A blog of sketches of historic buildings - Marks of Time

Coleraine 43. the new University of Ulster

14/5/2026

In the post war period, the main new development in this area was the creation of the New University of Ulster between 1968 and 1977 on the northern outskirts of Coleraine, creating a second University for Northern Ireland and taking advantage of seasonal accommodation being available for students in Portstewart and Portrush during the winter period. Uncompromisingly modern, within a campus overlooking the River Bann, it has since been adapted and changed as the University has developed. This image shows the Diamond Hall of 1968 as originally designed and before it got the current cladding of timber, and the Riverside Theatre of 1976.

Coleraine 42. Dhu Varren.

12/5/2026

After WWII The influence of International Modernism became more popular and though in austere times there was not a huge amount of building some one off houses were built in the style. My favourite is 61 Dhu Varren Road, Portrush, completed in 1959. This house was designed by Noel Cambell, a local architect. It has since been proposed twice for protection as a listed building and twice rejected by the District Council and the Historic Buildings Council. Clearly, it divides opinion. Cantilevered out towards the road from Portstewart to Coleraine, its present owners have renovated it sensitively and clearly appreciate its heroic modernist character

Coleraine 41. Bennarees Radar Station

9/5/2026

During the Second World War there were almost as many airfields along the North Coast as there were in Kent, reflecting that Northern Ireland was the closest part of the UK to the Atlantic Convoys. While the coast to the west of the Sperrins was the location of most of these, there was an airfield in this area to the east of Aghadowey at Mullaghmore and a radar station at Articlave as well as numerous pillboxes and other defences along the coast. A dramatic remnant is the 'Downhill Chain Home Low Radar Station' which sits on top of Benevenagh mountain looking out to sea. An antenna was located beside this and the facility was used to track aircraft during the later part of the war. Today, it is a farm shed.

Coleraine 40. Portstewart Town Hall

29/4/2026

Between the Wars, Home Rule did arrive, but only within the context of the Irish War of Independence. A Northern Ireland parliament was created in Belfast in 1921, and the Irish Free State got an independent ‘Dail’ in Dublin in 1922. The UK became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Public architecture of this era was largely a conservative ‘Neo-Georgian’, but at Portstewart, a new town hall built in 1934/35 was a much more exuberant streamlined affair, with modernist influences, probably reflecting the seaside architecture of other resorts and lidos across the UK and Ireland at that time. The architect was Benjamin Cowser, who won an architectural competition to design the building. When it was first built the Hall comprised on the ground floor, a reading room, minor hall, council room, town clerk’s offices (public and private), surveyor’s office, electrical manager’s office, three store rooms, heating chamber, strong room and three lavatories. On the first floor was the concert hall which could accommodate 380 people.

coleraine 39. The edwardians.

18/4/2026

The Edwardian period before the First World War was a period of prosperity across the UK, with Portrush , in particular, reflecting the affluence of the period. Buildings such as 27 Main Street, had details in the latest ‘Art Nouveau’ style. Portstewart Presbyterian Church (1904) is another elegant building from the period with clear influences of the style in its sweeping elegant curves. This was originally a movement of rebellion against modernity valuing craft skills and creativity over the repetitiveness and uniformity of industrial goods. Influenced by the Arts and Crafts Movement in England, the sweeping forms of nature were an important source of inspiration. The result was often elegant and bueatiful buildings.

But it was also a time of political turmoil with proposals to reinstate an Irish Parliament caused concern to Protestants. An extension of the franchise in the years from 1801, meant that they would now be a minority in such an institution. In 1912, c.500,000 people, led by political and church leaders, signed ‘ Ulster’s Solemn League and Covenant’ against ‘Home Rule’. Coleraine Town hall was used to collect signatures in this area.

Coleraine 38. The Downhill Tunnels

12/4/2026

A railway line was constructed from Derry-Londonderry to Coleraine in 1853 along a dramatic costal route still remarked upon today. The village of Castlerock joined the tourist economy as a result. The line required two tunnels which were cut through the imposing cliff at Downhill between 1845 and 1852. These were among the first of the type on the island and were important engineering feats for the time. They are still impressive today.

Coleraine 37. st. Patrick's Church.

8/4/2026

When the institutional link was broken between the Church of Ireland and the State in 1869, the Church of Ireland received a substantial dowry and embarked upon a substantial building programme. St Patrick’s in Coleraine was rebuilt soon afterwards with a very elegant tower in a detailed gothic style. The site, however, is very ancient. By tradition it is associated with the saint himself who is supposed to have founded a church on the north bank of the Bann. Foundations of a probable fourteenth century church were discovered during renovations in 1994. The foundations of an earlier church were reputedly discovered in the 1880's extending beyond the present chancel.

Coleraine 36. portrush Railway Station

1/4/2026

The Victorian age in Coleraine was marked by major improvements in engineering and transport. The Bann navigation allowing boats to travel all the way to Lough Neagh was completed in 1851 (with a salmon fishery at the ‘Cutts’ below Mount Sandel) and in 1855, what was to become the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway, was extended to Coleraine with a branch line to Portrush. This transformed Portrush and the surrounding costal area as it became a major costal resort. That its fine station from 1890, in a half-timbered Elizabethan style, is more than four times the size of the Italianate station in the larger town of Coleraine says a lot. This was not a mere transport hub but a place that reinforced and sold a dream of leisure time by the sea for workers locked in the industrial factories of Belfast (and further afield) for most of the year. Thie sketch uses a photograph taken during the Edwardian period at the height of this usage. The building became the first listed building in Northern Ireland when the legislation was introduced in 1973.

Coleraine 35. The Town Hall.

24/3/2026

Opened in 1859, the sandstone town hall is in an Italianate classical style taking pride of place in the centre of the Diamond and replacing an eighteenth century hall on the same site. It reflects the confidence of the town at this point in its history with thriving industry and an air of prosperity. Like its predecessor the cost of this building was borne by the Honourable the Irish Society - the company set up to develop this settlement during the Ulster Plantation.

Coleraine 34. the Old courthouse.

19/3/2026

Another important historic building of the period is the former Coleraine courthouse. Built in 1852, it functioned as the town court for 133 years until its closure in 1985. It is built in a reassuring and authoritative classical style with doric columns supporting a projecting pediment from a commanding position at the top of Waterside Street looking down towards the Bann Bridge.

It found new life as a pub after 1985. it closed for a few years following Covid, but reopened again in 2025 for the same function under new management.