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

53 Downpatrick Street, Rathfriland

A plain early to mid-19th-century building that forms an important element in the streetscape of Downpatrick Street, one of the principal routes into the town. Built between 1840 and 1859, it was recorded as a grocery in the Second Valuation of circa 1862. The building retains much of its original plan form and fabric, including cornices, ceiling centres, doors, window shutters and linings, along with an attractive timber stairwell rising to the attic.

The main front elevation faces west onto Downpatrick Street and is two storeys tall with an attic, five windows wide. The pitched natural slate roof is in poor condition and features rendered skew to the left gable, three cast iron skylights to each pitch, and two chimneys. The left chimney is of yellow brick with a projecting moulded brick band and four terracotta vented pots; the right chimney is rendered and coped with two plain terracotta pots and has a television aerial attached. A half round metal gutter turns left across the gable to a downpipe on the rear.

The walls are lined, rendered and painted, though render has been lost in places, exposing the underlying granite random rubble construction. Changes in the render suggest that the ground floor right originally contained a shop front, with faded painted fascia lettering still visible. The main entrance is the second opening from the left, approached by a single granite step, and comprises an Edwardian four-panelled painted timber door with a glazed upper section (now boarded over with plywood) and a rectangular transom above.

All windows are 6/6 sliding sashes with exposed boxes and granite cills, with the exception of the right ground floor window, which is a smaller 3/3 sash (this reduced size reflects the rise of the street). Horns are present only to the third floor windows. The left ground floor window is now boarded over. The left gable is rendered and blank.

The rear elevation is complex due to adjacent buildings. The left third forms a yard wall to the adjoining property No. 51. The centre third is abutted by a large two-storey rear outbuilding of the adjoining property. The remaining exposed section at the extreme right is smooth rendered and contains 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 is a 6/6 exposed box sliding sash. The building includes a two-storey return with a lean-to roof sloping to the party wall with the adjoining building. This return has coursed granite rubble walls with brick dressings to the windows and a natural slate roof. At ground floor left is the remains of a timber side-hung 2 x 3 paned casement; roughly to centre are 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 x 4 paned casement windows.

The right gable of the main block is completely abutted by a taller building. To the left of the front elevation is a cement-rendered yard wall with a large sliding timber door providing access to the rear yard, which is enclosed by a high rubble wall with lean-to timber outbuildings. At the rear are derelict outbuildings connected to the main block. The property is recorded as derelict.