1-3 Main Street, Larne, Co Antrim, BT40 1JQ

1-3 Main Street, Larne, is an early Victorian building in the Italianate style, dating from around 1840, and is the earliest surviving public building in the town. It is attributable to Charles Lanyon, County Surveyor for Antrim, who held responsibility for public buildings including court houses and gaols. It was built originally as a court house and police barracks, subsequently served as a Post Office, and is now in commercial use as shops. Henderson's Belfast Directory for 1843–4 references a court house and police barracks in Cross Street; G.H. Bassett's The Book of Antrim (Dublin, 1888) references a Post Office in Main Street; and the Ordnance Survey map of 1893 for County Antrim marks the building as a Post Office. Photographs in the Welch Collection at the Ulster Museum (W01/67/7) and the Lawrence Collection at the National Library of Ireland (R3110) show the ground floor openings of the east wing at different stages of development. The building was occupied by the Leeds Permanent Building Society during the 1980s. While the building retains its distinct proportions and considerable architectural character at upper levels, much of its original character has been lost through the insertion of modern shop fronts to the ground floor.

The building is asymmetrical and occupies a corner site, with the main entrance facing north. It is finished in smooth painted cement render throughout and consists of a three-storey entrance tower flanked by a two-storey wing to each side. A projecting platband runs at first-floor cill level, with a plain square projecting cornice at the top of the first-floor wall and a plain parapet above. A band of electrical cables runs across the building just below the cornice.

The west wing, to the left of the tower on the north elevation, is a symmetrical composition in itself. It has a projecting central pedimented breakfront containing one window to the first floor, with one window to either side of it. The windows are rectangular timber sliding sashes, vertically hung, originally 6-over-6 but with the bottom three panes of the lower sash now replaced by a single pane — a later alteration. The reveals are plain and unmoulded. Above the central window is a moulded plaster cornice carried on fluted curving brackets in the Italianate classical style. Behind the apex of the pediment rises a rectangular chimney, smooth cement rendered and painted, with a projecting string course and one original tall terracotta pot; a television aerial is attached to the front. The ground floor of this eastern wing has a large recessed rectangular shop window in the central breakfront, with plate glass in a plastic frame, surmounted by a metal roller shutter box and a large projecting rectangular plastic shop sign framed in aluminium trim. To the left of the central window is a rectangular glazed door integral with a rectangular modern shop window, both surmounted by a metal shutter box. To the right of the central window is a rectangular doorway in an unmoulded opening, fitted with double doors in painted wood, each leaf four-panelled.

The entrance tower has battered side walls and channelled rustication to the ground floor. Set slightly off-centre in this rusticated ground floor is a semi-circular headed doorway with rusticated voussoirs. The door is rectangular timber, three-panelled, with narrow panelled side panels, beneath a semi-circular tympanum containing two quadrant panels; all appears original, though the door has two modern metal letterboxes fitted. The first floor of the tower has one rectangular window with a cornice and brackets over, matching those on the east wing, with all glazing bars intact. The second floor of the tower has a triplet of narrow windows set in a central recess, each light segmental headed and deep-set in plain unmoulded reveals. The left-hand window has timber frames with three thin horizontal glazing bars; the right-hand window has later replacement frames of larger size; the central window is truncated at the bottom where a plain rectangular panel rises from cill level to contain a moulded blind oculus. The tower is capped by oversailing eaves to a pyramidal roof with a flat soffit on projecting brackets, covered in Bangor blue slates laid in regular courses, and finished with a ball finial at the apex. The east face of the tower's top storey has two narrow segmental-headed recesses in the wall plane, set between corner piers; the west face has a blank wall between corner piers. The tower projects forward with short return walls at ground and first floor treated similarly to the front walling. A circular cast iron downpipe sits in the angle between the tower and the west wing at ground floor level.

The wing to the right of the tower has one window to the first floor on the front elevation, and one window at the angled corner with the side street, both matching the first-floor window of the tower. A plain parapet and cornice run across the front and around the angled corner. The ground floor to the front has a large shop window either side of a plain rectangular pier, with a projecting plinth across the front; the windows are plate glass in wooden frames incorporating fixed transom lights. A projecting rectangular metal shutter box runs across the front. At the angled corner, the ground floor has a modern glazed rectangular timber doorscreen recessed behind splayed reveals, surmounted by a metal roller shutter box with a projecting plastic sign box above, matching those elsewhere on the building. The first floor of the angled corner has a rectangular window similar to those in the tower.

The west elevation is of similar character and treatment to the front of the west wing, with three windows to the first floor matching those described above. The ground floor contains three large shop windows detailed as on the front wall of the west wing, with a broad pier of wall between the right-hand and central windows, and a broad expanse of wall between the central shop window and the left-hand one, in which there is a shallow segmental-headed recess. Metal shutter frames are attached, with projecting metal boxing above mounted with shop signs. To the right of the shop front is plain walling with a circular cast iron downpipe at the right-hand extremity and a plain hopper below the first-floor cornice. At the right-hand extremity of the shop sign boxing, part of a slightly projecting painted plaster frieze is visible, which is probably intact across the whole of the west elevation. The parapet of the west elevation returns to the south side behind the sloping roof of the adjoining building; the cornice also returns a short distance before stopping.

Doors from the street to the left of the tower lead into a short alleyway beneath the first floor of the east wing, opening onto a rear yard. The alleyway has a concrete paving flag floor and a flat ceiling with a rectangular opening ahead. Within the yard, to the north and to the right of the tower, is the two-storey rear elevation of the block fronting Main Street. This has a lean-to roof of asbestos slates laid in regular courses, a rectangular section chimney in the centre finished in painted plaster with a projecting string course and a single buff terracotta pot which appears original. Rainwater goods appear to be PVC gutter and downpipe. The smooth cement rendered, painted wall has two windows: one rectangular timber fixed light with a top-hung vent and a concrete cill, and one tiny rectangular timber window with a concrete cill. To the left of this lean-to roof is the east side wall of the tower, which has two arched recesses; the south wall of the tower is blank with a PVC downpipe.

On the east side of the yard is a single-storey flat-roofed block with an asphalt roof covering, PVC gutter and downpipe, and a painted wooden fascia. It has three rectangular windows with timber top-hung vents and modern concrete cills, to the left of a rectangular flush timber door with an aluminium handle; this appears to be a mid- to late 20th-century addition. The south side of the yard is occupied by a basalt rubble rear block, partly smooth rendered, with a pitched roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses and what appear to be asbestos rainwater goods, and a rectangular flush door matching those described above. The west side of the yard presents the rear elevation of the west wing: a smooth cement rendered wall with three large rectangular timber fixed-light windows with top-hung vents, three smaller rectangular timber top-hung windows, asbestos slates, PVC gutters and downpipe, and a rectangular flush timber door.

The building stands on a corner site in the main street of the town, facing directly onto the pavement on two sides and situated opposite the side elevation of a listed town hall. To the east it abuts a taller three-storey Edwardian bank with a modernised ground floor; to the south it abuts a lower two-storey 19th-century smooth cement rendered building, originally a house but now in office use.