Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB03/10/034

Address :
Craig Vara House 5 Craig Vara Terrace 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:
House

Former Use
House

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:
C8580 4060

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Owner Category

Private

Exterior Description And Setting

A symmetrical two-storey-with-attic three-bay roughcast rendered detached house, now apartments; built c.1840 and situated over-looking the Arcadia to the east side of Main Street. Square on plan with gabled return to rear. Pitched natural slate roof with blue/black angled ridge tiles and rendered chimneystacks to gables. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods on projecting eaves with square downpipes. Walling is painted roughcast render on a contrasting plinth with raised stepped quoins. Windows are replacement 6/6 timber sash with projecting painted sills and label moulds; three modern gabled dormers to attic. The principal elevation faces northeast and has three openings at each floor. Decorative dentilled pediment with smooth rendered frieze high over central first floor window. To ground floor is a replacement doorcase and portico comprising two fluted columns on a granite base supporting a timber-sheeted canopy. Double-leaf timber panelled door, accessed via two granite steps, with sidelights over apron panels and transom light etched with lettering reading “Craigvara House”. The southeast gable has two windows at each floor (2/2 to attic). Extended by return (see below). The southwest (rear) elevation was partially concealed. Abutted at right by the full-height gabled return which has a window to right and a diminutive window to left, at each floor. The northwest gable has two windows at each floor. Setting: Situated over-looking the Arcadia with sea-views, accessed via narrow street off Causeway Street, terminating in the entrance to Craigvara House and public footpath to beach. Site is bounded by roughcast rendered wall with painted coping stone and painted square gate piers with pointed caps supporting modern steel gates. Roof: Natural slate Walling: Roughcast render Windows: Replacement timber sash RWG: Cast-iron

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

Craig Vara House dates from c1840 and is first shown on the second edition OS map of 1853 with outbuildings to the rear and a porch to the front elevation. At the time of Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) the occupier of the house was Alexander Knox who paid a rent of £60 for the furnished house to Miss Rebecca Rice. Rebecca Rice was a member of the Church of Ireland congregation who is commemorated by a window in the Holy Trinity Church and donated a baptismal font to the church in 1870. Dimensions are given for the house and two-storey return and two outbuildings, double and single-storey. Buildings are valued at £32. A series of occupiers followed; William A Young (nd), Sarah Richardson (1883) Richard Robinson MD (1886) Joseph Cunningham (1891) Richard Cunningham (1894) and Blanche H Wilson at the time of the 1901 census. Blanche H Wilson was a 54-year-old widow from England who lived with her two daughters, the older working as a hospital nurse. The family kept a maidservant, 18-year-old Agnes Quigg from Aghadoey. The Belfast Newsletter of 1900 advertised the house as a summer let and described the accommodation as “two receptions, seven bedrooms, bath, stabling, unobstructed sea view”. (Belfast Newsletter) In the 1911 census the property is listed as a boarding house with 13 rooms, designated first class. The tenant, Joseph McLarnon, 32, was a draper’s assistant, living with his Scottish wife. The couple kept a general domestic servant. In 1913 the valuation of the house was raised to £48 when the front elevation was raised by about a foot and dormer windows fitted in order to make the attic habitable. (Valuation records) A dentillated pediment positioned above the central second floor window renders the altered proportions more harmonious. Valuation notes of this period show the house with porch of wood and lead, scullery return to the rear and a series of outbuildings including a coalhouse, WC, outhouse/larder and a stable with two bedrooms over that were used in summer (all now gone). The accommodation comprised dining and drawing rooms, kitchen, pantry, scullery and WC on the ground floor and five bedrooms and a bathroom on the first floor and five bedrooms on the second floor. Electric bells had been fitted to the door, dining and drawing rooms. The building was owned by the Browne sisters in the 1930s and 40s and remained in use as a boarding house. In 1951 the stable was altered to give three bedrooms and a bathroom, the ground floor being used as a playroom and washhouse. In 1953 there was a dance hall erected nearby which caused the owners to complain of the obstruction to their view and the ‘nuisance caused by the noise of music and patrons leaving the dance hall at a late hour’. The building was listed in 1977 and in 2001 was restored and converted into six apartments by Patton Homes Ltd. (HB file) 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 OS/8/42/1-2 – Town Plans of Portrush (1895-6) 7. PRONI VAL/2/B/1/30B – Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) 8. PRONI VAL/12/A/1/122 Valuer’s Notes (1913) 9. PRONI VAL/12/B/6/2A-E – Annual Revisions (1859-1895) 10. PRONI VAL/12/B/4/22A-D Annual Revisions (1895-1930) 11. PRONI VAL/3/C/1/30 First General Revaluation 1933-57 12. PRONI VAL/3/D/1/15/A/13 First General Revaluation 1933-57 13. HB File – 03/010/034 14. Belfast Newsletter Sat April 28th 1900 Secondary Sources 1. 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

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

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

Historic Interest

R. Age X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A symmetrical two-storey-with-attic three-bay roughcast rendered detached house, now apartments; built c.1840. Situated in a prominent location, over looking the Arcadia to the east side of Main Street. Much of the original internal character has been degraded through refurbishment and conversion into modern apartments. Despite this, Craigvara House remains one of the best surviving examples of a mid-nineteenth century Victorian waterfront house in the resort of Portrush and is of architectural and historic interest to the local community.

General Comments

Additional listing criteria apply - R - Age

Date of Survey

14 June 2012