Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB06/08/011

Address :
Olderfleet Hotel 1 Fleet Street Larne Co Antrim BT40 1BA

Townland:
None

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Survey 2:
Record Only

Date of Listing:

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Hotel

Former Use
Hotel

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
70/12

IG Ref:
D4140 0215

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Owner Category

Commercial

Exterior Description And Setting

A large three-storey hotel with a high basement storey and canted bays, laid out on an asymmetrical plan. Original main entrance faced east but now closed off, altered to a window; original side entrance now the main entrance. Mansard roof with pedimented dormers; roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses, alternating with courses of fish scale slates. Dry dash finish of limestone chippings to walls, later replacement finish, inappropriate, with smooth cement rendered dressings, quoins, string courses, brackets to cornice, and dormers. Renaissance style open-work to sandstone parapets. Windows to first floor mainly segmental headed, timber sliding sash, vertically hung, 1 over 1, with horns, original; windows to ground floor rectangular timber fixed lights with horizontal divisions, replacements, inappropriate. Basement area exposed and windows replaced, inappropriate treatment; new basement entrance created at north end of east front, mid-20th century style and appearance with facing of brown and yellow ceramic tiles, rectangular hardwood glazed doors, tiled screen wall to side road, and flat-roofed canopy, all inappropriate. Single storey return to rear on south side with grassed garden in front, and two-storey gabled block to rear on north side, later extended with long two-storey return now known as ‘The Olderfleet’ bar and painted white which now distinguishes it from the main hotel block. The hotel stands on a corner of two roads, its main front overlooking the reclaimed land of the harbour in an area which does not have a high level of architectural or environmental quality. The
setting was originally described as “beautifully situated facing the sea”.

Architects

Close, Samuel P

Historical Information

Designed in 1878 by S.P. Close, architect, for James Chaine. References - Primary 1. G.H. Bassett, The Book of Antrim (Dublin, 1888), p 392. 2. Photograph in the Green Collection, UFTM (WAG 533) c 1915 Secondary 1. A.E. McGuinness, Samuel Patrick Close: Architect (1842-1925), unpublished MA thesis, The Queen’s University of Belfast, 1990, p 125. 2. D Corcoran, A Tour of East Antrim (Belfast, 1990), p 10 (reproduces a photograph from the Green Collection, c 1915).

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

Not listed

Historic Interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A building of some architectural merit in its original state which still retains some original features but has been spoiled by insensitive and clumsy alterations and replacement fabric, and further degraded by the spoiling of the original setting.

General Comments

Date of Survey

21 December 1997