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

Number 6 Parade Ground is a two-storey, two-bay house forming part of a terrace of seven houses in Randalstown. It is likely a mid-to-late 19th century remodelling of the original Antrim Regiment of Militia barracks, which was built by Lord O'Neill in 1816 at a cost of £2000. The original barracks consisted of three parallel ranges of buildings; the front range facing the river contained 4 contiguous two-storey houses, each 130 feet long and 20 feet deep. The present terrace of 7 houses with projecting porches represents a later remodelling of the 1816 block, as shown by comparison of Ordnance Survey maps from 1829 and 1858 (which show plain rectangular blocks) with the 1903 map (which shows the current frontage with projecting porches). The parade ground in front of the barracks, originally 36 yards broad and extending 184 yards along the river edge and kept well gravelled, was later shortened by the construction of the railway viaduct in the mid-1850s and became known as the town mall or public promenade in the 1840s.

The main entrance is located in a projecting single-storey gabled porch on the east elevation. The east elevation comprises a two-storey main block with two windows, one to each floor, to the right of the porch. The roof is of Bangor blue slates in regular courses. A single chimney to the right-hand extremity is rendered smooth, lined and blocked, with a plain projecting brick cornice and four pots, three of them original octagonal stoneware and one modern. The walls are smooth rendered and painted white, with projecting eaves course on the frieze and black painted reveals to openings and base to resemble a plinth. A metal gutter with cast iron downpipe (with lowest section missing) runs along the front. Windows are rectangular timber white-painted sliding sash, 2 over 4, with horns, set in exposed sash boxes painted black, with projecting stone cills painted black. The porch roof is slated as the main roof but with overhanging eaves with feet of rafters exposed. Decorative timber barge boards to the gable are ornamented with scrolling fretwork. The porch has a cast iron gutter and downpipe. Porch walls are rendered as the main block but with raised quoins to the outer corners painted black. The front wall of the porch contains a window (one of a pair with the adjoining house): a rectangular timber sliding sash, 1 over 2 with horns, in a partly recessed frame, painted as the main block, with a projecting stone cill. The side wall of the porch, facing north, contains the main entrance: an original rectangular timber panelled door set in plain reveals.

The rear elevation extends from a long rear outbuilding standing detached at the rear, connected only by a wall at the left-hand extremity. The roof is slated as the front, with plaster and lath underside to the open recessed yard. The walling of the main block is rendered as the front. The first floor has two windows: one to the left is timber sashed as the front main block; one to the right is timber sashed as the front porch and is one of a pair of coupled windows with the adjoining property, with projecting concrete cills. The ground floor has two windows, one to each side of a doorway. Windows are sashed as the front porch with projecting stone cills; the doorway contains a rectangular timber sheeted door with a red tiled doorstep.

The building stands within the built-up area of the town, located in a terrace of seven houses facing the river but set well back from it with extensive hardstanding in front surfaced partly in tarmac. The front boundary to the hardstanding is formed by a low rendered retaining wall to the riverbank with a large metal pipe across it on concrete supports, viewed through a screen of mature trees. The front open area is bounded to the north by a basalt retaining wall surmounted by original iron railings, retaining the end of the elevated main street. To the south, the front open area is bounded by a tall railway viaduct, now defunct, built of snecked basalt rubble. Immediately at the rear of the house is a small partly enclosed concrete area entered by a small slatted timber gate, with a single-storey flat-roofed outbuilding facing the rear elevation, built of painted brickwork and concrete blockwork in partly derelict condition and containing an outside toilet. A rectangular timber sheeted door in the north screen wall of the small yard leads through to an enclosed area behind No 7 The Parade. Before the small concrete area is a larger open yard or compound common to the other houses in the terrace, mainly of hard surfacing. Slated single-storey basalt rubble garages or sheds form the west boundary to the large rear area. The terrace group has both architectural and historic character and benefits from a good setting beside the river Main and a listed bridge and viaduct.