6-8 Newry Street, Kilkeel, Newry, Co Down, BT34 4DN

6-8 Newry Street, Kilkeel — Mid-Georgian Town House

This is a substantial three-storey, three-bay mid-Georgian town house built in the classical tradition, with a datestone recording its construction in 1790. It stands as one of the earlier buildings in the town and forms a single architectural composition despite now being divided between two ownerships and partially converted to commercial use at ground floor. Although little original internal fabric survives where inspected, the building retains much of its external character and is of considerable local and architectural interest.

Architectural Overview

The front elevation is symmetrical, with the central bay being half the width of the other two. A two-storey, single-bay extension abuts the left gable and is tied into the façade, faced to match the main walls. The ground floor throughout is noticeably lower in height than the floors above, giving the whole building a top-heavy appearance. One possible explanation — supported by evidence of historic ground-level changes elsewhere in Kilkeel — is that the ground in front of the building was lowered at some point, effectively making what was originally a cellar or basement level into the present ground floor. If the ground level was originally a few feet higher, the main entrance may have been accommodated within the central first-floor window opening, which has a semicircular head that could have served as a fanlight, with steps rising from the higher ground level to the door.

The front wall is of rock-faced ashlar granite with flush pointing. The roof is pitched and gabled, covered in natural slate to numbers 6 and 8. The left gable is coped in tiles. There is a smooth rendered and corbelled chimney to the gable. Eaves are corbelled, and rainwater goods are cast iron to numbers 6 and 8. The two-storey extension to the left gable has a lean-to roof of man-made slate concealed behind a parapet. The extension walls are finished with two shallow brick-coped gablets just below the eaves of the main block.

Ground Floor and Shop Fronts

The ground floors of both halves have been converted to commercial use, with shop fronts that obscure the lower portions of the first-floor windows. The present shop front arrangement dates broadly from the mid-Victorian period, though it has been modified over time.

To number 6, a mid-Victorian shop front fills both bays. The remaining wall and stall riser are in painted smooth render. At the right of the ground floor is a four-panelled door with brass furniture and a narrow transom over, leading to the upper floors. To its left is a shop window with a painted granite cill, shuttered with two purpose-built four-panelled doors. To its left is a recessed four-panelled shop door — the top two panels glazed — with a transom over. To either side of the doors and framing the window are narrow timber pilasters resting on granite blocks; each has a raised decorative fin, an astragal forming a frieze, and a moulded head. The extended bay to the left contains a wider but similarly detailed shop window with three shutter doors. The pilasters at the extreme left and right of the whole shop front rise as decorative corbels terminating a long timber fascia with a moulded cornice over.

Historical photographs reveal that around 1900 there were two separate shop fronts at ground floor: one to the left in the extension bay, and one to the right in the main block to the left of the central door. The left shop front had a four-panelled door with a four-paned transom, and to its immediate left a twelve-paned shop window with a masonry stall riser, all beneath a plain fascia with thin brackets at either end. The right shop front had a sheeted door with a five-paned transom over, a window to the left, and thin timber pilasters rising to a plain fascia with an overhanging timber cornice. A third shop front at that time occupied the right of the central door on the façade, with a central door with three-paned transom, narrow pilasters, a fascia with overhanging cornice, and sixteen-paned windows with granite cills flanking the door on either side.

A photograph from 1951 shows number 4 with a traditional timber shop front with a central door and an angled fascia emblazoned "John Quinn Ltd." By 1962 this had been replaced by the current modern shop front. The 1951 photograph also shows that the central door between the two shop fronts was then directly in line with the semicircular-headed window on the first floor — whereas today it sits to the left of its centre. That door had a transom light, appeared crudely placed in the façade, and lacked the ashlar dressings of the window openings above. Its lintel was formed by the cill of the semicircular-headed window, which at that time had a lower cill level with a six-paned bottom sash. The crude appearance of this central door suggests it may have been an insertion, and that the original main entrance may have been elsewhere.

Upper Floors

Each upper floor of the main block contains five openings, and the extension to the left has a single window to each floor. To the left bay (numbers 6 and 8) at first floor are a pair of 6/6 exposed box sliding sash windows that have not been truncated, unlike those of number 4. To the second floor on all three bays, in line with the openings below, are similar sash windows with painted dressed granite cills. The extension windows are similarly detailed.

Rear and Side Elevations

The left gable is abutted by the two-storey extension; the remaining gable wall is cement rendered and contains a small 1/1 attic window to the right side. The extension walls are cement rendered and blank to the left elevation.

The rear elevation of number 6 is abutted at ground floor by a single-storey modern extension. The wall to the left and central bays at first floor is partially rendered snecked granite rubble, with single large stones forming lintels. At first-floor level to the left are two narrow 4/4 sliding sashes. At second floor the windows are diminished in height and in line with those below; the left-hand one is a modern top-hung replacement, and to its right is a 4/4 sliding sash. The rear gable of the extension is rendered with a small modern window and advances at first floor to meet a two-storey coach house that encloses the yard.

Historical Background

The 1790 datestone attests to the year of construction, and the initial "A" on the datestone may refer to the building's first recorded owner, Alexander Adderly. By 1834, when both halves were described as a single property in the valuation book, the building belonged to Alexander Adderly, M.D., and measured 43 feet 6 inches by 26 feet by 22 feet, with cellars. The addition to the left gable, measuring 12 feet by 24 feet 6 inches by 20 feet, was at that time occupied by a Samuel Floyd. Alexander Adderly, surgeon, is listed as resident in Kilkeel in 1819, though it is uncertain whether this was at this address.

An account of the young General Chesney of Packolet House, who grew up in the area in the 1790s, records that: "Every Sunday, whatever the weather, the [Chesney] family walked the five miles to church in Kilkeel. On wet days the children arrived soaked and shivering to be thawed out before a blazing fire by Mrs Adderly, the doctor's wife, who fed them on gingerbread to sustain them for the ordeal of church."

By the 1862 valuation, the main house had been divided into two semi-detached dwellings, occupied by a John Reid and Jane Annett. The building has been in the ownership of one family since around 1900, when it was used as a millinery shop. The shop closed around 1985 and has been vacant since. A poster dated 1900 advertising the shop survives in the owner's possession.