Former St Louis Convent House, 151 Newry Road, Kilkeel, Newry, BT34 4ET

Former St Louis Convent House

A substantial house of early 19th century origin, substantially remodelled in the 1920s when it was converted to serve as a convent and boarding school for the religious order of St Louis.

The building is a three bay, three storey symmetrical house with Gothic detailing, set within mature grounds. The remodelling as a convent introduced extensive extensions and architectural embellishment. Roofs are pitched and naturally slated with crested ridges and coped parapet verges. Four main chimney stacks rise in two stages—two to each end bay—all rendered with moulded caps.

The south-facing principal façade is three bays wide with painted, lined render walls. The central bay is surmounted by a crenellated parapet, while the flanking bays are gabled with raised copings, moulded kneelers and cross finials at their apexes. Projecting eaves courses support ogee cast iron gutters. A large, single storey porch of out-of-scale proportions is abutted to the centre of the main elevation. The porch has a flat roof concealed by a crenellated parapet, moulded eaves cornice and two stage corner buttresses. Its entrance, on the west cheek, comprises a pair of three panelled painted timber doors. The south wall of the porch contains a pair of leaded stained glass windows separated by a masonry mullion. A lean-to timber framed and partially glazed extension with mono-pitched asbestos tiled roof (possibly of inter-war date) abuts the porch's east cheek.

The main façade is fenestrated with a window to each flank bay, and three windows per floor above. Ground and first floor windows are exposed-box 6/6 sliding sashes with painted render cills, except the ground floor right opening which has been enlarged and fitted with a modern stained timber bow window. Second floor windows are 6/6 sashes (boxes not exposed), slightly diminished in height and narrower. Those to the left and right bays have Gothic headed hood moulds containing tympanum panels of blind tracery. Blind lancet niches occupy each gable apex. The variation in second floor window detailing suggests this level is a later addition.

The west elevation is three bays wide. Its advanced, gabled middle bay projects and is tied by a pitched natural slate roof into the main roof, with a pair of three stage buttresses to each end. The gable end of this central bay has a 6/6 sliding sash at ground floor, a pair of 2/2 sashes at first floor, and a pair of 2/2 sashes above with a traceried tympanum in the gable above. All reveals have chamfered arrises. The cheeks of the advanced bay are blank. The right bay contains 6/6 sliding sashes on each floor with exposed boxes at ground and first floors. The left bay has two smaller 6/6 windows per floor without exposed boxes.

The north (rear) elevation of the main block mirrors the front with two gables flanking a crenellated central bay, though the gables are not in line. A modern boiler flue is fixed to the right cheek of a three storey return abutting the east elevation at left. Windows are sliding sashes without exposed boxes. A timber framed and clad one storey classroom linking to the school building abuts the centre of the ground floor. The left and middle bays each have a 4/4 sliding sash at first floor and 6/6 sash at second floor. The right bay contains two 6/6 sliding sashes on each of its three floors.

The east elevation is abutted at left by a two storey return and at right by a three storey return, with a one storey infill block between them. The infill block has a pair of 2/2 sliding sash windows to its front face. A modern door to the first floor and a 6/6 sliding sash to the second floor of the main block access the infill roof; a 6/6 sash above the left return roof appears at second floor left.

The left hand return has a natural slate roof, hipped at both ends, with a gable rising from its east end. Walls are painted, lined and rendered with a moulded eaves cornice. Its left cheek is set back slightly from the main block's principal elevation. This return is fenestrated with three 6/6 sliding sashes at ground floor, three pairs of 2/2 sliding sashes at first floor. Its east gable is symmetrical with a slightly advanced middle section containing a sheeted service door at ground floor right, a 4/4 sliding sash at first floor centre, and two 6/6 sliding sashes to the left. To the north cheek, two 6/6 sliding sashes appear at ground floor left of the infill block, with three pairs of 2/2 sliding sashes at first floor.

The three storey return at right has a pitched slate roof. Its east gable contains two doors and a 2/2 sliding sash window at ground floor right, two 2/2 sliding sashes at first floor centre, a modern window and fire escape to the second floor middle (descending right), and a 1/1 sliding sash lancet window at the gable apex. Its left cheek is abutted at ground floor by the infill block, with various windows to the first and second floors.

Historical Development

A house occupied this site from at least 1834, when it was valued as a substantial property at £13 and measured 46 feet 6 inches by 35 feet by 23 feet, belonging to John Moore. By the 1863 valuation it was known as "The Fort", occupied by John H Belcher, with a two storey return noted. The property was previously known as "Dunavan Fort" before the Sisters of St Louis acquired it in 1922, relocating from Milestone House on Newry Road, Kilkeel, to establish their convent and boarding school at this location.

Setting

The building stands in mature grounds which retain early 19th century tree planting on slopes falling away to the south and west. A Marian grotto, introduced by the nuns, occupies a raised site to the southeast. To the northwest lies Dunavan Fort, a substantial motte planted with trees, with an associated rath situated to the east-southeast beyond the school buildings. The modern school buildings to the rear detract somewhat from the convent house's setting.