1 Arthur Street, Newry, Co Down, BT34 1HR

1 Arthur Street, Newry is an elegant early villa of the early 19th century, dating between 1800 and 1819. It is a two-storey, three-bay symmetrical house with good classical proportions and detailing, retaining most original features.

The house sits on the east side of Arthur Street. Its west-facing façade is rendered with a high raised chamfered base course. The ground floor features banded rustication with banded quoins to the corners and a continuous cill course at first floor level. The first floor is lined render with raised stepped render decorative quoins. A single granite step, flanked with chamfered walls to base course height, leads to the main entrance at the centre bay. The door is four-panelled painted timber with flush mouldings to the panels. It is set between a pair of timber Tuscan columns supporting a timber entablature, over which is a cobweb fanlight, all within a semicircular-headed opening with roll-moulded chamfered jambs and flanking pilasters with Grecian revival heads supporting a moulded cornice. The ground floor left and right bays contain two 6/6 sliding sashes without horns, with unpainted granite cills and band rusticated heads. The first floor has five equally spaced 6/3 sliding sashes with horns and granite cills linked by a render cill course.

The right elevation is lined cement render with rendered cill course. It has four equally spaced openings to each floor: at ground floor, three 6/6 sliding sashes and a pair of French windows (in the second opening from right) comprising three-paned timber doors with a fixed transom, set within an enlarged opening; at first floor, four 6/3 sliding sashes. The left elevation mirrors the right. The roof is hipped artificial slate with a cement-rendered chimney rising from the central valley; eaves are boxed and overhanging with modern vents.

The rear elevation is lined render. The right bay is slightly recessed and abutted by a one-and-a-half-storey return. A single-storey outhouse abuts on the left. The gables of these returns are joined by a one-and-a-half-storey outhouse, forming an enclosed yard behind the house. At ground floor centre of the main block is a modern glazed timber door and sidelights within a segmental arched opening. Above at first floor is a 6/6 sliding sash with spoked head and granite cill.

The right return has a pitched natural slate roof and lined cement-rendered walls. Its yard elevation has a pair of modern timber and glass doors at centre and a modern four-paned casement at first floor. Its garden elevation has a pair of modern 6/6 casements to the right and a modern tongue-and-groove sheeted door to the left. The left return has a hipped natural slate roof with a blank garden elevation and a small two-paned casement window to the yard. The rear outhouse has a hipped natural slate roof and cement-rendered walls; its yard façade has a tongue-and-groove sheeted door at ground floor left and a small two-paned casement at right, with a small four-paned casement at first floor. Its right gable contains a modern garage door.

The mature, landscaped garden is of significant romantic interest. A winding stepped path rises from Arthur Street to the front door. The garden to the right has been excavated into a winding picturesque gully accessed from the right elevation. The gully is lined either side by an overgrown rockery terminated by a grotto below the front path. The grotto houses a garden bench and is rock-lined to give a cavernous appearance. Also in the gully, at the right corner of the garden, is a circular pond with fountain, now drained and infilled with rocks. Boundary walls are mostly high, smooth render with projecting render coping. The side boundary on the Arthur Street side has remnants of polychromatic brick wall. The frontage to Arthur and Talbot Streets has central metal gates supported on tall square slender granite piers, with high walls on either side, part smooth render and part large granite blocks, terminated at each end with ashlar granite piers.

The house appears on the 1834 Ordnance Survey map and is cited in the First Valuation as belonging to Alexander Postley, owner of a rope walk depicted on the map as running along the east side of Arthur Street. It is cited as 'Belvidere Lodge' on the 1858 Ordnance Survey map and onwards. It was used for a time as the rectory for St Patrick's Church of Ireland, and when the parishes of St Patrick and St Mary's amalgamated, St Mary's rectory became the sole residence. The house was renovated in 1994.