7 Parade Ground, Randalstown, Antrim, Co Antrim, BT41 3AA

7 Parade Ground is a mid-to-late 19th century terraced house, most likely dating from between 1860 and 1879, forming one of a terrace of seven houses that occupies the site of the former barracks of the Antrim Regiment of Militia. The building is of architectural and historic interest, and derives additional value from its group relationship with the rest of the terrace and its setting beside the River Main, a listed bridge, and a railway viaduct.

The building is two storeys high with three bays, arranged so that the ground floor and first floor are separate units, each entered from a projecting porch bay on the east elevation, with the ground floor doorway facing south and the first floor doorway facing north.

The east elevation — the main frontage — consists of a two-storey main block with two windows to each floor, positioned to the left of a projecting two-storey lean-to porch. The main block roof is covered in synthetic slates laid in regular courses. There are two chimneys, one at each end of the roofline. The left-hand chimney, shared with the adjoining property, is smooth rendered, lined and blocked, with a plain projecting block cornice and four chimney pots, three of which are original octagonal stoneware and one modern replacement. The right-hand chimney is built of squared sandstone in regular courses with a plain projecting block cornice and a single modern pot. The walls are smooth rendered with a projecting eaves course or frieze, all painted white, with black-painted reveals to all openings and a black-painted base designed to resemble a plinth. A metal gutter is fitted with a cast iron downpipe on the left, though the lower section of the downpipe is missing. A cast iron soil pipe also runs across the façade above the ground floor windows.

The ground floor windows on the east elevation are rectangular timber sliding sash, 2-over-4 pane with horns, painted white. The left-hand window is set in partly recessed frames painted black; the right-hand window is set in exposed sash boxes also painted black. Both have projecting stone cills painted black. The first floor windows are: on the right, a similar sash window to those on the ground floor; on the left, a smaller 1-over-1 sash with horns in exposed sash boxes, painted in the same manner.

The projecting porch has walls matching the main block, with a cast iron gutter and downpipe. Its front wall contains one window to each floor. The ground floor window is a rectangular timber sliding sash, 3-over-3 pane without horns, painted white, set in exposed sash boxes painted black, with a projecting stone cill. The first floor window is a 2-over-2 sash with horns, set in partly recessed frames painted as above, with a projecting concrete cill. In the south-facing side wall of the porch is a rectangular timber panelled doorway set in plain white-painted reveals.

The north elevation shows only the first floor levels of both the main block gable and the side of the front porch, because the ground rises steeply on that side. The north gable is blank, smooth rendered and painted white, with raised quoins to its extremities painted pale blue as part of the colour scheme of the adjacent property at 2–6 Main Street. The eaves overhang, with timber boarded soffits; the gable has timber bargeboards ornamented with scrolling fretwork. The upper portion of the porch side wall, extending to the left, is smooth rendered with a flush verge to the roof, and contains a rectangular sheeted timber door set in plain white-painted reveals, approached by a sandstone step.

The rear elevation presents a single storey above ground, sitting on a full basement storey. The roof is slated in the same manner as the front. Walls are smooth rendered with raised quoins to the left-hand extremity, a projecting eaves course, and all painted white. There is a metal gutter but no downpipes. The upper floor has three rectangular timber sliding sash windows, 2-over-2 pane with horns, set in exposed sash boxes in poor condition, in plain reveals with projecting sandstone cills; the right-hand window is boarded up. The ground floor openings, from left to right, are: a rectangular window now boarded up; a rectangular sheeted timber door with glazed panels; a small rectangular 1-over-2 sash window with horns; and a larger 2-over-4 sash window with horns. A small lean-to porch with a corrugated iron roof in semi-derelict condition covers the wall at the right-hand end.

The ground floor openings overlook a small basement yard enclosed by a whitened basalt rubble retaining wall with a smooth rendered coping. The surface of the basement yard is overgrown. In the corner next to the open porch stands a small single-storey whitened brick outside toilet with a corrugated iron roof in poor condition. The basement yard is closed at its south end by a white-painted basalt rubble wall that links the terrace to a long basalt rubble outbuilding extending to the west.

The building sits within the built-up area of Randalstown, set back from the River Main with an extensive hardstanding in front, surfaced partly in tarmac. The front boundary to this hardstanding is formed by a low rendered retaining wall to the riverbank, across which runs a large metal pipe on concrete supports, with a screen of mature trees beyond. To the north, a basalt retaining wall surmounted by original iron railings retains the elevated main street and abuts the east face of the first floor porch. To the south, a now-defunct railway viaduct built of snecked basalt rubble closes the open area. A single-storey temporary building stands immediately in front of this house within the open area. To the rear, the north gable is enclosed behind the gateway of the adjoining property at 2–6 Main Street, where it overlooks an entrance driveway into a large rear yard, below the level of which lies the basement well immediately behind the house.

The history of the site is well documented. The barracks of the Antrim Regiment of Militia were built here in 1816 by Lord O'Neill, Colonel of the Regiment, at a cost of £2,000, specifically to house the staff of the regiment on its being disembodied. An account from the 1830s described the complex as consisting of three parallel ranges: "The front range facing the river consists of 4 contiguous houses 2-storeys high, 130 feet long and 20 feet deep. The second range consists of 1-storey houses and the third is occupied with offices for the others … These barracks afford comfortable quarters to the militia staff and the front range is in good repair, but they bear no resemblance to a regular barrack either in their construction or fitting up, and do not in any respect differ from ordinary dwelling houses." The same source referred to the parade ground in front as "a very handsome parade ground 36 yards broad extends for 184 yards along the edge of the river. It is quite level and is kept well gravelled." By the 1840s another account described the parade as "now the town mall or public promenade." The parade ground was subsequently shortened by the construction of the railway viaduct in the mid-1850s.

The Ordnance Survey maps of 1829 and 1858 show plain rectangular blocks on the site; by the 1903 map, the present frontage with projecting porches is already shown, indicating that the current form of the terrace — an apparent remodelling of the original 1816 block, increasing the number of houses from four to seven and adding the projecting porches — dates from the mid-to-late 19th century. The first floor of this building was at one time used as the estate office for Shane's Castle.

The building is currently in use as a recreational club and lies within a conservation area.