Autoglass, 7 Sugarhouse Quay, Newry, Co Down, BT35 6HZ

Autoglass, 7 Sugarhouse Quay, Newry

A three-storey double-pile warehouse aligned north-south at the corner of Sugar Island Quay and Basin Quay. This building forms a distinctive feature of the local streetscape and holds some historical interest in relation to Newry's commercial and canal history, though it is not considered to be of special architectural or historic interest due to alterations made and its relatively late date.

The building has a pitched natural slate roof with tiled verges. The inner pitch of the west pile is lit by two skylights, and a red brick chimney rises from its northern end. Half-round metal gutters run along the main façade, with sections missing; half-round plastic gutters are fitted to the rear elevation. The walls are constructed of random rubble Silurian and granite masonry with roughly squared quoins.

The main façade faces west onto the canal. At ground floor right is a painted tongued-and-grooved door with a narrow rectangular transom above it. To its left are three evenly spaced half-top-hung timber windows. The first and second floors each contain four similar windows aligned with the ground floor openings; most have granite cills, although some jambs have been repaired using concrete blocks. All openings have cement-rendered reveals, and several have vertical metal bars.

The left elevation comprises two identical gables. Each gable has, at ground floor, a painted door—the left one sheeted in tongued-and-grooved timber. The wall immediately to the right of each door has been roughly cement-rendered. Internal inspection reveals that a wider brick segmental-arched opening originally existed in line with the openings above; this was subsequently infilled when the more recent doors were inserted. In the middle of each gable at first floor is a painted double-leaf tongued-and-grooved loading door, with another in line at second floor; both are finished with granite heads and cills. In the apex of each gable is a cantilevered beam from which a hoisting pulley was slung. To the left of each upper floor door is a single window opening, now sheeted over (that on the top right gable is a half-top-hung timber window). Although all are trimmed with concrete and lack cills, these are probably original openings rather than later insertions.

The rear elevation is largely abutted at ground and first floor by a modern brick and metal-clad garage. At ground floor right is a window opening now infilled with concrete blockwork. Directly above at first floor is a 1/1 top-hung window; internal inspection revealed three further infilled window openings on this floor. The second floor contains four half-top-hung windows across its width, none with cills. An opening at ground floor left provides access from the abutting garage. The right elevation is abutted by an adjoining taller property set back slightly from the warehouse frontage; the exposed wall section is smooth cement-rendered. A modern cantilevered electric light is affixed to the left quoin between first and second floors. To its right on the main façade is a modern fascia board reading "Autoglass", with an identical fascia at the same level on the north gable of the east pile.

Although buildings have been recorded on this site since at least the 1830s, the present double-pile structure was not erected until the 1870s, when it first appears in the Valuation Revision book and map. The west pile was first noted in 1875, and the east pile in 1878. The building is of industrial archaeological interest and lies within a conservation area.