38 Hill Street, Newry, Co Down, BT34 1AR

38 Hill Street, Newry

38 Hill Street is the left-hand property of a pair of four-storey Georgian houses with attic storey, set within a terrace on the west side of Hill Street. Built between 1820 and 1839, it represents an important part of the formal mid-18th-century street layout initiated by the Downshire family as an extension to the town.

The street facade is rendered cement with faintly incised lines and a projecting granite eaves course. A pitched natural slate roof with cast iron skylights sits above, with a cement-rendered chimney on the left gable shared with the adjoining property. Cyma recta cast iron rainwater goods run the length of the facade.

The main entrance at ground floor left comprises a double-leaf timber door with six raised and fielded panels, set within a semicircular-headed opening and topped by a semicircular wrought iron fanlight. Two steps of granite lead up to the door from street level. The ground floor windows to the right of the door are top-hung 1/1 plastic windows with moulded cement architraves and cement-rendered cills. The facade features three equally spaced plastic windows on the first, second and third floors, all in vertical alignment with the ground floor openings. Ground and second floor windows are of equal height, the first floor windows are notably larger, and the third floor windows are diminished in scale. Granite cills run beneath second and third floor windows, while first floor windows have cement-rendered cills. Wrought iron railings with cast iron urn-topped posts above a low chamfered granite plinth enclose the steps and former basement area (now infilled) to the street.

The right gable forms a party wall with the adjoining property. The left gable is abutted by a lower three-storey building; the exposed section is cement rendered without openings.

The rear elevation is cement rendered with a single-storey return attached to the centre and right. Ground floor left contains a single window. Each upper floor has two windows to left and centre. To the right, a bay features a single semicircular-headed window at ground floor level extending to the first-floor half-landing, with similar windows at the two half-landings above, all serving as escape windows onto a large shared metal platform with number 40. The rear return is pitched natural slate with a tall red brick chimney rising from the ridge parallel to the rear elevation. All rear windows are 1/1 uPVC unless otherwise specified. The rear return walls are smooth rendered; the right cheek has no openings while the rear gable has two 2/2 sliding sashes with stepped brick quoins and heads. The left cheek accommodates two four-panelled doors, two 2/2 sliding sashes and two 1/1 sliding sashes, all with brick dressings. Plastic rainwater goods run from the bargeboards.

The building's interior retains high quality original features and survives substantially intact, though the facade has been marred by the installation of plastic windows.

The building is documented on the 1835 Ordnance Survey map and valued at £39 in the 1838 valuation as a dwelling house. By 1861 it served as the Provincial Bank of Ireland, described in the 1863 valuation as four and one-third storeys high plus basement. The bank relocated to purpose-built premises at 42-44 Hill Street in 1905, and the building reverted to residential use, occupied by Mr Hunter Moore. It is now adjoined to number 40 Hill Street and serves as a parish house to Newry Roman Catholic Cathedral. A historic photograph in the Historic Monuments Record, taken from the adjoining property at number 36, captures part of this building's elevation showing a circa-1860 doorcase in Venetian Gothic style, comprising a pair of large corbels flanking the door with stout colonettes supporting a masonry canopy. The first floor windows are adorned with foliated stucco corbels supporting swept stucco canopies.

The building is located within a conservation area and is notable for its classical proportions, plan form, architectural quality, interior survival, and group value within the street terrace.