrush Post Office, which bears the date 1908, was begun in 1907 to designs by Robert Cochrane and first appears on the fourth edition OS map of 1921-31. Portrush underwent its most significant growth during the closing decades of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth and still retains the aspect of a late Victorian/ Edwardian bathing resort. The growth of the town is sufficient explanation for the construction of a new post office, but it is also thought that the large number of mail orders once undertaken by the local department store the ‘White House’, described in contemporary advertising as ‘The Depot for Irish Peasant Industries’, could only be accommodated by a much larger building. (Girvan; Anderson; Official Guide to Portrush 1912) Tenders were invited for the building in June 1907 and the Irish Builder reported its completion in May 1908. The building cost between five and six thousand pounds and the contractor was Mr Hutchinson Keith of Glenravel Street, Belfast. The architect was County Down-born Robert Cochrane, surveyor to the Board of Works in Dublin from 1887 to 1909. He was also a noted antiquarian and was appointed inspector of ancient monuments for Ireland in 1899. Supervising architect was William Williams of the Board of Works. (www.dia.ie; Irish Builder) The building enters valuation records in 1909 as a post office, postmaster’s apartments and yard valued at £100 for the post office and £30 for the apartments. Valuer’s notes show a building on a T-shaped plan with the post office on the ground floor and postmistress’s accommodation on the first and second floors, accessed by a separate door on the left of the front elevation. Resident at the time of the 1911 census was Joanna Williamson Percy, the postmistress for Portrush, who was living with her widowed sister. The building remained a post office until the 1980s and was bought in 1984 by Moores of Coleraine, owners of ‘The White House’, who ran the premises as a gift shop. Some repair work was undertaken to windows, chimney and roof in the 1980s and 90s. In 1998 the former post office was taken over by Portrush Community Development Group who undertook a complete restoration of the building assisted by a package of funding from the International Fund for Ireland, Coleraine Borough Council, and Department of Environment together with a loan from Ulster Garden Villages and contributions of £50,000 from the local community. The restored and extended building was opened as a library in 2001 with an arts centre in the new rear extension and the upstairs accommodation converted into holiday apartments. (HB file) Girvan describes the former Post Office as a ‘brashly effective building in Wren-revival style’ with ‘liquorice-all-sort bands of brick and stone’. (Girvan) References: Primary Sources 1. PRONI OS/6/1/2/1 First Edition OS Map 1831-2 2. PRONI OS/6/1/2/2 Second Edition OS map 1853 3. PRONI OS/6/1/2/3 Third Edition OS Map 1906 4. PRONI OS/6/1/2/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1921-31 5. PRONI OS/6/1/2/5 Fifth Edition OS Map 1946-50 6. PRONI VAL/12/B/4/22A-D Annual Revisions (1895-1930) 7. PRONI VAL/12/A/1/121 – Valuer’s Notebook (1908) 8. PRONI VAL/3/C/1/30 First General Revaluation 1933-57 9. PRONI VAL/3/D/1/15/A/33 First General Revaluation 1933-57 10. 1911 census online 11. Official guide to Portrush 1912 12. Irish Builder, Vol 50, 2nd May 1908, p277 13. HB File – 03/010/035 Secondary Sources 1. Anderson, R “Fading Memories” and “More Fading Memories of Coleraine, Portrush and Portstewart”, 2005 and 2008. 2. Girvan, W D “Historic Buildings, Groups of Buildings, Areas of Architectural Importance in North Antrim including the towns of Portrush, Ballymoney and Bushmills” Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1975 3. www.dia.ie – Dictionary of Irish Architects online

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation I. Quality and survival of Interior J. Setting

Historic Interest

Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance V. Authorship X. Local Interest S. Authenticity R. Age T. Historic Importance

Evaluation

An eclectic Edwardian free-style three-storey three-bay red-brick and sandstone former Post Office, now library, built 1907 and located to the west side of Causeway Street in Portrush town centre. A good example of an Edwardian civic building, with quality detailing and stonework, reflecting the emerging golden age of the town at the turn of the twentieth-century. Despite a change of use and refurbishment of the interior, architectural detailing is largely intact and much of the original character has been preserved. Of considerable social importance and local interest, Number 12 Causeway Street makes an important contribution to the architectural interest of Portrush.

General Comments

Additional listing criteria apply - R-Age, S - Authenticity, T- Historic Importance

Date of Survey

14 June 2012