Lisdrum House, Chequer Hill, Armagh Road, Newry, Co Down, BT35 6DV

Lisdrum House is a two-storey house situated on an exposed hillside on the west side of Armagh Road in Newry. Built between 1820 and 1839, it was originally a modest mansion set within its own grounds, though successive alterations and extensions have eroded its architectural qualities and its setting has been entirely transformed.

The house has a pitched natural slate roof with modern timber fascia, modern hips and ridges, and modern vents set into the slating. The front central bay features a raised pyramidal roof. Rainwater goods are semicircular painted metal. The gables have no bargeboards and are treated with modern dry verge detail. Three smooth cement render chimneys with cream-coloured decorative octagonal yellow terracotta pots stand on each gable and on the party wall between the left and central bays. The east elevation (façade) is unpainted wet-dashed cement with a raised chamfered base course and smooth render dressings. The central bay advances slightly and is higher than the bays to left and right.

The main entrance is sheltered by a porch which abuts the right cheek of the central bay and the left side of the right bay, with a flat leaded roof. A modern ramp and steps lead to a four-panelled timber door with beaded muntin and metal kick plate on the right cheek. A nine-paned fixed timber window appears on the porch façade. All other windows have unpainted granite cills and horns unless otherwise stated. To the right of the porch are two 1/1 sliding sashes. Two steps on the central bay lead to a pair of modern French windows with sidelights and transoms. The ground floor left bay contains a tripartite window with a 2/2 sliding sash flanked by 1/1 sashes. The first floor right bay has two equally spaced 1/1 sliding sashes. The first floor central bay is centred with a tall 6/6 sliding sash window with a radial semicircular head to the top sash and no horns. The first floor left bay has a 2/1 sliding sash window, with the glazing bar to the bottom sash removed. The south elevation follows the same detailing as the façade with no openings to the ground floor and two 1/1 sliding sash windows above. The right elevation is detailed as the façade and is abutted to the right by a single-storey annex. The remaining wall is blank at ground floor, with two 2/2 sliding sashes at the first-floor corners.

The west (rear) elevation is abutted to the left and centre by a single-storey lean-to extension. The remaining wall is wet-dashed cement render, raised forward slightly at the left and right bays. A modern timber and glass door stands to the right side of the left bay. The first floor left bay has two 1/1 sliding sash windows, with one similar window to the centre (and a small 1/1 immediately to its right), and one to the right bay. The extension has a pitched natural slate roof and wet-dashed cement render walls with a smooth base course. Its front wall contains three three-paned metal-framed windows with concrete cills (two to the left bay and one to the right of the central bay), a modern timber and glass door to the left of the central bay, and a two-paned casement. The left gable abuts the annex building, and the right gable is dashed.

The annex to the right gable has a pitched natural slate roof with ridge running west to east. Its walls are lined in cement render except for the right elevation, which is uncoursed random rubble. The east gable is set back from the façade of the main block and contains a pair of modern timber French windows. The left elevation abuts the main block and extension, with exposed wall in wet-dashed render. The right elevation forms part of the boundary wall and is three openings wide at ground floor: the left and right openings are 1/1 sliding sashes with horns, while the central opening is the ghost of a blocked-up doorway infilled with random rubble. At first floor, margin-paned 2/2 sliding sashes without horns align with the ground-floor windows. The west gable is abutted by a single-storey outhouse in the rear yard, with the exposed section in wet-dashed render.

The setting has been substantially altered. The front garden is enclosed to left and right by old high random granite rubble walls with canted tops. The right wall (as viewed from the front) has a pair of tall crenellated rubble stone piers with mock arrow-loops; between them stands a wall with a single modern four-panelled door. A ramp sweeps up a grass bank from the street to meet this door. A lower modern random granite rubble wall with flat top encloses the front of the garden, effectively dividing the original, larger garden and creating a separate site in front. The original garden must have extended across the entire rectangle bounded by Chequer Hill Road. The north boundary wall to the rear shows signs of once being part of a larger return. Vehicle access from the rear (west) gates is modern.

The building appears on the 1835 Ordnance Survey town map. An 1839 valuation described it as comprising three units (22.5 × 26 × 17 feet, 19 × 19 × 20.5 feet, and 14 × 8 × 17 feet), and it was occupied at that time by David Heron. The building was captioned as Chequerhill House on the 1861 map. Dimensions given in an 1863 valuation suggest that the premises were enlarged in the interim. The house is currently in use as an office and is owned by a charity organisation.