Former Railway Station, 21 Station Road, Randalstown, Antrim, Co Antrim, BT41 2AE

Former Railway Station

A two-storey gabled building with rendered walls and slated roofs, comprising a former station building and an attached house, located on Station Road in Randalstown. The building faces north towards the main road and is set back within its own grounds, accessed through a gateway with large rusticated rhyolite piers (now missing their caps) mounted with modern iron gates.

The north elevation features a roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses with overhanging eaves carried on shaped exposed rafter ends. The walls are smooth rendered, lined and blocked with rusticated quoins to the extremities and a projecting two-step plinth. Three smooth rendered chimneys with off-set bases and moulded cornices are present, without pots.

The station portion to the right of the main entrance has a central ground floor doorway leading into a storage cellar. The doorway features a segmental arch with raised surround and keystone, and contains a sheeted timber door. To the left of the doorway is a small circular opening with incomplete timber window. The first floor has three sets of coupled semi-circular arched windows with raised surrounds to heads continuous with a projecting stringcourse. The windows are round-headed timber sliding sashes, vertically hung with 2 over 2 panes and horns, with projecting stone cills. To the left-hand end of the station portion is a pair of rectangular timber fixed light windows, originally serving the station toilets.

The domestic premises to the left of the entrance front feature rectangular coupled timber sash windows, 2 over 2 with horns, on each floor at the left-hand side. To the right on the ground floor is a cellar doorway of similar design to the station entrance. Above this doorway is a three-light timber fixed light window, with a small dormer window above containing a timber sashed 2 over 2 with horns. Cast iron gutters and downpipes are present throughout. At the left-hand extremity is a lean-to porch projecting from the end gable, with a rectangular doorway leading to the domestic quarters. A low red brick wall encloses a small front yard. To the left of that is a short screen wall linked to a single-storey loading bay at the extreme left, containing a timber sheeted sliding door. A derelict lean-to iron and timber shelter is attached to the front.

The west gable is rendered as the entrance front and contains a central semi-circular arched recessed doorway reached by a flight of granite steps. The doorway is surmounted by rectangular timber panelled double doors (original, in poor condition) with a round-headed 3-pane fanlight above. Raised block surrounds frame the doorway with a projecting stringcourse at impost level. Overhanging eaves are supported on shaped timber brackets.

The rear elevation overlooks the former platform and features a single-storey slated roof as the front. The rendered walls incorporate a four-bay arched concourse, now partly filled in. Cast iron rainwater goods, in poor condition, are present. The windows are round-headed and rectangular, with some original sashed windows similar to the entrance front, while others are boarded up or modern replacements. The open recessed concourse area is supported on square chamfered timber posts resting on chamfered squared iron posts with splayed stone bases. Timber arched corners to the rectangular openings contain vertical timber tongued and grooved sheeted panels with shaped ends to the bottom. The fourth bay to the right is later filled in with horizontal timber boarding containing a doorway and window. The concourse and platform surfaces are tarmac with concrete nosings to the platform. To the right is a short screen wall with an entrance to a small open toilet yard, with a single-storey gabled former loading bay containing a sheeted timber sliding door at the right-hand extremity.

The front boundary walling is of basalt rubble with rhyolite copings. The original boundary wall was later ramped at the left-hand extremity, with an original portion to the east long removed to provide an access road to housing behind the station. At the right-hand extremity, the front boundary wall terminates with a single rusticated pier which retains its moulded cap. A modern gateway with rendered piers and tubular metal gate is set back to the rear of this pier. The area within the gateways contains a driveway and hard standing area, with a garden next to the road.

Adjacent to the west gable of the station is a single-storey modern shop. Just inside the main entrance gateway, in front of the station house, is a small gabled building, the former weigh-room, constructed with red brick plinth walls supporting horizontal timber boarded sides with timber fascias and barge boards to a felted roof. It contains a red brick chimney and rectangular timber windows.