2 College Square East, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

Two-storey two-bay late-Victorian terraced house built circa 1883 to designs by an unknown architect, though possibly designed by civil engineer Mr John Hardy. The building has a rectangular plan form facing southwest, with a two-storey rear return added circa 1983 and a single-storey covered yard extension to the rear northeast. No. 2 College Square East is one of twenty-three similar houses forming the eastern side of College Square, a formally designed late-Victorian square containing 53 dwellings in total arranged on three sides around a central bowling green and playground.

The external walls are constructed of generally random-coursed rock-faced local Newry Granodiorite with stepped red brick dressings to jambs, stone cills and square-headed gauged-brick door and window openings. The pitched natural slate roof has roll top black clay ridge tiles. A rectangular-section chimney to the northwest, rebuilt in rustic red brick, has four terracotta clay pots. The eaves are flush with separate red and buff brick eaves courses and an alternating red and buff brick corbel course above. The front southwest elevation has cast iron rainwater goods whilst the rear northeast elevation has uPVC; half-round guttering discharges to circular section downpipes.

The principal southwest-facing elevation is near symmetrical and flush with the rest of the terrace. A modest paved front yard is enclosed by hooped painted metal railings with a similar foot gate hung on slim posts at the southeast end. A concrete path leads to a painted panelled timber door at the southeast end of the facade with a semi-circular light to the upper section having radial glazing bars and a square-headed fanlight above. The fenestration is regular with two windows at first-floor level above ground-floor openings. Double-hung sliding timber sash windows with exposed sash boxes, window horns and granite cills face the front southwest; timber casement windows face the rear northeast. A window to the northwest side completes the front elevation.

To the northwest the building is attached to No. 3 College Square East. The rear elevation faces northeast with a two-storey pitched-roof rear return projecting into an L-shaped concrete rear yard now covered with a monopitched corrugated Perspex roof. The rear return presents a single reduced bay in width at its northwest extent with single top-opening casement windows to both ground and first-floor levels of the northeast elevation. The rear return has single side-opening timber casement windows to the northeast gable at both ground and first-floor levels and a painted timber hollow-fibre door to its northwest side with a window to the left-hand side. Random-coursed rock-faced yard boundary walling includes a painted planked timber door leading to the covered yard extension. Generally roughcast cement render covers the facade and rear return, with smooth-finish cement render applied to the interior face of the original yard boundary walling. To the southeast the building is attached to No. 1 College Square East.

No. 2 forms part of College Square East, a planned arrangement of mill workers' dwellings comprising a formal square with East, North and West terraces arranged around a central bowling green, playground and lawn. Each house is set back from the perimeter public road and footpath with a modest front yard typically enclosed by dwarf walling topped by hooped metal railings. The east terrace is stepped in groups of six dwellings respecting the subtle relief of the site. The west terrace comprises paired dwellings in similar style. Rear yards are enclosed by random-coursed rubble stone walling with square-headed door openings onto a wide rear access route. Front facades are nearly uniform along the eastern terrace, with Bessbrook Town Hall (the old Institute building) located to the southeast. The northern terrace contains 12 houses and comprises distinctly larger two-and-a-half-storey buildings of similar style. The central area of the square is divided into three sections laid to lawn, with a bowling pavilion and green to the northwest enclosed by painted hooped metal railings with established trees at its boundary, a lawn enclosed by hooped metal railings to the southeast, and an open children's playground in the centre. Three granite monuments stand in the square: one records the names of men who served the Bessbrook firm for nearly fifty years, another commemorates James N. Richardson and is inscribed as the last stone cut from Bessbrook quarry, and a third details the mill's history from ownership by the Pollock family in 1760 to Bessbrook Spinning Co Ltd in 1878.