2-6 Main Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey rectangular five-bay building in classical style, with stucco-finished walls and hipped slated roof (No 2 Main Street), adjoining a lower two-storey curved block to the north which has nine window bays (Nos 4-6 Main Street). Entrance elevations face east.

RECTANGULAR BLOCK (No 2 Main Street) – Entrance front symmetrical, five windows wide to first floor. Hipped roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses behind a parapet; no chimneys. Walls smooth rendered, lined and blocked, with rusticated quoins to extremities; deep projecting plinth, now mostly covered up by a later ramped concrete pavement; plain projecting platband; moulded projecting cornice with plain blocking course or parapet above.
Windows to first floor are rectangular timber sliding sash, 6 over 6 with horns, with narrow glazing bars, set in projecting moulded surrounds with lugs, and surmounted by a projecting frieze and moulded triangular cornice. Four modern uplighting lamps fixed to façade, one between each first floor window.
Ground floor has been remodelled to contain a large shop window to each side of a wide central entrance. Plain broad piers between ground floor openings, with plain reveals; brown varnished modern timber frames to large sliding windows glazed with plate glass; similar woodwork to entrance bay which contains a rectangular 2-panel glazed door. Horizontal tongued and grooved boarding to fascia recessed in openings, surmounted by a sheet steel frieze containing the shop signs.
Extending to the right is a lower two-storey curved building described elsewhere. Extending to the left and set back slightly is a rendered screen wall and gateway to the rear of the premises: gateway comprises a pair of large square piers, rusticated to the outer faces, with moulded cornice and projecting plinth continuous with that of the main building. Base of pier to right has a concrete humped protective bollard at corner. Modern gates of corrugated iron sheeting on a steel frame. Screen walls smooth rendered, lined and blocked, with a plain projecting stone coping. Short screen wall to left abuts the gable of an adjacent property, a terrace house at The Parade.

South elevation: two-storey, with hipped roof slated as previous. Walling rendered as previous, with a lower two-storey projecting bay near the centre, which breaks the platband and plinth; projecting eaves course, but only a short return from entrance front of the moulded cornice and blocking course. Cast iron gutter and disconnected downpipe above projecting bay. One window, to right-hand side of first floor: similar to entrance front but in plain reveals without surrounds; platband acts as cill; circular extractor fan opening to left of window.
Projecting bay is flat roofed; walls plain rendered without lining or blocking; plain projecting concrete coping; base painted to give appearance of a plinth; cast iron soil pipe and downpipe; two windows, modern rectangular metal fixed lights with top-hung vents and projecting stone or concrete cills, painted.

Rear elevation: two-storey, but entire original ground floor obscured by a long single storey extension projecting from it. Roof of main block is hipped at right-hand end, gabled at left-hand end, slated as previous. One chimney, on left-hand gable; smooth rendered, with plain projecting platband and cornice; one pot. Wall smooth cement rendered, with rusticated quoins to extremities; projecting eaves course; looks like cast iron gutter, with cast iron downpipe. Three windows, sashed as previous to entrance front, but set in plain reveals with recessed cills. Two large rectangular sheeted timber sliding doors, with painted sheet metal pelmets. The ground floor extension is a modern flat roofed structure set back slightly to reveal part of ground floor quoining.

North elevation as viewed from the front is mostly obscured by the lower two-storey curved block; smooth rendered with rusticated quoins to left-hand extremity, with moulded cornice and plain parapet returning from entrance elevation until it meets the pitched roof of the curved block. Roof of rectangular block is hipped, slated as previous.

North elevation at the rear has ground floor obscured by later extension to the lower curved block. First floor comprises a gable, rendered as previous to entrance front, with rusticated quoins to right-hand extremity; projecting plain stone copings to gables, continuing across base of chimney. Part of left-hand side of gable obscured by the lower curved block abutting it.

