5 Main Street, Rathfriland, Newry, Co Down, BT34

5 Main Street, Rathfriland

A two-storey, two-bay commercial building on the south side of Main Street. Although attractive and possessing some townscape merit, it has few features of special architectural or historic significance.

The building features a pitched artificial slate roof with a central cement-rendered chimney. The ground floor comprises a late 19th or early 20th-century shop front, with a four-panelled door (raised and fielded, with the top two panes glazed) and glazed transom to the left, providing access to first-floor accommodation. A modern timber door with transom occupies the main shop entrance to the right, which may once have been recessed. Large plate-glass shop windows flank either side, each with fretted ventilators above and a moulded stucco cill. The façade is divided by raised panelled stucco pilasters at the left and right edges, with a similar but broader pilaster between the left door and right shop window. Above runs a moulded stucco fascia bearing the painted inscription "J.W. WARBURTON / WATCHMAKER / JEWELLER", with stucco consoles at each end pilaster. The first floor is finished in painted and lined render, punctuated by four equally spaced 1/1 exposed box sliding sashes. Left and right gables are abutted by larger adjoining buildings.

The rear elevation is abutted on the right by a two-storey return. The main block's wall is rendered and painted at ground-floor level only. At the ground-floor centre is a semi-elliptical headed door surround with a modern sheeted door and glazed overlight, flanked by single modern casement windows. The first floor contains three unevenly positioned window openings: a modern timber casement to the left, a 1/1 exposed box sliding sash slightly lower at centre, and a 6/6 sliding sash to the right.

The return (formerly a scullery) has a pitched natural slate roof and rendered walls, with the left cheek overhanging at first-floor level. A sheeted and glazed timber door occupies the ground-floor left, with a twelve-paned fixed window to the right. A timber 1/1 sash window is positioned roughly at the centre of the first floor. The right cheek forms a party wall with the adjacent building.

The rear gable of the return is abutted by an outbuilding enclosing the rear yard. This outbuilding has a pitched roof and rendered walls. At ground floor, a timber sheeted door occupies the centre, flanked by two window openings: an 8/8 sliding sash with a bull's eye pane to the left, and a smaller modern uPVC unit to the right. A timber sheeted loading door aligns over the entrance on the first floor, its left side abutted by the overhanging portion of the rear return. A modern lean-to toilet block with a mono-pitched felt roof, painted render walls, and a sheeted timber door adjoins the ground floor right.

Historical records indicate that buildings occupied this plot from at least 1776, as shown on the Meade Estate map. The 1834 Valuation map describes a shop measuring 26 feet 6 inches by 28 feet by 17 feet 6 inches, dimensions broadly consistent with those recorded in the circa 1862 Valuation. The latter document divides the premises into two sections: a stationery shop (12 feet by 29 feet, 2.5 storeys) and a drapery (identical dimensions). This likely represents the present structure, although its precise construction date remains uncertain.