Gateway, 22 Market Square, Antrim, Co Antrim, BT41 4AW

Gateway at 22 Market Square, Antrim

This mid-19th century gateway with flanking walls and piers stands as part of an important architectural group. Built between 1852 and 1856 as the main entrance to the former police barracks and bridewell, it is attributed to Charles Lanyon, who served as County Surveyor and had responsibility for gaol provision. The gateway, together with the former police station and bridewell to which it leads, and the adjacent castle gatehouse, forms an interesting group of structures.

The gateway is constructed of granite and basalt. The main front faces north. The two piers are of granite with chamfered jambs, rising to a granite archway of 4-centred Tudor shape. The spandrel panels are recessed, and the archway is surmounted by a moulded cornice. Above this sits a snecked basalt parapet with granite quoins at the extremities and a moulded granite coping which rises centrally to incorporate a rectangular granite panel containing a plain shield surrounded by cusping. The piers have shallow buttresses of ashlar granite projecting forward, each with a projecting plinth and weatherings. Further buttresses of smooth cement render rise from the flanking basalt walls.

The flanking walls extend to either side, built of roughly coursed basalt rubble with moulded granite copings. The wall to the left terminates in a square pier of snecked basalt with granite quoins, granite plinth, and granite weatherings to the cap; the bottom weathering is fractured and partly dislodged. The wall to the right has been crudely repaired with cement render and rises in stages with a ramped and stepped coping, extending beyond the west boundary of the property to incorporate an open Tudor archway and screen wall which terminates in the side wall of the gatehouse to Antrim Castle grounds. This open archway is dressed in granite with stop-chamfered jambs and contains no gates.

The main walls are surmounted by later iron railings of plain design with square section posts, bolted to the coping stones. The central gateway is fitted with a pair of original wrought iron gates with spear-head finials. The left-hand gate bears a maker's plaque, difficult to read but containing an address on York Road, Belfast.

The south or rear face is similar to the north front, except that the jambs of the central archway are not chamfered, there are no spandrel panels, the parapet is of basalt rubble without the decorative panel, and there is no central panel within it.

The structures stand to the north of the former police station, facing directly onto the pavement. The site lies within the area of an ancient monument.