CURVED BLOCK (Nos 4-6 Main Street) – Entrance front is nine windows wide. Pitched roof of double pile form, set behind a low parapet; Bangor blue slates in regular courses; no chimneys. Wall is smooth rendered, lined and blocked, with rusticated quoins to right-hand extremity; low projecting plinth, plain projecting platband, moulded projecting cornice with blocking course above. Concealed gutter; original rectangular section cast iron downpipe.
Windows to first floor are rectangular timber sliding sash, 6 over 6, without horns; sashes are bowed to the curve of the main walling; glass panes are flush. Rectangular projecting moulded surrounds to windows, rising from platband cill.
Ground floor has two doorways, at third bay from left, and sixth bay from left. First door is rectangular timber glazed and panelled, old, surmounted by a rectangular fanlight which contains a bottom-hung vent; projecting moulded surround to doorway; painted stone step. Second doorway from left has a similar surround but now contains a modern rectangular timber slatted and glazed door surmounted by a fanlight of similar description. Ground floor windows are as follows, from left to right: two windows glazed as to first floor, and set in similar surrounds, with projecting painted stone cill bowed to the front; three windows in similar surrounds and cill, but with replacements for original sashes, comprising a large rectangular fixed light surmounted by a panel of leaded glazing of 1920s appearance, and set in a flush plane; at the right-hand extremity, a large modern rectangular shop window occupying two original window bays, comprising a 2-pane fixed light in timber framing, set in a flush plane.

End elevation to right is mostly obscured by an adjacent building which abuts it. Rusticated quoins and short return of cornice and blocking course from front elevation, appearing above adjacent building; gable above is smooth cement rendered.

Rear elevation: ground floor is absorbed in a later extension which has a flat roof surrounded by a concrete coped parapet. First floor is a curved wall, roughly rendered and painted; curved roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses; painted lead gutter with cast iron downpipe. Raised stone coping to gable at left-hand end. Four openings, from left to right: a small rectangular timber sliding sash, 4 over 4 without horns, but modified to contain a metal flue outlet in an asbestos panel, with projecting stone or concrete cill; a large rectangular timber sliding sash, 6 over 6 without horns, with projecting painted stone or concrete cill; a pair of modern rectangular timber double doors, 2-panel, glazed, with modern handle, with cill as previous; and another large window sashed as previous.

SETTING: The buildings stand within the main street of the town, facing the roadway with a pavement in front; directly opposite is the river and road bridge. The gateway to the south leads to a large rear yard surfaced in concrete; yard bounded to east by a painted basalt rubble retaining wall behind a terrace house; bounded to south by a long single storey 19th century outbuilding of no special interest; bounded to west by a 20th century outbuilding of no special interest, and by a two-storey flat roofed and rendered late 20th century rear return of an adjoining property.

Historical information

Precise date of building not known, but it appears in its definitive form on the OS map of 1858, marked as a 'Hotel', a different configuration of buildings having been shown on the OS map of 1829. This is presumably the "commodious and elegant hotel", known as the 'O'Neill Arms Hotel', which one source in 1852, and again in 1858, described as having been built and fitted up by Lord O'Neill. The Lord O'Neill in question had succeeded to the Shane's Castle estate in 1841 so the building was erected sometime between 1841 and 1852. Closed as a hotel in the 1890s and became a police station, until 1936; the present owners' family took over in 1937, and after renovation in the 1960s, it became a garage and car showroom.

References – Primary Sources
1. OS Map 1829, Co Antrim 43 (different buildings shown).
2. OS Map 1858, Co Antrim 43 (marked as 'Hotel').
3. The Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory, 1852, p 625.
4. The Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory, 1858-59, p 679.

Secondary Sources
1. UAHS, Antrim and Ballymena (Belfast, 1969), p 24 (item no 12).
2. R. Pierce and A. Coey, Taken for Granted (NIHBC, 1984), p 19.
3. DOE Planning Service, Randalstown Conservation Area booklet (Ballymena, 1996), p 4 (illustrates an old photograph which includes the rectangular block before the insertion of modern shop windows – showing small-paned sash windows, and a number of chimneys).
4. Antrim Borough Council, Historic Antrim and Randalstown: heritage trails leaflet (Antrim, 2000) – the information given here, to the effect that it was built in c 1750, appears to be erroneous.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

This is a pair of conjoined buildings dating from the mid-19th century, which were originally designed in a restrained Italianate style. Despite having lost their interior they form an important focal point in the town and have group value with the many ajacent listed building and structures.