Coal Store, adj 32 Main Street, Scarva, Banbridge, Co Down, BT63 6LS

Coal Store, adjacent to 32 Main Street, Scarva

A symmetrical single-cell double-height former garage built around 1945. The building has a rectangular plan form and sits directly off Scarva Main Street, forming part of an earlier residential terrace. It features a pitched roof of corrugated "Big 6" asbestos with skylights spanning a single steel-framed truss, and shaped asbestos guttering. The walls are rendered in pebble-dash with concrete coping and smooth cement long-and-short quoins and plinth. Steel-framed windows, now largely boarded up from exterior and interior, have exposed painted cement reveals and concrete cills. A replacement double-leaf timber square-headed vehicular door with cement reveals provides access.

The west-facing principal gable is symmetrically arranged with a single-rise stepped parapet abutting the pitched roof. The door is centrally positioned with windows either side, now covered by posters of historical images of Scarva. A raised cement sign board reads "SCARVA COAL STORE" in lettering. Further lettering is formed from the pebble-dash, reading "GARAGE", "AUTOMOBILE" and "ENGINEER".

The north elevation is blank and largely abutted by the adjoining dwelling at 32 Main Street. The east gable is asymmetrically arranged with a single central timber-sheeted door and vestigial steel-framed casement window to the right, rendered in smooth cement. The south elevation is blank and largely abutted by the adjoining dwelling at 34 Main Street.

The building overlooks the park with the Newry Canal beyond. The rear of the site is heavily overgrown on a steep incline.

The site was originally occupied by two single-storey vernacular houses which had fallen into disrepair by the early 1940s. In 1946, a motor repair garage run by Chambers Gillespie was recorded on the site, with Marjory M Dunlop as landlady. The building was constructed of concrete with corrugated asbestos roofing at a cost of approximately £450. The motor repair garage reflected the rapid increase in car ownership and motorised farm vehicles in the post-war period, serving local farmers and rural dwellers conveniently. The building was first shown on Ordnance Survey mapping from the 1960s–70s and now functions as a coal store.