10 Edward Street, Newry, Co Down, BT35 6AN

A warehouse complex on the south side of Edward Street, Newry, dating from the late 18th century. The listing extends to the main warehouse building and its return, though the complex comprises four distinct elements arranged around a rear yard.

The main block is a three-storey building of random granite rubble, set in terrace along the street frontage. Its pitched natural slate roof (though with artificial slates covering half the western slopes) has no chimneys and carries asbestos cement gutters with metal downpipes. The front facade is cement rendered to the lower half, with exposed random granite rubble above. A vehicle entrance with horizontal lintel provides access to the rear yard at ground floor right. A timber-sheeted loading door with wooden jambs and head stands at the extreme left of the ground floor; above it on each upper floor is an identical timber door. The centre of the ground floor has a window with a shallow pointed head. The first and second floors each contain three small 1/1 fixed windows set without cills close to the wall face, with one positioned above the vehicle entrance. Between the first and second floor windows at left on the second floor is a weathered sandstone plaque with shouldered semicircular head, inscribed 'Sloan 1784', indicating the building's construction by Mr Sloan. All formerly shuttered openings now have modern wooden casements. Electrical cables mounted on a timber fascia run along the facade between the first and second floors. The rear elevation is wet dashed with cement. At ground floor centre are large metal sliding doors with no windows to this level. Above at first floor is a two-pane fixed window over an arch, with an eight-paned casement window to its right above the double door. The second floor has three 1/1 top-hung windows, one positioned above the arch. All rear windows are metal-framed replacements.

A three-storey gabled return abuts the right side of the main building's rear elevation, with pitched natural slate roof. A skylight towards the right end lights the yard. Plastic rainwater goods are fitted. At ground floor the yard facade has a plain timber door at approximately centre, flanked to the left by a narrower, lower door and to the right by a one-paned timber window. The extreme left has a three-paned top-hung window. The first and second floors have t+g loading doors centrally positioned (without gablet above the second floor door), with 1/1 fixed windows to left and right on the second floor. At first floor level, three windows open into the adjoining shed, one now blocked. At second floor, a metal shuttered opening above the abutting shed to the right provides roof access. All windows are later replacements, possibly of shuttered originals. The rear elevation is abutted by an adjoining property at ground floor level with no visible windows. At first floor left is an infilled door with three windows to the right, two now infilled. A boarded-up door stands at the left end of the second floor. The right gable has no openings except two ventilation slits at second floor level.

Two single-storey sheds abut and enclose the rear yard. Shed 1 is approximately 24.5 metres in length with cement rendered walls, save the upper section of the yard-facing wall which is sheeted with corrugated metal and transparent plastic panels over wooden frame. The curved roof is corrugated metal and plastic, carried on McTear type Belfast Roof Trusses. Asbestos cement rainwater goods are fitted. A pair of metal doors provides entrance in the centre of the yard facade, flanked by three metal fixed 3x4 paned windows to the left and two 2x2 windows to the right, all metal-framed. The rear elevation and right gable are blank. Shed 2, approximately 8.6 metres in length, stands parallel to and at the right end of Shed 1. Its walls are partly cement rendered and partly felted wooden boards over wooden framing. The curved metal roof is similar to Shed 1. A sliding door in the yard-facing elevation has a two-pane casement window to its right. The rear and gable walls are blank.

The interiors of the two masonry buildings, particularly their upper floors, retain their original configuration and character despite the external marring caused by later refurbishment and minor alterations.

Historical records indicate the building was described in the 1836 Valuation as a store belonging to Boyd and Glenny, with an attached kiln suggesting it operated as a grain store at that period. A threshing mill was also contained within. By the 1863 Valuation the property was under common ownership with the adjoining house at 12 Edward Street, a relationship that continued until 1883. The 1838 Valuation map shows buildings occupied the sites now taken by Sheds 1 and 2, though these are clearly twentieth-century replacements. According to the owner, the rear sheds were formerly used by Bessbrook Spinning Company to store flax and subsequently by HM Customs. A photograph from the 1960s shows the ground floor facade was then unrendered, with a door in line with the datestone and a window on either side.

The building is representative of the many warehouses that developed on the west side of Newry during this period and is of industrial archaeological interest. It stands within a conservation area.