3 Newry Street, Rathfriland, Newry, Co Down, BT34 5PY

3 Newry Street is a symmetrical three-storey, three-bay house built between 1760 and 1779, situated on the north side of Newry Street in Rathfriland. A building matching its footprint, including returns, is shown on the 1776 Meade Estate map, and it appears on the 1834 Valuation map where it was recorded as measuring 28 feet by 25 feet by 29 feet and occupied by John Alexander, a surgeon. At that time it incorporated a shop and was valued at £19, making it the most valuable property on Newry Street. The measurements recorded in the circa 1862 Valuation are very similar, indicating no significant structural changes occurred between these dates.

The principal façade faces south to the street. It is rendered with stepped V-channelled painted granite quoins at the left and a painted base course. A moulded advanced eaves course supports a half-round metal gutter and downpipe to the east side. The roof is pitched with artificial slate and rendered chimneys on the west gable; two skylights sit on the front pitch.

The central bay contains a modern timber door with plain transom set within an original granite finely dressed Neo-Classical doorcase on a single panelled base block. The doorcase comprises a moulded architrave with a decorative entablature above featuring a fluted frieze with oval rosettes at either end and a moulded cornice. A 1978 photograph documented a fine decorative peacock-tailed fanlight that originally crowned the door; this has since been removed, cleaned, and repaired, and the current owner intends to reinstate it.

The remaining bays contain windows: one at ground floor level and three across the upper floors. These are vertically divided 2/2 sliding sashes with horns and painted granite cills, with the exception of the ground floor left window, which is a later large fixed shop window with a top ventilator transom fretted with quatrefoils. The top left window sashes are missing, and window openings to the principal façade are currently fitted with plywood. Between the left and central windows at first floor is a metal bracket for a hanging sign, now gone.

The west gable is abutted by a lower building. The exposed wall above is irregularly rendered with an infilled opening at right on the second floor and irregular granite stones projecting from the top left wall.

The rear (north) elevation is rubble stone with brick dressings. At the centre, a narrow three-storey return (containing the stairwell) with a hipped natural slated roof is tied into the rear pitch of the main roof. The return's walls match the rear elevation in material; each cheek is narrow and blank. Its north wall has a 6/6 sash window set to the left at first floor and a 6/3 window on the second floor. At ground floor left of the main rear elevation is a 6/6 sash window, with similar windows at first and second floor left.

The left rear extension has a lean-to natural slate roof abutting the east cheek of the first return. It contains two cast iron skylights and a single modern window on its east wall, with a doorway on its north gable facing a narrow yard. The rear elevation is partially abutted to the ground floor left and completely abutted to the ground floor right with other extensions.

The right (east) gable abuts a taller building (formerly the Ulster Bank, now Fisher and Fisher Solicitors). The right extension at ground floor abuts the right bay and most of the rear return, with a pitched natural slate roof whose ridge abuts the right bay. A tall rendered modern chimney sits on its north end. It is abutted to the north by a low two-storey outbuilding with a modern corrugated metal roof and dashed and lime-painted rubble stone walls, its east elevation fronting a small yard.

Architecturally, the building is of considerable interest for its style, proportion, ornamentation, and plan form. It retains much original character, with well-preserved detailing on both front and rear elevations that remains largely intact.

The building holds significant social and cultural importance. It served as a Temperance Hotel (where alcohol was not served), and the Heritage Map records its varied ownership history: owned by Mrs Dixon in 1886, it passed through several hands before becoming the Alexandra Hotel in 1914 under the ownership of Hagan and Gosling. In 1928 it returned to use as a Temperance Hotel under Joseph Carter, and subsequently became the property of the Davenport family in 1940. It is of considerable local interest and contributes meaningfully to the architectural quality and character of Rathfriland.