Liverpool Hotel, Mary Street, Warrenpoint, Newry, Co Down, BT34 3NT

Liverpool Hotel, Mary Street, Warrenpoint

A two-storey, three-bay former hotel on the north side of Mary Street, originally constructed in the early 19th century as a private house and substantially refurbished around 1911 when it was converted to hotel use. The building retains an attractive stuccoed façade, though little of the original structure remains internally.

The pitched natural slate roof features terracotta ridge tiles and rendered chimneys with moulded coping to each gable. Cast iron rooflights light the rear slope, with an advanced eaves course supporting ogee metal gutters and downpipe on the right gable.

The front elevation faces south-west to the street. The ground floor displays band rustication, while the first floor features lined rendering painted with V-channelled quoins. A chamfered basecourse, moulded cill courses, and a cornice separate the two storeys. At either end of the ground floor, plain broad pilasters support the moulded cornice and continue upwards as panelled blocks to the first floor cill course.

All openings have been infilled with concrete blocks. The main entrance, positioned centrally, is partially infilled to accommodate a smaller steel security door. The opening is semicircular-headed with decorative keystone, channelled pseudo voussoirs, and coved arrises, flanked by slender pilasters with plain capitals and fluted friezes terminating at the cornice. The single window to each ground floor bay features fluted pilaster architraving, flat moulded head, and raised keystone. The three first-floor windows are similarly detailed but narrower.

The left gable is rendered and unpainted, with a window set to the left of the first floor. The right gable is similarly rendered and unpainted, with the ground floor abutted by a flat-roofed modern extension and the first floor blank.

The rear elevation is substantially obscured by a large pitched corrugated asbestos-roofed modern extension reaching almost to the rear boundary, with its ridge level at the eaves of the main building. To its left stands a further flat-roofed modern section, with a small canted addition in the internal corner. Various modern windows and doors have been inserted; first-floor windows of the original hotel appear to have been removed. Additional modern extensions fill the space between the main rear extension and site boundary.

Historical records show the building as a rectangular structure on the 1834 Valuation town plan, measuring 34 feet by 23 feet by 16 feet. The 1863 Valuation records it as "a large private house" measuring 11.5 yards by 7.5 yards by 2.5 storeys. It became a public house around 1898 and was converted to a hotel about 1911, with a substantial valuation increase from £18 to £30 at that time, suggesting either complete rebuilding or major refurbishment of the original structure.