Hillside Terrace, Doran’s Hill, Newry, Co Down

Hillside Terrace is a terrace of five red brick houses with polychromatic decoration set on the north side of Doran's Hill in Newry. Nos. 1-4 are aligned with the road and step down the hill, with No. 1 at the top end; No. 5 is positioned at right angles at the bottom end.

Nos. 1-4 are all gabled houses with natural slate roofs (except No. 1, which has been re-roofed with artificial slate), metal rainwater goods, and brick chimneys positioned to the right. The chimneys have raised bases, dentilled caps, and a course of yellow brick around the middle. The eaves are supported on corbelled brackets of yellow and black brick.

The road elevation is of red brick embellished with coloured brickwork. A yellow brick string course runs at the level of the middle of the ground floor windows and another across the first floor windows at the same level. Black-yellow and red-black bands sit between the ground and first floors, and between the first and second floors. A moulded terracotta platband at first floor level also forms the cills to this floor's windows. Above and between the top floor windows is a small yellow and black brick embellishment. The room bays break forward on all three floors, with gables featuring ornate fretted bargeboards at eaves level and finials (the bargeboards to No. 1 are inappropriate modern replacements; the finials are now missing to Nos. 1 and 2).

Each house has a door at ground floor left. Only the door to No. 3 appears to be original – a four-panel door with glazed top pair and a rectangular transom light over. The others are modern replacements. The door openings have stop-ended chamfers around their edges. To the right are pairs of 1/1 sliding sash windows, each with granite cills. These openings have flat heads and stop-ended chamfers. An identical set of windows is in line at first floor, and a pair of semi-circular headed 1/1 sliding sash windows sits directly above at second floor. The latter share a moulded terracotta cill which extends as a platband across the face of the window bay. Only the windows to Nos. 2 and 3 are in the original style; the others are modern plastic replacements of different design.

No. 1 has undergone substantial structural modifications: a bay window and porch have been added at ground floor, and a monopitched artificial slate roof is carried over both bay and porch. The left gable is pebble dashed and painted and without openings. The right gable is abutted by No. 5. At the rear, the walls are cement rendered with plain eaves. Each house has a skylight in its roof pitch. An original two-storey monopitched return abuts each house at right, with a yard enclosed by a wall at left. These returns have cement rendered walls and a gable window. Above, on the wall of the main block, is a 2/2 sliding sash window on the half landing between first and second floor. Each ground and first floor room also has an identical window.

No. 1 has been pebble dashed and its original windows replaced in plastic. A flat roofed annex has been added to No. 3 which obscures both its ground and first floor windows. There is a small walled garden to the front of each house. The walls of Nos. 2-4 are original, of rendered brick with square piers and pyramidal caps. No. 1 has a modern pebbledash wall. Just below the first floor of No. 4, at the extreme right, is a metal plate reading 'Hillside Terrace'.

No. 5 is a three-bay, two-storey house set at right angles to the terrace and abutting the end gable of No. 4 at a lower level; there is a two-bay, two-storey annex to its right gable. The main portion has a hipped natural slate roof with a chimney identical to those of the terrace in the middle of the block, metal rainwater goods, and eaves supported on moulded yellow brick brackets. The walls are of brick. The terracotta platband and two bands of yellow brick across the terrace facade continue around the street gable and facade of No. 5, as does the band of black, yellow and red brick just below first floor level. There is also a band of yellow brick just below first floor window head level.

The gable facing the street has pairs of 1/1 sliding sash windows at ground and first floors. These are contained in a projecting bay and have dormers with fretted bargeboards and finials similar to the main terrace. Both sets of window openings have stop-ended chamfers; the bottom pair share a common granite cill.

The three bays of the main elevation also break forward. The first and third bays (as viewed from left) are identical to the street gable. The middle bay has a projecting single-storey entrance porch with a flat roof with parapet coped with black brick and with yellow and black brick string courses underneath. It contains a 10-panel modern door with a rectangular transom light over. There is a 1/1 margined sliding sash window to its left cheek. The margined 1/1 sliding sash window at first floor over the porch has a semicircular head.

At right on the main elevation is a smaller hip-roofed two-bay annex which is set back to form a separate unit. At ground floor left is a modern 10-panel door with a rectangular transom light over. To its right is a 1/1 top-hung plastic window. Right again is a door into a utility room. At first floor are two 1/1 sliding sash windows in line with the doors below (but without stop-ended chamfering); each has a head of alternating yellow and red brick.

The right gable of No. 5 is abutted by a later monopitched cement-rendered garage. The wall above is cement rendered with a bracketed eaves course; it contains a 1/1 sliding sash window. The rear wall is cement rendered.