3 Downshire Road, (2 Sandy's Place), Newry, Co Down, BT34 1ED

Three Downshire Road, Newry

A substantial mid-19th-century townhouse of two and a half storeys plus basement, forming the left half of a symmetrical pair on the east side of Downshire Road. The building is accompanied by four outhouses positioned to the rear.

The main façade faces west onto the street and is constructed of squared granite rubble brought to courses. The wall displays a projecting eaves course and is topped with a pitched natural slate roof featuring one cast-iron skylight to the front pitch and two to the rear pitch. The left gable is coped with granite, while a single lined render chimney rises on the party wall shared with the adjacent building. Ogee cast-iron gutters with a metal downpipe (shared with the neighbouring property) complete the roofline.

Access to the main entrance is gained via nine granite steps rising to a granite-paved platform that sits over a basement passage. Reproduction spiked iron railings flank the steps, and boot-scrapers are inset into each side of the platform. The front door occupies the central bay and is constructed of four coffered and bolection-moulded panels painted timber, fitted with brass furniture. It is framed by a pair of three-quarter attached granite Tuscan columns supporting a moulded granite entablature. Above this sits a leaded peacock-tailed rectangular fanlight. The door opening is dressed with moulded one-piece panelled jambs, scrolled brackets and a projecting moulded cornice, all in granite. A semi-elliptical rendered band rises over the cornice, presumably covering a brick relieving arch. Modern coach lamps flank the door opening, and modern advertising plaques are attached to the wall above.

All window openings throughout the building feature flat rendered heads, stepped rendered jambs and granite cills. To the ground floor, the left and right bays contain single 6/6 sliding sash windows. The basement door, centred beneath the front steps, is of tongued and grooved sheeted painted timber. To its left and right are 8/4 sliding sash windows with horns, fitted with security grilles. The first floor contains three 6/6 sliding sash windows, diminished in height and aligned with the ground floor openings. The left gable is blank.

The low front wall of dressed granite, carried over strap-pointed random rubble, separates the garden from the street and supports reproduction arrow-headed metal railings. These railings continue to flank the path leading to the front steps. A gate in the right railing along this path provides access to concrete steps descending to the basement passage.

The rear wall is constructed of random rubble brought to courses with a raised eaves course. A basement passage runs across the rear elevation. At the centre of basement level is a painted tongued and grooved sheeted door, to the immediate right of which is a small modern casement serving a toilet. To the left and right bays are single 8/4 sliding sashes. Above the door, between basement and ground floor levels, is a semicircular opening containing a pair of partly glazed doors that open onto a concrete platform with plain modern railings, from which a ramp descends to the garden. The right bay features a large tripartite window comprising a 6/6 sliding sash flanked by 2/2 sashes; the wall surround appears to have been rebuilt with larger, sharper stones not as well coursed. The left bay contains a single 6/6 sliding sash window. Between ground and first floors at the centre is a 6/6 spoke-headed sash. Immediately to its left, level with its cill, is a small window with a two-centred head, render surround and granite cill. The first floor left and right bays each contain a single 6/6 sliding sash. On the half-landing between first floor and attic at the centre is a 3/3 spoke-headed sash.

The rear garden is fully enclosed by rubble walls and contains four outhouses.

Outhouse 1, positioned on the boundary wall with the adjoining property, is a double-height single-storey structure with a pitched natural slate roof divided longitudinally by the boundary wall, with each property owning half the complete building. The rubble granite walls are brought to courses, and all openings feature stepped render trim. The gable facing the rear of the house is blank. The south wall is shared with the adjacent property. The rear gable has a tongued and grooved door at the right, while the north wall has a similar door at the right and a central opening (former door) fitted with a fixed modern window and cement panel below.

Outhouse 2, positioned at the north-east corner, is a two-storey structure with a hipped natural slate roof and random rubble walls. Its northern and eastern walls form the boundary of the yard; the north elevation is blank. The gable facing east onto the back access lane has a sheet metal door at the centre and another at first floor, accessed by concrete stairs. The south elevation, facing into the yard, has a modern glazed window to the right of centre at ground floor and a similar window to the first floor left. The west gable facing the rear of the house has a single modern window at ground floor right.

The east gable of Outhouse 2 continues as a high coped granite rubble wall enclosing the back of the premises. To the left of this wall is a shallow segmental headed arch with dressed jambs and voussoirs bearing a raised keystone, containing a metal and wire mesh gate. To its left is an identical opening serving the adjoining property. In the spandrel between the two arches is a finely dressed rectangular granite plaque with raised capitals reading 'F.W 1837'.

Outhouse 3, abutting the west gable of Outhouse 2, is a single-storey structure with a monopitch natural slate roof sloping down from the boundary wall to the yard and random rubble walls. A segmental headed arch to the right contains a door to the left, the latter having plinth blocks with cut-outs for the insertion of a timber frame.

Outhouse 4, positioned between Outhouses 1 and 2, is a modern rendered single-storey shed which also divides the rear yard into two sections.