53 Downpatrick Street, Rathfriland, Newry, Co Down, BT34 5DQ

A two-storey building with attic storey, situated on the west side of Downpatrick Street, presenting a five-window-wide façade to the street. The pitched roof is clad in natural slate, currently in poor condition, with a rendered skew to the left gable. Three cast iron skylights pierce each roof pitch.

Two chimneys are present. The left-hand chimney, positioned at the left gable, is constructed of yellow brick with a projecting moulded brick band and four terracotta vented pots. The right-hand chimney, located between the 4th and 5th windows from the left, is rendered and coped with two plain terracotta pots; a TV aerial is attached to it. A half-round metal gutter turns left across the gable to a downpipe on the rear elevation.

The walls are lined, rendered and painted, though the render has been lost in places, exposing the underlying granite random rubble construction. Changes in render pattern suggest that the ground floor right contained a shop front, and faded painted fascia lettering remains visible.

The main entrance is the second opening from the left, approached by a single granite step. It comprises an Edwardian four-panelled painted timber door with a glazed upper section (now boarded over with plywood), with a rectangular transom above.

All windows are 6/6 sliding sashes with exposed boxes and granite cills, with the exception of the right window on the ground floor, which is a smaller 3/3 sash due to the rise of the street. Horns are present only on the third floor windows. All windows have granite cills except the ground floor right, which has concrete cills. The left ground floor window is now boarded over. The left gable is rendered and blank.

The left third of the rear elevation forms a yard wall to No. 51. The centre third is abutted by the large two-storey rear outbuilding of the adjoining property. The exposed section of the main building is abutted by a lower two-storey return with a lean-to roof sloping to the party wall with the adjoining building. The remaining exposed section of wall at the extreme right is smooth rendered, with a window opening to each floor, both with granite cills. The ground floor window has a timber frame but no sashes; the first floor window has a 6/6 exposed box sliding sash.

The return has a lean-to roof of natural slate with a half-round metal gutter supported on a brick eaves course and a downpipe at the left end of its right cheek. Its walls are coursed granite rubble with brick dressings to the windows. Its left cheek abuts the outbuilding to No. 51, and its rear gable is blank and abutted by a ruinous two-storey out-house. Its right cheek fronts the rear yard. The doorway is at the extreme right of the building; the door is missing.

The windows of the return all have exposed frames and painted granite cills. At ground floor left are the remains of a timber side-hung 2 × 3 paned casement. Roughly to the centre is a pair of metal top-hung casement windows. At first floor left is a 6/6 sliding sash, and to the right is a single opening containing a pair of side-hung 2 × 4 paned casement windows.

The right gable of the main block is completely abutted by a taller building (HB16/08/029a). At the left on the front elevation is a cement-rendered yard wall. A large sliding timber door to the street provides access to the rear. The yard is enclosed by a high rubble wall with lean-to timber outbuildings abutting. At the rear is a derelict two-storey outbuilding with rubble stone walls and modern openings, linked to the main block by a derelict outbuilding abutting the rear gable of the second return. Vehicular access is provided through square-headed openings in the front and rear walls to a second yard. These yard buildings are of no architectural interest. A further yard lies to the rear of the two-storey outbuilding, with no buildings but walls of the same construction as elsewhere.