41A Irish Street, Downpatrick, BT30 6AH

Three storey, three bay terrace building with asymmetrical front facade and coach arch facing onto the south-west side of Irish Street in Downpatrick. Built in the mid-18th century (circa 1860) as a shop and dwelling house, it was later incorporated into the police station site and used for office and storage purposes. The building was constructed in two phases, with the tall two bay portion resembling other buildings in the terrace, and the bay over the coach arch added later to link the end of the terrace to the circa 1790 former police station immediately to the south-east.

The building has a steeply pitched roof with artificial slates on all slopes. Originally there were chimneys on the middle of the ridge and on the gable, visible in the First Survey photograph, though these are now absent. The building is rectangular in plan with a substantial three storey hipped roof return running alongside the coach arch entry. The front elevation is rendered, while the rear elevation shows exposed random greywacke rubble.

The front elevation facing the street has three openings to the second floor with original 3/3 timber sashes without cills, and three openings to the first floor comprising two original 6/6 timber sashes and one 1/1 timber sash, all with stone cills. Two openings to the ground floor contain original 6/6 timber sashes, with a large square-headed coach arch containing a modern double leaf door. All windows have exposed boxes and no horns. As of December 2016, all these openings are blocked, though windows remain visible from the interior.

The elevation within the entry is largely rendered with some exposed stone. It contains one original 8/8 sash window without cill and featuring fine glazing bars and no horns, positioned alongside an original shopfront comprising a door and decorative cast iron rectangular fanlight over and adjoining a window with moulded timber frame. These are now blocked as of December 2016. The rear elevation has two openings above the coach arch carried on an exposed brick arch: to the first floor, an original 3/6 timber sash, and to the second floor, an original 3/3 timber sash, both with exposed boxes and no horns. These are also now blocked.

The rear return has one opening to the first floor end elevation and one to the first floor south-east flanking elevation onto the entry, plus one small window to the first floor north-west flank facing an internal courtyard formed by an outbuilding. All of these are modern and now blocked.

To the rear, abutting the ground floor of the return, stands a substantial L-shaped outbuilding enclosing a small yard to the rear of the adjacent building in the terrace, number 41. It is one and a half storeys on the south-east elevation facing the former police station, rising to two and a half storeys on the north-west elevation as the ground slopes steeply downhill. The outbuilding has natural slate roofs with traditional closed eaves, cement render and a modern short flight of steps to the south-east elevation, and is otherwise built of rubble stone with remnants of lime plaster and lime wash. Timber windows remain to the upper floors, with ground floor openings infilled.

The building sits in a terrace on the steep hill of Irish Street, surrounded by a variety of mid-18th and early 19th-century buildings. Opposite are twentieth-century replacement buildings in a historic pastiche style. The former police station abuts the south-east gable. A substantial rear yard is now shared in common with the police station, enclosed by original rubble stone boundaries. Substantial outbuildings to the rear form a courtyard enclosure to the rear of adjacent number 41.