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

1 Parade Ground, Randalstown, is a two-storey, two-bay house forming part of a terrace of seven houses. The terrace occupies the site of the barracks of the Antrim Regiment of Militia, which were built in 1816 at a cost of £2000 by Lord O'Neill, Colonel of the Antrim Regiment, to provide quarters for the regiment's staff following its disembodiment. Originally, the barracks consisted of three parallel ranges of buildings. The front range facing the river comprised four contiguous two-storey houses, 130 feet long and 20 feet deep, described in the 1830s as comfortable quarters bearing no resemblance to a regular barracks in construction or fitting. The present terrace appears to be a later remodelling of the 1816 block, with seven houses now where there were originally four, each with projecting porches. The terraced form with projecting porches is shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1903, whereas plain rectangular blocks are depicted on the maps of 1829 and 1858, suggesting a mid-to-late nineteenth-century date for the present structure.

The east elevation comprises the main entrance, located in a projecting single-storey gabled porch on the east side. The two-storey main block contains one window to each floor, positioned to the left of the porch. The roof is of synthetic slates in regular courses. A single chimney of modern concrete brickwork with projecting brick block cornice and two modern pots stands to the left-hand gable. The wall is smooth rendered with projecting eaves course on the frieze, painted white, and raised quoins to the left-hand extremity painted black; the base of the main wall is also painted black to resemble a plinth. Windows are rectangular timber 4-pane fixed lights with 2-pane top-hung vents, set in plain reveals and painted white, with projecting stone or concrete cills painted black. The porch roof is of synthetic slates in regular courses with overhanging eaves, the feet of the rafters exposed. Decorative timber barge boards to the gable are ornamented with scrolling fretwork. A cast iron gutter and downpipe complete the porch. The porch walls are rendered as the main block, with raised quoins to outer corners painted black. The front wall of the porch contains a window, one of a pair with the adjoining house: a rectangular timber 2-pane fixed light with single-pane top-hung vent. The side wall facing south contains the main entrance, a new rectangular timber panelled and glazed door set in plain reveals with a composition doorstep.

The south elevation is a blank gable, rendered with wet dash of crushed stones and painted white, with raised smooth rendered quoins to extremities painted black. Overhanging eaves feature a timber boarded soffit, and timber barge boards are ornamented with scrolling fretwork similar to the front porch. Vertical black painted metal trunking for cables runs up the right-hand side of the gable. A basalt rubble boundary wall to the rear yard extends to the left.

The rear elevation is two-storey with roof, rendering, and cast iron gutter and downpipe as the front elevation. Windows are modern rectangular timber fixed lights with top-hung vents and projecting stone or concrete cills. Windows to the left-hand side of the door are coupled with windows to the adjoining house, contained within a recessed common opening with a broad timber sash box as a central common mullion. The doorway contains a rectangular timber glazed and panelled stained hardwood door. Projecting at the right-hand side at ground floor is a single-storey rear return of outbuildings with a lean-to roof of corrugated iron, smooth rendered walls painted white with black painted plinth, and PVC gutter and downpipe.

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. An extensive hardstanding in front is 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. A small concrete area lies immediately outside the front entrance. A tarmac communal drive runs past the end gable between it and the railway viaduct. At the rear is an open yard or compound common to all houses in the terrace, mainly of hard surfacing, with a concrete area immediately to the rear of this house. Slated single-storey basalt rubble garages or sheds form the west boundary to the rear area.

The parade ground in front of the houses was originally described in the 1830s as "a very handsome parade ground 36 yards broad extending for 184 yards along the edge of the river" and was "quite level and kept well gravelled". By the 1840s, it was referred to as "the town mall or public promenade". The parade was later shortened in length by the building of the railway viaduct in the mid-1850s. The terrace has both architectural and historic character and benefits from a good setting beside the river Main with the listed bridge and viaduct forming part of the landscape context.