Remarkable store of history in famous seaside holiday resort

The historic County Antrim holiday resort is a vital part of our culture and the merest mention of Portrush kindles multitudes of memories for most of us.

Mine are typically borne of the annual one- or two-week childhood summer holidays in the 1950s - staying in a guesthouse, splashing in the sea, building sandcastles, baking in the sun and/or sheltering from the rain, roundabout rides in Barry’s amusements - all sustained by a diet of fish and chips, ice-cream, fizzy pop and candy floss!

Returning as a working journalist in later life entailed mental gymnastics to temporarily mask the myriad of memories and concentrate on the task in hand!

I remember my parents and their adult friends making plans to go shopping in the White House though I’ve no recollection of going with them, and until this week I wasn’t even vaguely aware of the shop’s enormously colourful history.

“The White House was opened by a local man, Henry Hamilton, in 1891,” began a reader’s note to Roamer, and continued intriguingly “the story goes that Henry left Portrush for America in 1875, leaving his clothes at the edge of the River Bann to shamefully fake his own suicide and avoid debts.”

I don’t know if the reader’s thoughts turned to Portrush after reading last week’s page about Wing Commander Anthony Lovell, the town’s much-decorated WWII ace fighter pilot, recounted here by Hugh McGrattan and told in his book - Portrush: The Port on the Promontory - but the White House seems to be yet another remarkable tale less told.

There’ll be more here about it in the near future, starting today with the next line in the reader’s letter: “Henry Hamilton became director of a publishing company in California, before returning to Portrush 15 years later a wealthy man and marrying his former sweetheart.”

The reader’s account is more or less correct - the White House was founded in 1891 after Henry Hamilton faked his death due to debts and fled to America. He returned a number of years later to be with his childhood sweetheart, a Miss Allen, whom he married.

His new wife insisted they stay in Ireland and so the White House was born, initially a drapery business called Hamilton and Company.

According to the reader’s account Henry invited the creditors he’d run away from to dinner and repaid his debts. He also called his new business the White House after a well-known building with a similar name in the USA, and to honour the friends and connections he’d made on the other side of the Atlantic.

The White House quickly became a successful commercial enterprise due to Hamilton’s business expertise, management skills and marketing talents. Far ahead of his time, he organised a mail order service and instigated eye-catching window displays and advertising campaigns. The mail order service became so popular that a new Post Office was opened in Portrush in 1908!

The White House attracted the highest calibre of clientele, with no less than Queen Victoria ordering her linens from the Portrush store.

According to its website, the White House’s tailoring department in the early 1900s also proved very popular with the Prince of Wales and with other royalty and high-society customers like His Highness the Raja of Pudukkottai from India.

As yet I’m not sure of the exact dates, or which Prince of Wales used the shop’s tailoring department, but apparently the Raja of Pudukkottai once made an order for 26 suits which was the White House’s biggest ever transaction at the time.

Nor do I know how to properly spell or pronounce Pudukkottai (there seem to be a number of variations!) but the Raja’s aforementioned administrative district was in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu and its ruler’s full name was Raja Sri Brahdamba Dasa Raja Sir Martanda Bhairava Tondaiman.

Along with the town, the store’s popularity flourished, aided by the railway, sea travel, better roads and burgeoning visitor facilities. A beautiful ‘terrazzo floored’ arcade took centre stage, with a state-of-the-art, electric passenger lift inside which was still in use up until a few years ago

During the 1930s and 1940s the store became popular with American GI’s during WWII, who spent their leisure time in Portrush away from their bases in Londonderry. They loved to visit the White House buying gifts to send home to their families.

During the 1950s and 1960s the store expanded and continued to flourish with customers not only coming from Northern Ireland but also from England, Wales and Scotland, brought in by tour companies.

The business was taken over by John Moore in 1972, and an up-market boutique was launched, targeting the fashion conscious shopper and attracting new and younger customers.

In the 1980s major building works were completed which transformed the premises into a modern establishment with the official re-opening to the public taking place in 1989.

Ownership of the White House, with pride of place on Portrush’s Main Street, remains within the Moore family who are currently going through their archives to share more seaside shopping nostalgia here in the near future.