21 Balmoral Avenue, Whitehead, Carrickfergus, Co Antrim, BT38 9QA

21 Balmoral Avenue is an attached two-bay one-and-a-half storey Arts and Crafts style house built around 1900, located on the west side of Balmoral Avenue in Whitehead. It forms part of a pair with the adjoining property (HB22/06/024A) and together they represent some of the finest examples of semi-detached Edwardian houses from when Whitehead developed rapidly under encouragement from the railway company. Both properties contribute positively to the Whitehead conservation area.

The house is rectangular on plan with a small kitchen extension to the north-west. The pitched roof is covered with Rosemary clay tiles and clay ridge tiles. Red brick corbelled chimneys feature original clay pots, and timber bargeboards complete the roofline. Walls are roughcast over a smooth rendered plinth to sill height, with platbands at window sill height and mid-levels. Windows are square-headed timber-framed casements (divided 1/2) set in smooth rendered architraves with painted masonry sills.

The principal elevation faces east. The right bay contains the entrance with a square-headed five-panelled timber door with glazed sidelights and transom light, accessed by three concrete steps. Two windows flank this entrance. A timber-framed veranda with glazed roof supported on turned timber columns sits above a painted masonry balustrade. The left bay is gabled and shared with the adjoining property. At ground floor, two segmental-headed windows are surmounted by hood-moulding, with a canted corner at right containing a single window. The first floor displays applied decorative half-timbering with a single window at the left.

The south elevation abuts the neighbouring property. The west elevation contains a shared gable at right with timber-framed 1/1 sliding sash windows at each floor and a further metal-framed window at first floor left. The left bay is abutted by the extension, with an exposed wall containing a single timber casement window. The north gable features a projecting double chimney-breast at centre with a round-arched-headed recess containing timber-framed 1/1 sliding sash windows at each floor. At right, a single timber-framed 1/1 sliding sash window appears at each floor. A cat-slide roof extends to cover the extension, which is abutted on its right by roughcast walling containing a square-headed vertically sheeted timber door to an enclosed yard.

The group retains its original plan layout and many architectural features both externally and internally. Arts and Crafts influence is articulated through half-timber panelling on the façade and ornate timberwork to the veranda structure.

The building is set within private gardens to the north and east, with an enclosed yard to the west containing a single-storey rendered outbuilding. A modern garage stands to the north. The boundary to north and south comprises hedging; rendered walling to east and west provides access through smooth rendered square pillars supporting modern timber gates.

The building first appears on the Third Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1902. Valuation Revision Maps of 1907-1913 number the property as both 25 and 21. An entry from the 1920s records No. 25 as a house and yard occupied by George E. McKittrick in 1928 (revised a year later to Elizabeth Shaw) and leased from Andrew Ferguson, valued at £17. No. 21 is recorded as a house, yard and garden occupied by W. Clements (revised to Edith Hunter in 1925) and leased from W. E. Hunter, valued at £21.