2-6 Main Street, Randalstown, Antrim, Co Antrim, BT41 3AB

2-6 Main Street, Randalstown — Former Hotel (O'Neill Arms), mid-19th century

This is a pair of conjoined mid-19th century buildings originally designed in a restrained Italianate style, now used as commercial premises. Despite having lost their interiors, they form an important focal point in the town and have group value with the many adjacent listed buildings and structures. The buildings appear in their definitive form on the Ordnance Survey map of 1858, where they are marked as a Hotel. A different configuration of buildings had been shown on the earlier OS map of 1829. This is almost certainly 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 who succeeded to the Shane's Castle estate in 1841. The building was therefore erected sometime between 1841 and 1852. It closed as a hotel in the 1890s and subsequently 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. A claim that it was built around 1750 appears to be erroneous.

The property consists of two distinct but adjoining sections: a rectangular block (No. 2 Main Street) and a lower curved block to the north (Nos. 4–6 Main Street). Both entrance elevations face east onto the main street, directly opposite the river and road bridge.

Rectangular Block — No. 2 Main Street

This is a two-storey, five-bay building in classical style with smooth stucco-finished walls and a hipped roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses. The entrance front is symmetrical with five windows at first-floor level. The roof sits behind a plain parapet and has no chimneys. The walls are smooth rendered, lined and blocked, with rusticated quoins at the corners; there is a deep projecting plinth (now mostly covered by a later ramped concrete pavement), a plain projecting platband, and a moulded projecting cornice with a plain blocking course or parapet above.

The first-floor windows are rectangular timber sliding sash, 6-over-6 with horns and narrow glazing bars, set in projecting moulded surrounds with lugs and surmounted by a projecting frieze and moulded triangular cornice. Four modern uplighting lamps are fixed to the façade, one between each first-floor window.

The ground floor has been remodelled to form a large shop window to each side of a wide central entrance. There are plain broad piers between the ground-floor openings, with plain reveals; modern brown varnished timber frames carry large sliding windows glazed with plate glass. The entrance bay contains a rectangular two-panel glazed door with similar woodwork. The fascia within the openings is formed of horizontal tongued-and-grooved boarding, surmounted by a sheet steel frieze carrying the shop signs.

The south elevation is two storeys with a hipped slated roof. The walling is rendered as the front. Near the centre of this elevation there is a lower two-storey projecting bay which breaks through the platband and plinth, with a projecting eaves course; only a short return of the moulded cornice and blocking course continues from the entrance front. A cast iron gutter and disconnected downpipe sit above this projecting bay. One window at first-floor level to the right-hand side is similar to those on the entrance front but set in plain reveals without surrounds, with the platband acting as a cill; there is a circular extractor fan opening to its left. The projecting bay is flat-roofed, its walls plain rendered without lining or blocking, with a plain projecting concrete coping and the base painted to give the appearance of a plinth. It has a cast iron soil pipe and downpipe, and two modern rectangular metal fixed lights with top-hung vents and projecting stone or concrete cills, painted.

The rear elevation is two storeys, though the entire original ground floor is obscured by a long single-storey extension projecting from it. The roof of the main block is hipped at the right-hand end and gabled at the left, slated as before. There is one chimney on the left-hand gable — smooth rendered with a plain projecting platband and cornice, and one pot. The wall is smooth cement rendered with rusticated quoins at the extremities, a projecting eaves course, and what appears to be cast iron guttering with a cast iron downpipe. Three windows at first-floor level are sashed as on the entrance front but set in plain reveals with recessed cills. There are also 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 so as to reveal part of the ground-floor quoining.

The north elevation, as seen from the front, is mostly obscured by the lower curved block. It is smooth rendered with rusticated quoins at the left-hand extremity, and the moulded cornice and plain parapet return from the entrance elevation until they meet the pitched roof of the curved block. The roof of the rectangular block is hipped and slated as before. At the rear, the ground floor of the north elevation is obscured by a later extension to the curved block. The first floor presents a gable rendered as the entrance front, with rusticated quoins at the right-hand extremity and projecting plain stone copings to the gables continuing across the base of the chimney. Part of the left-hand side of this gable is obscured by the lower curved block abutting it.

Extending to the left of the main entrance front and set back slightly is a rendered screen wall and gateway to the rear of the premises. The gateway comprises a pair of large square piers, rusticated to their outer faces, with a moulded cornice and projecting plinth continuous with that of the main building. The base of the right-hand pier has a concrete humped protective bollard at the corner. The gates themselves are modern, made of corrugated iron sheeting on a steel frame. The screen walls are smooth rendered, lined and blocked, with a plain projecting stone coping. A short section of screen wall to the left abuts the gable of an adjacent terrace house at The Parade.

Curved Block — Nos. 4–6 Main Street

This lower two-storey curved block adjoins No. 2 to the north. The entrance front is nine window bays wide. The pitched roof is of double-pile form set behind a low parapet, with Bangor blue slates in regular courses and no chimneys. The wall is smooth rendered, lined and blocked, with rusticated quoins at the right-hand extremity, a low projecting plinth, a plain projecting platband, and a moulded projecting cornice with a blocking course above. The guttering is concealed; there is an original rectangular-section cast iron downpipe.

The first-floor windows are rectangular timber sliding sash, 6-over-6 without horns; the sashes bow to follow the curve of the main walling and the glass panes are flush. They sit in rectangular projecting moulded surrounds rising from the platband cill.

At ground-floor level there are two doorways: one at the third bay from the left and one at the sixth bay from the left. The first is a rectangular timber glazed and panelled door, old, with a rectangular fanlight containing a bottom-hung vent, a projecting moulded surround, and a painted stone step. The second has a similar surround but now contains a modern rectangular timber slatted and glazed door also surmounted by a similar fanlight. The remaining ground-floor windows, reading from left to right, are as follows: two windows glazed as the first-floor windows, set in similar surrounds with projecting painted stone cills bowed to the front; three windows in similar surrounds and cills but with the original sashes replaced by a large rectangular fixed light surmounted by a panel of leaded glazing of 1920s appearance, all set in a flush plane; and at the right-hand extremity, a large modern rectangular shop window occupying two original window bays, comprising a two-pane fixed light in timber framing set in a flush plane.

The right-hand end elevation is mostly obscured by an adjacent building which abuts it. Rusticated quoins and a short return of the cornice and blocking course from the front elevation are visible above this adjacent building, and the gable above is smooth cement rendered.

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

Setting

The buildings stand on 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. The yard is bounded to the east by a painted basalt rubble retaining wall behind a terrace house; to the south by a long single-storey 19th century outbuilding of no special interest; to the 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.