2 Wakefield Terrace, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

2 Wakefield Terrace is a two-storey, two-bay terraced house in Bessbrook, County Armagh, forming part of a terrace of six dwellings. Originally built around 1865 by an unknown architect, the building was substantially altered around 1926 when it was rebuilt and extended with a two-storey rear return and a gentrified front facade.

The house presents a rectangular plan facing northeast, with painted lined cement render walling throughout. The pitched roof is clad in fibre cement tiles with angled black clay ridge tiles to the front block, while the rear return added in 1926 features a hipped natural slate roof with roll-top terracotta ridge tiles, creating a valley between the two roof sections. Rectangular-section red brick chimneys flank the building: the southeast chimney has two buff clay pots, the northwest chimney has a single terracotta pot, and the rear return has two similar chimneys each with single buff clay pots.

The principal northeast-facing elevation is flush with the rest of the terrace, featuring a painted timber panelled door with a glazed top half and square-headed fanlight, flanked by three stone steps rising to the public footpath. A moulded pediment entablature with raised panels to brackets and a raised triangular panel crowns the doorway. The ground floor has a window to the northwest of the door, while the first floor features a gabled window positioned in-line above. All windows are top-opening timber casements with painted stone cills. The building is attached to No. 1 Wakefield Terrace to the southeast and No. 3 Wakefield Terrace to the northwest.

The rear elevation faces southwest into a shared yard and consists entirely of the two-storey rear return built in 1926. This addition features a lined cement render finish with raised render quoins to the southeast. The first floor has a single uPVC casement window to the centre, while the ground floor has two uPVC casement windows, with the northwest window reduced in height. Stone cills remain throughout. A uPVC door with glazed top half and square-headed fanlight to the southeast side opens onto a concrete yard. The rear yard also contains a modern block outbuilding to the southwest with corrugated metal roof and stone-built southwest wall.

Externally, uPVC rainwater goods with half-round guttering and circular section downpipes serve the property, though a short section of cast iron downpipe to the front discharges to the guttering of No. 1. The flush eaves feature a painted timber fascia.

The terrace occupies a gently sloping site at the southeast end of Charlemont Square, with Nos. 1 to 5 facing northeast towards Fountain Street and fronted by the public footpath, while No. 6 faces northwest onto Church Road and is narrowly set back. Rear yards are open to neighbouring dwellings and typically enclosed by random-coursed rubble stone walling to the southwest. Adjacent to No. 1 Wakefield Terrace stands a section of original yard walling rendered with a tall pier and concrete capping. The village fountain, which gives Fountain Street its name, stands to the northeast and comprises a square-plan structure built in granite ashlar with cast iron spouts to each side and a finial to top, surrounded by a rectangular area enclosed by dwarf granite walling topped with painted metal railings, with a stone trough remaining.