5 Downshire Place, Newry, Co Down, BT34 1DZ

Number 5 Downshire Place is the right-hand house of a symmetrical terrace of four two-storey houses with semi-basement and attic storeys, located on the east side of Downshire Road in Newry. The building is three bays wide on both front and side elevations.

The house is topped by a hipped natural slate roof with L-shaped plan, gabled where it joins the adjacent property at number 7. Two skylights light the rear slope. Single cement-rendered chimneys with projecting caps rise from either end of the front ridge, with a third from the rear return wall head. Rainwater goods are semicircular metal. The front facade is finished in painted lined render with a projecting rendered eaves course. A raised plaque at first floor centre bears 'Downshire Place' in raised capitals.

The main entrance sits at ground floor centre, approached via two granite steps rising to a granite paved platform. Original palmette-headed cast iron railings flank the steps and platform sides. Metal boot scrapers are inset into the railings at left and right on the platform. The entrance door is replacement painted timber with beaded muntin and four bolection-moulded panels. The door frame is reeded timber, flanked by two three-quarter attached granite Tuscan columns supporting a moulded granite entablature. Above, the original rectangular Greek Revival leaded transom has been replaced with plastic glazing. The entrance opening has one-piece moulded jambs with scrolled consoles at the top supporting a moulded granite cornice, with modern electric light mounted over the cornice.

At ground floor, left and right bays contain single 6/6 sliding sash windows with painted granite cills. Basement level, in line with ground floor windows, has single 3/3 sliding sashes. The central basement bay contains a porch with a modern louvred door on its left cheek. Concrete steps lead down from the foot of the main entrance steps to a passage across the front of the basement. First floor has three equally spaced windows identical to the ground floor sashes but diminished in height. The left gable forms the party wall with the adjacent property.

The right elevation has painted and line-rendered walls. Ground slopes away to the right. Three equally spaced 3/3 sliding sash windows serve the basement on this elevation; the rightmost has a painted concrete cill and its opening was probably originally a door but has been infilled. Ground and first floors each have three 6/6 sliding sash windows, with first floor examples slightly diminished in height. The ground floor right window opening has been enlarged to accommodate a pair of four-paned timber French windows with a fixed four-pane transom over, opening onto a small cantilevered concrete balcony enclosed by plain painted steel railing.

At the rear, due to the site's sloping topography, the basement sits at ground level. The return section walls are painted lined render; the back wall of the main block is wet dashed with a projecting eaves course. A modern timber and glass door opens from the basement left, with a 3/3 sliding sash to its right. A modern one-storey conservatory of timber and glass with flat felt roof, raised over basement level, obscures most of the ground floor and abuts the right cheek of the return. The back wall of the main block, now enclosed by the conservatory, contains a modern fixed window within an original opening. A modern door into the rear kitchen, probably within an enlarged original window opening, is also enclosed by the conservatory. A door on the conservatory's right cheek provides access to metal fire escape stairs to the back garden. To the right of the conservatory is a modern timber casement window with thin concrete cill. Above the conservatory between ground and first floors at left is a tall 6/6 sliding sash window; a similar but smaller window sits at first floor right.

The gable wall of the return is blank except for a single stained timber louvre door at basement level right and a small ventilator at ground floor. The right cheek has a conservatory door at ground floor right and a 2/2 sliding sash window with horns at first floor. A metal boiler flue rises up the left side.

The front and side garden is enclosed by a chamfered granite wall retaining stumps of original wrought-iron railings. A broad cement path flanked by rendered brick walls leads from the street to the front door steps. A side entrance from Church Avenue comprises a pair of metal gates, each inset with 'ER VII' in decorative scrolled letters.