2-4 Church Square, Rathfriland, Newry, Co Down, BT34 5PT

A pair of four-storey buildings standing at the corner of Church Square and Main Street in Rathfriland. A third similar building in this block (No. 6) is recorded separately. The buildings share a common pitched natural slate roof with lined cement rendered chimneys—one to the left end gable and one between the two properties. An advanced painted stone eaves course supports modern plastic guttering which feeds into a cast-iron hopper and downpipe falling between the properties. All walls are painted and lined cement rendered.

No. 2 stands to the left of the group, with its front elevation facing west. The ground floor contains two large modern shop fronts. At the centre is a pair of modern glazed timber doors with a pair of large shop windows featuring narrow transoms to either side, inappropriately detailed with cement pilasters and fascia. The first floor has four equally spaced windows. All upper floor window openings have painted granite cills and diminish in height on each floor. Those on the first floor are painted timber 1/1 sliding sashes with horns and exposed boxes. The second floor windows are similar, except the left two are 6/3 sashes. The third floor windows are modern 2/2 top hung casements.

On the north gable, a doorway at the extreme left end contains an early twentieth-century glazed timber door with two bottom panels and a larger glazed upper panel with decorative inset corners to its head. It has a projecting moulded render architrave on plain base blocks. There are two windows to each upper floor, with the left ones set to the left side. All windows have painted granite cills and diminish in height with each floor. Those on the first floor are 1/1 sashes with horns and exposed boxes. The second floor windows are modern 1/1 top hung casements; those to the third floor are 2/2 top hung casements. The left windows are not in line with the door below. The rear elevation is cement rendered and unfinished, having been much altered. Two ground floor openings exist: at the left is a large modern picture window with two top hung transoms, and at the right is a modern door. There are two windows to each upper floor, all set to the right and containing modern top hung casements. A narrow passage runs to the rear, parallel with the rear wall. The right gable forms a party wall with No. 4.

No. 4 has three windows wide on its upper floors, with those in the middle set slightly to the right of centre. At the ground floor right is a modern four-panelled stained timber door with flush moulded panels. The remainder of the ground floor is filled by a modern stained timber shop front with broad fluted pilasters supporting a flat timber fascia. The three windows to each upper floor diminish in height as they rise and are in line with those of No. 2. All are exposed box sliding sashes with applied mouldings to reveals and painted granite cills. Those on the first and second floors are 1/1 sashes; the second floor ones have horns and top sashes twice as high as the bottom ones, suggesting they were originally 6/3 paned, like those at the left end of No. 2. The third floor windows are 3/3 sashes without horns. The left gable forms a party wall with No. 2. The right gable forms a party wall with No. 6. The rear elevation is cement rendered, unfinished, and much altered. Two ground floor openings exist: a doorway at the left opening into a small porch, and to its right a modern door with transom over. There is a single modern casement window to the right on each upper floor. The first floor one is boarded over, and to its left is a smaller similar window. A narrow passage runs to the rear, parallel with the rear wall.