7 St. Colman’s Park, Newry, Co Down, BT34 2BX

7 St Colman's Park, Newry, is a three-storey granite terraced house with basement, built in the period 1820–1839 as part of mid-19th century town planning initiated by James McAllister. It is the first of seven buildings in the terrace sloping down St Colman's Park, sitting at the top end. Three similar adjoining houses have been demolished. The building is of considerable architectural merit, being set within a cohesive terrace forming one side of the square, and possesses local historical interest as an example of McAllister's development scheme. He also erected the block at the corner with John Mitchel Place.

The building is three bays wide and constructed with pitched natural slate roof and squared rubble granite walls brought to courses. A cement-rendered chimney sits on the left party wall. Half-round metal gutters with downpipe are positioned at the left of the street façade.

The front door occupies the centre of the façade. It is a modern four-panel painted replacement with a small rectangular transom light over. The jambs and head are cement-rendered over brick with a moulded architrave. Scrolled consoles at the top of the jambs support a projecting entablature. A boot scraper sits just to the right of the door. To the left is a 6/6 sliding sash window. A modern suspended sign is mounted above the space between door and window. To the right of the door is a coach arch leading to a lane at the rear, with vee-jointed and stepped ashlar granite jambs, an imposted and keystoned semi-elliptical head, and granite wheel stones at the bottom of each jamb. On the inside cheek of the arch at left is a blocked doorway into the house.

A one-bay basement sits at the left side, lit by a single 2/2 sliding sash window with modern metal security grille. The first floor has three 6/6 sliding sash windows aligned with ground floor openings. The second floor has three smaller 3/3 sash windows. All windows have granite cills and cement-rendered heads with stepped jambs over brick. Three-piece keystoned lintels span the ground and first floor window heads.

Wrought iron railings on a chamfered granite plinth with cast-iron urn-topped posts run along the top of the basement passage at the front, returning along the exposed side of entrance steps. Similar railings front the other houses in the terrace and the corner block fronting John Mitchel Place. A railing formerly existed between the coach arch and front door; only the granite plinth survives.

The right gable is abutted by a new building; the left by the adjoining terrace house. Exposed sections of gable wall are cement-rendered. The rear wall is similar to the front, with half-round metal gutters. At left is the coach arch opening with brick head. No outside passage exists at basement level. The middle bay has a 3/3 sliding sash window to the half landing between ground and first floor, and a 6/6 sash on the half landing between first and second floor. First floor rooms are lit by 6/6 sashes; second floor rooms by 3/3 sashes. Window opening faces are trimmed with unrendered and stepped brick with cement-rendered reveals. First floor windows have metal security grilles.

A modern one-storey extension with monopitched slate roof and cement-rendered walls abuts the right two bays, obscuring all original ground floor openings on that side. It links with a two-storey outbuilding at the rear, the first in a continuous block running the length of the terrace.

The outbuilding has a natural slate hipped roof and plastic rainwater goods with rendered walls. The gable wall bounding the lane through from the coach arch has modern top-hung windows at ground and first floor levels with metal security grilles. The back wall facing north has a six-panel stained timber door with metal security grille. The yard elevation is abutted by the link block with no external openings.

The building appears on the 1835 Ordnance Survey map as McAllister's Terrace, alongside three other similar houses (numbers 1, 3, and 5 above number 7), all now demolished. The 1835 valuation records it as occupied by Hugh Byrne, while the others were still under construction by James McAllister. By the 1863 valuation, it was noted as a police barracks, a function it continued to serve according to the 1899 valuation. The property is now in office use.