21 Marine Road, Carnlough, Ballymena, Co Antrim, BT44 0HE

21 Marine Road, Carnlough, is a 19th century house and shop built between 1860 and 1879, though it first appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1903. It stands on a corner site in the main street of the village facing the main road with views across to the sea, and makes a positive contribution to the 19th century character of the village through its plain but well-proportioned style and retention of most original features.

The building comprises a two-storey gabled house with a ground floor shop beneath the first floor, and a lower two-storey return to the rear. Walls are rendered, lined, blocked and painted throughout, with raised painted quoins to the extremities. The main entrance faces east.

The front elevation is four windows wide to the first floor. The roof is laid with Bangor blue slates in regular courses. Three rendered and painted chimneys with three original 19th century pots each are positioned one at each gable and one near the centre. Cast iron guttering and downpipes run throughout.

The first floor windows are timber sliding sash, vertically hung with 6 over 6 panes and without horns, set in moulded cement surrounds. The ground floor comprises, from left to right, a window matching the first floor design, an entrance door of timber with four panels and a plain rectangular fanlight, both set in moulded cement surrounds.

The shopfront is notable. It features a central doorway between two large timber fixed lights with nine-pane windows, set on low painted stone cills. Each window is set between fluted cement pilasters with fluting to the capitals. A frieze above displays the shop name in a painted panel, with fluted extremities and an original dentil cornice. The wooden shop door is panelled and glazed with wired glass, fitted with an aluminium handle and letterbox. A sidelight of similar glass to the right was replaced in 1988. At the right extremity of the shopfront, raised cement quoins painted black stand within smooth rendered walls.

The south elevation presents a blank gable, rendered as the front with quoins to the extremities.

The rear elevation faces west and comprises two storeys rendered and slated as the front, with a lower gabled two-storey return to the extreme left linked by a single-storey slated lean-to to an even lower two-storey gabled projection to the right. Two small flush rooflights have been newly inserted. Cast iron guttering and downpipes continue around.

The left hand return has a blank gable with a chimney on the apex. Two first floor windows matching the front elevation sit on the south side, with one similar window to the ground floor. To the right of the return, one first floor window sits above the new lean-to slated roof with its flush rooflight. A timber porch door, panelled, glazed and original, provides access.

To the right of the lean-to stands a gabled projection which represents a rebuilding of the original but extended outwards. It has two coupled timber sliding sash vertically hung windows to each floor in the gable, with translucent glass to the first floor. An outshot chimney rendered on the south wall carries a 19th century re-used pot with a modern cowl.

The north elevation is a two-storey gable similar to the south gable, with one first floor window of timber sliding sash as on the front elevation, and two small attic windows of timber casement or fixed lights with four panes. To the right stands a low two-storey gabled return with rendered walls and raised quoins to the extremities. Quoins extend at the right hand side to form a jamb for a gateway to the backyard. The roof is slated as elsewhere, with a rendered chimney on the right hand gable carrying one pot. Cast iron guttering and downpipe are present. Two windows to the first floor match the front elevation design, with one similar window to the ground floor and a doorway in an unmoulded reveal to the right. The wooden door is four-panelled with an inappropriate modern handle and a rectangular fanlight of two rectangular panes within margin lights. A side boundary wall beyond a steel yard door comprises harled limestone and brick facing the road.

The building stands set back from the pavement with a lawn in front and a low front boundary plinth wall of red brick with concrete copings. To the rear is a grassed back garden elevated above ground floor level by concrete steps with new steel railings. Boundary walls to the south comprise harled rubble; to the west, red brick with concrete coping; to the north, a rendered wall to the garden side with horizontal sliding steel doors opening onto the side road.

The building is located within the Carnlough Conservation Area.