15-19 Main Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey, seven-bay rendered building comprising a post office shop with domestic accommodation above. Main entrances face south.

Entrance elevation: roof of synthetic slates in regular courses; three chimneys of yellow brick, with moulded brick details to stringcourse and cornice; three tall stoneware pots to each of the two left-hand chimneys, none to the one to right. Walling is rendered with a roughcast wet dash, with smooth rendered rusticated quoins to extremities; projecting smooth rendered plinth; projecting eaves course. Cast iron gutters and downpipes.
Seven windows to the first floor: modern rectangular timber small-paned fixed lights with top-hung vents, later replacements for original timber sliding sashes with full glazing bars; plain reveals; projecting painted stone or concrete cills.
Ground floor openings are as follows.
At the left-hand extremity is a shop front of modern timber construction comprising a modern glazed and panelled door to the right of a 9-pane fixed light window; projecting varnished timber cill.
To the right of that is the entrance to the house, of modern timber construction, comprising a modern rectangular timber panelled door with a top panel of radial leaded glazing, with a similarly glazed sidelight and fanlight, set in rendered reveals.
To the right of that is another modern shop front similar in detail to the previous one but handed in plan.
To the extreme right is a rectangular vehicular entrance leading to the rear of the property. Entrance contains a large pair of sheeted timber doors set in a plain timber frame. Vehicular entranceway is surfaced in modern brick paving; side walls are smooth cement rendered; ceiling is flat timber panelled.

Rear elevation: two-storey with a projecting single storey block to the right. Walls rendered with a dry dash of white limestone chippings, swept over a smooth rendered plinth; projecting concrete block and brick eaves course. Roof of main block has synthetic slates in regular courses; four modern rooflights; PVC gutter and PVC downpipes. Asphalt roof to single storey projection, with timber fascias.

First floor of main block has modern rectangular timber windows, fixed lights with side-hung casements and top-hung vents; thin projecting concrete cills; plain reveals. Two doorways to first floor, modern rectangular flush timber, the one to the left leading onto an external stairway, the one to the right leading onto the flat roof of the extension.

Facadal elements are, from left to right: at left-hand extremity, a rectangular opening through from the street, with one window in the storey above; a break forward of the main façade with an external concrete stairway, rendered as main walling; modern steel railings to steps; log store below steps; a doorway in first floor leading onto steps; three windows to first floor with a door and window combined at the right-hand end. All windows to first floor are modern rectangular timber fixed lights with side-hung casements or top-hung vents; doors are modern rectangular flush timber, with glazed panel. The projecting single storey extension has modern windows of similar modern character including a large one with a plywood panel incorporated; two doors in right-hand side, one of sheeted timber, the other flush timber.
To right-hand extremity of ground floor, beyond extension is a doorway containing a modern panelled door.

SETTING: The building stands in the main street of the town, facing directly onto the pavement; abutted to the west by a public house (HB20/04/016) and to the east by a building of no special interest. Standing on the pavement immediately outside it is a telephone kiosk of pre-2nd World War design (HB20/04/052) .
Setting at rear comprises a rear yard partly brick paved and partly tarmac with stone chippings; bounded on west by a three-storey basalt rubble rear return of an adjacent public house; bounded on the north by a two-storey basalt rubble and brick dressed outbuilding with slated roof, PVC rainwater goods, original timber sliding door, and original small paned fixed lights with bottom-hung top vents, projecting from which is a single storey white painted rendered 20th century flat roofed rendered block. Rear yard bounded on the east by the return of the white flat roofed block.

Historical information

Precise date of building uncertain; a building appears on the site on the OS map of 1829, but a larger block appears on the OS map of 1858. The Post Office moved to the premises in 1864. An old photograph shows that the shop front at the western end of the building was originally a plain window separate from a door. Other old photographs show the shop front at the eastern end of the building as having panelled pilasters, frieze and cornice, and similar detailing to the central doorway, all now replaced. Building thoroughly renovated c 1980 when much traditional detailing was lost.

References – Primary Sources
1. OS Map 1858, Co Antrim 43.
2. Old photograph in possession of Mrs Marie McCoy, issued as a postcard by the North of Ireland Philatelic Society in 1994.
3. Old photograph of Main Street in the possession of Sheelagh Hillen in 2000 (includes this building before western shop front was inserted).
Secondary Sources
1. UAHS, Antrim and Ballymena (Belfast, 1969), p 25.
2. DOE Planning Service, Randalstown Conservation Area booklet (Ballymena, 1996), p 33 (illustrates an old photograph of an original shop front and doorway).
3. Antrim Borough Council, Historic Antrim and Randalstown: heritage trails leaflet (Antrim, 2000).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

This is a building of early to mid-19th century origin but which has now lost almost all its original exterior and interior features in the course of remodelling or rebuilding in the 1980s.