38 New Street, Randalstown, Antrim, Co Antrim, BT41 3AF

38 New Street, Randalstown

A single storey rendered building with gabled roof and slated covering. The building comprises a main front block with twin end bays that project forward on the west elevation, though the principal entrance is located in the side. The west elevation features a recessed central wall containing four asymmetrically positioned windows, with the twin gables each containing two windows in their front faces. A central doorway is set within the left-hand gable. The roof is covered in Bangor blue slates laid in regular courses with dark-toned ridge tiles. The walls are rendered in roughcast and painted white, with smooth rendered quoins painted green at the gable extremities. A projecting rendered eaves course runs along the recessed main wall and inner side walls of the end bays. Wooden eaves boards painted white feature overhanging eaves to the end bay gables, which are finished with tongued and grooved sheeted soffits, plain timber barge boards, and turned white-painted timber finials. Cast iron gutters and downpipes are present, with a PVC soil pipe on the left-hand end bay gable.

Windows throughout are semi-circular headed timber sliding sash with 6 over 6 panes and horns, with exposed sash boxes set in semi-circular arched openings with slightly raised smooth rendered surrounds. Stone cills project outward. Much of the glazing is obscured from the inside by opaque plastic film or hardboard set back from the inner face, except the upper sashes of the right-hand end gable which are clear glazed. The left-hand end gable contains a central rectangular doorway with a two-leaf panelled door surmounted by a 2-panel blind fanlight in a timber frame with slightly raised smooth rendered surround and modern brick doorstep. Above the doorway is a plain recessed smooth rendered rectangular panel without inscription; above this, in the gable apex, is a larger rectangular recess with raised surround containing a modern shop sign. The right-hand end gable is similar but without a doorway and with only one panel in the apex. The inner side wall of the left end bay contains a small rectangular timber 6-pane fixed light with smooth rendered surround and painted concrete cill. The inner side wall of the right end bay contains a new rectangular timber 6-panel door in a smooth rendered surround.

The north elevation is rendered in the same manner as the entrance front but features a smooth rendered vertical strip at the left-hand extremity instead of quoins, and lacks the eaves course. A timber eaves board with cast iron gutter is present. The roof is hipped to the left side. Two windows are set in this elevation: one to the left is semi-circular arched as per the front; one to the right is a small rectangular timber 6-pane fixed light with smooth rendered surround and projecting cill.

The rear elevation comprises three sections: the rear of the front block to the right, a rear return to its left, and a later extension rear to the far left. Roofs are slated with synthetic slates. Walling is rendered as previously described but without quoins, with a projecting smooth rendered plinth, timber eaves board, and metal gutters and downpipes. The rear of the front block contains a rectangular doorway with a pair of modern flush timber doors. The rear return features a flush timber door, small modern top-hung timber windows to the north side, and a modern rectangular opening with metal louvres in the east wall; the south wall is blank. The rear of the left extension has one semi-circular arched sashed window to its extreme left.

The south elevation comprises the south gable of the main front block with a single storey rear return extending to the right. The main block gable is rendered with quoins at the left-hand extremity, a projecting smooth rendered plinth, Bangor blue slates in regular courses, overhanging eaves with timber finial, and cast iron gutters and downpipes. The extension to the right features a roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses with a large modern flush 3-pane rooflight. The elevation is dominated by a modern shop front set in a modern timber-panelled surround with deep frieze displaying modern shop signs, all within a rendered wall.

The building stands detached within the town's built-up area, facing a main street but set back from it with a small modern brick-paved area in front. This area is bounded by a white-painted roughcast rendered wall containing a small pedestrian gateway comprising a modern looped iron gate kept locked, set between rendered square piers with a concrete cap to one pier and the other missing. At the left-hand extremity, the boundary wall terminates in a square pier of coursed granite, one of a pair providing an open gateway to the former market yard of the adjacent former market house. To the south lies the forecourt of a petrol filling station with tarmac extending around the building's rear. The south boundary of the rear area is formed by the basalt rubble rear wall of adjacent market yard garages. A modern single storey rendered store building is located in the area to the rear.