Edward Street House, 12 Edward Street, Newry, Co Down, BT35 6AN

Edward Street House is a three-storey, three-bay symmetrical house fronting the south side of Edward Street in Newry. It is set within a terrace and abutted by buildings on both sides.

The building has been significantly altered over time and, although it retains some original features, it has changed too much to be regarded as of special quality.

The exterior walls are of coursed random granite rubble, now repointed flush with cement mortar. The gabled roof follows the line of the adjoining warehouse to the east and is covered with artificial slates at the front. Two cement-rendered chimneys, one on each gable, rise from the roof, and metal rainwater goods, including a downpipe at the left, drain the structure.

The main facade is symmetrically arranged around a central entrance. The painted timber door comprises nine panels, three of which contain two letterboxes each, with a black metal doorknob at the centre. It is flanked by sidelights, each with three horizontally divided panes of wired glass, and a semicircular cobweb fanlight above. A painted ashlar granite voussoired arch spans over the fanlight and continues horizontally at spring level over the sidelights. All window openings have painted granite cills and cement-rendered reveals.

The windows to the ground and first floors are identical 1/1 top-hung casement uPVC windows, with two equally spaced on either side of the door at ground level and five at first-floor level, aligned with those below. The second-floor windows are five in number, also aligned with the openings beneath, but smaller in height and wider in proportion. These comprise single rectangular panes with two top-opening transoms.

Electricity cables run across the facade on a timber fascia just below the second-floor cill level.

At the rear, the pitch of the roof is covered with natural slates and plastic rainwater goods. A shallow three-storey return abuts at the centre. Its walls are cement-rendered with plastic top-hung windows and concrete cills throughout—two on each floor to the left and right of the return. The return, which contains the stairwell, has a gabled artificial slate roof and cement-rendered walls. It features a ground-floor entrance door on its gable and a 1/1 top-hung window on each floor above.

Historical records suggest construction around 1770, though the Archaeological Survey proposes this date. The building's similarity to the adjoining warehouse in terms of construction, height, and the absence of a wall break along the street frontage suggests the two buildings were probably built around the same time, approximately 1784, the attested date of the warehouse. The building appears on the circa 1838 Valuation map and is cited in the First Valuation book of the same period as belonging to Denis Maguire, owner of the Newry Distillery on Monaghan Street. By the 1863 Valuation, this house and the adjoining warehouse complex at 10 Edward Street were in common ownership, a relationship that continued until 1883. The building is located within a conservation area but is not included in the statutory listing.