Post Office, 1 Tirkelly Hill Road, Ballyroney, ***See surveyor's comments***

Post Office, 1 Tirkelly Hill Road, Ballyroney

A two-storey three-bay Victorian dwelling and shop built around 1845. The building has an L-shaped plan form and is prominently located at the junction of Seafin Road and Tierkelly Hill Road in the village of Ballyroney.

The roof is hipped with natural slate and has clay hip and ridge tiles. There is a smooth rendered chimneystack with cavetto mouldings. The eaves feature plain timber soffits with moulded brackets, and aluminium ogee rainwater goods. The walls are painted rendered with ruled-and-lined finish.

Windows throughout are timber 2/2 sliding sash with horns and chamfered surrounds. At ground floor they are square-headed with projecting masonry cills. At first floor they are segmental arched with a continuous moulded cill course. The principal entrance is a timber raised-and-fielded four-panelled door with bolection mouldings and central divide. It has margin-paned side-lights with panelled aprons divided by narrow moulded pilasters. Fan lights with horizontal glazing bars are set into an elliptical-arched opening with chamfered surrounds, a projected key-block impost, and a plinth block.

The principal elevation faces east and is asymmetrically arranged. The house is set back, with the left bay containing a shop at ground floor return, extending two windows deep. The front door is positioned right of centre with a paired ground floor window to the right. Three first floor windows align directly above the ground floor openings. The ground floor shop front is symmetrical, with segmental-arched quadripartite windows flanking a timber sheeted door with a segmental-arched tripartite overlight. Paired first floor windows sit above. The right cheek of the projection contains two first floor windows, while the left cheek runs flush with the left elevation.

The left elevation is asymmetrically arranged with two windows at ground and first floor level, grouped slightly left of centre, and features a deep painted plinth. The rear elevation is asymmetrically arranged with a four-panelled timber door at its centre, leading to a flat-roofed single-storey porch with fixed lights to the cheeks. A full-size and a diminutive window are positioned to the left, with two slightly diminished-in-height windows to the right. A rounded-headed timber sliding sash landing light with coloured margin panes is located at first floor left of centre, with two windows to the right. A small single-storey shed abuts the ground floor far left against the boundary wall. The right elevation is symmetrically arranged with two first floor windows.

An outbuilding stands to the rear: linear two-storey rubble masonry laid-to-courses with brick surrounds, a pitched slate roof with wall-headed dormer, timber sheeted doors and replacement timber fixed lights. A high rendered yard wall with enlarged squared brick piers topped with pyramidal caps and wrought-iron gates encloses the west of the yard.

The setting includes a telephone kiosk (HB17/09/022B) immediately in front of the shop, and to the south is the church hall associated with the adjacent Ballyroney Presbyterian Church (HB17/09/008). Railings enclose the front garden, which is gravelled and accessed by a gate with masonry piers and coping.