49 Downshire Road, Newry, Co Down, BT34 1EE

49 Downshire Road, Newry

This is the left building of a terrace of three, standing on the east side of Downshire Road. It is a two-storey structure with a semi-basement and attic storey, presenting three bays to the front. The pitched roof is covered in artificial slate and has two cast iron skylights on the rear pitch. Rendered chimneys rise from each gable end; the chimney to the right is shared with the adjacent property.

The main façade faces west and is constructed of unrendered, regularly coursed squared granite rubble with a raised eaves course and a cement render base course at basement level. Rainwater goods are half-round metal with downpipes shared with the adjacent property—positioned to the right on the front elevation and to the left on the rear.

The principal entrance is positioned in the centre of the front elevation. Four granite steps and one concrete step rise to a granite-paved vaulted platform over the basement passage. Cast iron railings with simple decorative spikes, inset into the stone, encase each side of the steps and platform—three uprights per step and four grouped on the bottom step. These railings appear once to have also enclosed the basement passage. To the right of the door is a metal boot scraper.

The front door is painted timber with six raised and fielded panels featuring bolection moulding. The muntin, frieze-rail and lock rail are all beaded, and the door is fitted with good modern hardware. It sits within a pair of painted pilasters supporting a painted timber entablature, above which is a rectangular leaded transom with hoops, anthemion ornament and a Grecian-revival centre panel of symmetrical scrolling design with anthemion. The door surround is rendered with a moulded render architrave and scrolled foliated brackets supporting the cornice above.

All window openings to the façade have rendered heads, stepped rendered jambs and granite cills. Windows throughout the building are without horns. On the ground floor, the left and right bays each contain a single 6/6 sliding sash window. In the middle bay, at basement level, is a broad sheeted tongue-and-groove door with latch and broad cement-rendered jambs rising from the base course. The left and right bays at basement level contain single 6/3 sliding sash windows with wire mesh grills. The first floor has three 6/6 sliding sashes aligned with the ground floor openings but reduced in height. A burglar alarm is fitted at the top of the ground floor left window.

The left gable is lined with cement render and is blank. The right gable forms the party wall with the adjacent building.

The basement to the rear elevation is at ground level due to the sloping topography of the site. The rear walls are lined with cement render, with a raised eaves course and low chamfered render base course. The central bay of the basement contains a low modern tongue-and-groove sheeted door. The left and right bays have single 6/3 sliding sash windows with metal security bars. Each upper floor displays three equally spaced 6/6 sliding sash windows; those to the first floor are slightly diminished in height. At the extreme right, at a half-landing between ground and first floor, is a small 1/1 bucket-hinged window with narrow concrete cill.

The basement passage at the front is paved and enclosed towards the garden side by lined render walls, all coped.

The front garden is enclosed by a low rendered rubble stone wall to the front and left side. Single granite gate piers flank the path to the front door, but there are no gates or railings. The garden contains small patches of lawn, mature shrubs and a modern signpost advertising the occupant. The rear yard is enclosed by rendered rubble walls to the left and right and is open to the rear. Outhouses that once stood at the rear are now gone.