5 Newtown Street, Strabane, Co Tyrone, BT82 8DN

5 Newtown Street, Strabane is a two-bay, two-storey terraced house built around 1870. It forms part of a street terrace on Newtown Street, of which most properties have lost their original fabric and nineteenth-century character. This house and its neighbour at No. 7 are among the few to retain their original appearance.

The building is constructed with painted rendered walling in a ruled-and-lined finish. It has a pitched roof covered in artificial slate with clay ridge tiles, and a pair of large rendered brick chimneystacks shared with adjoining properties. Replacement steel rainwater goods are mounted on steel brackets.

The front elevation features square-headed window openings with painted masonry sills. The windows are timber sash with cylinder glass and horns: the first-floor windows are 4/4 (four lights over four), while the ground-floor windows are 2/2 (two lights over two). A square-headed door opening to the left contains the original four-panelled timber door, which is decorated with bolection mouldings and fitted with iron door furniture. A rectangular overlight sits above the door, which opens directly onto a concrete step to the street.

Historical records suggest buildings existed on the site from at least 1833, though the current structure appears to date from around 1870, as indicated by valuation evidence. Griffith's Valuation of 1858 recorded a single occupier, John R Lynch, leasing the premises from John Maguire for £9. The property was subsequently subdivided: from 1874 onwards it was listed as two separate items — a shirt factory and a house with offices, yard and small garden. Following further subdivision in 1890, the northern part became a house and yard (number 5) valued at £5 10 shillings. After 1934, the occupier, John McCrossan, became the owner in fee. The property comprised a kitchen, scullery and one room on the ground floor with three bedrooms above, and a water closet in the yard.

Although this house retains its original timber sash windows with cylinder glass and its original four-panelled door, it is not listed. The building does, however, along with No. 7, provide important evidence of the original nineteenth-century streetscape of Newtown Street.