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

1 Newry Street is a three-storey commercial building with attic and basement, prominently positioned at the junction of Newry Street and Dromore Street in Rathfriland. It is clearly visible from Church Square, with its main elevation facing south onto Newry Street.

The building is roofed with pitched L-shaped natural slate, gabled to the west and north, and fitted with a cast-iron skylight on the south pitch facing Newry Street. The west gable carries a broad rendered chimney with moulded coping, and a second chimney sits at the south end of the north-south ridge parallel to Dromore Street. Parapet gutters run behind a granite coped blocking course.

All walls are smooth cement rendered at ground floor level and wet dashed to the upper floors. The elevations feature band rusticated stucco quoins, with a moulded cill course between ground and first floors and another between first and second floors. A moulded granite eaves course supports a decorative moulded pediment applied to the blocking course above each upper floor window on both street facades. The quoins terminate at blocking course level in panelled blocks with raised and chamfered heads.

The south elevation facing Newry Street has been substantially modernised at ground floor with an applied polished green marble plinth, fascia and doorcase. A modern eight-panelled door is positioned to the right, with modern brass plaques to its left and two 2/1 modern picture windows further left. The upper floors retain two windows each, these being broad 2/2 vertically divided sliding sashes with horns, set within eared smooth stucco architraves. The second floor windows are diminished in height.

The east elevation facing Dromore Street follows similar proportions to the south elevation. At ground floor there are three modern windows to the left and a similar window with a panelled door (with raised and fielded decoration and bolection moulding) at the far right. Iron spikes are inserted over all window cills, and an Ulster Bank night safe is positioned to the left of the right-hand window. The upper floors have three equally spaced windows each, detailed as those on the south elevation. The first floor window heads feature two-stage stucco keyblocks, with decorative channelled stucco columns detailed as the quoins rising between the windows to the eaves.

The west gable abuts a slightly lower adjoining building and is lined, rendered and painted. It continues northward as the west elevation of the main block, which fronts a narrow rear passage and was not inspected. The north gable forms a party wall with a terrace of similarly scaled buildings sharing a comparable eaves course.

A building of identical size is shown on the 1776 town plan of Rathfriland. According to valuation revision books, the buildings on this site were demolished and a purpose-built bank was erected by the Ulster Bank in 1919–20. The building served as an Ulster Bank premises for most of the twentieth century until its closure in the early 1990s. It remains uncertain whether the building was entirely demolished in 1919, as some features appear considerably earlier in date. These include the eaves cornice to the street, which aligns with that of number 3 Newry Street (late nineteenth century), the basement, and some internal doors at second floor rear.

The building is much altered and retains few features of architectural interest, with ground floor modernisation substantially obscuring its original commercial character.