11 Charlemont Square East, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

11 Charlemont Square East, Bessbrook

A two-storey, two-bay mid-Victorian terraced house built between 1862 and 1866 by an unknown architect. The building is part of Charlemont Square, a formally designed mid-Victorian development comprising 66 mill workers' dwellings and shops arranged on three sides around a central green. This eastern terrace includes twenty-seven similar houses of this type, together with five larger two-and-a-half storey shop buildings to the southeast.

The house is L-shaped in plan, facing southwest, with a single-storey rear return. It is constructed of generally random-coursed, rock-faced local Newry Granodiorite walling with painted red brick dressings. Stone cills and stepped red brick surrounds feature gauged-brick cambered door and window openings, though door and window heads are now mostly squared off with painted smooth cement render. The pitched roof is clad in fibre cement with angled black clay ridge tiles. A rectangular-section red brick chimney to the northwest carries two terracotta pots. The eaves are flush with a red brick corbel course. UPVC rainwater goods with half-round guttering discharge to circular section downpipes.

The principal elevation facing southwest is nearly symmetrical and flush with the main terrace line, set back from the larger shop buildings to the southeast. A modest paved front yard is enclosed by smooth cement rendered dwarf walling topped with hooped painted metal railings and a matching painted metal foot gate to the southeast. A concrete path from the gate leads to a panelled painted timber door positioned to the southeast of the facade, which has two glazed panels to its upper half. The facade displays a regular fenestration pattern with two windows at first-floor level aligned with ground-floor openings. Both are 1/1 double hung sliding timber sash windows with window horns and exposed sash boxes.

The building is attached on the northwest to No. 12 Charlemont Square East and on the southeast to No. 10 Charlemont Square East. The northeast elevation includes a single-storey flat roof rear return projecting northeast to the boundary of the enclosed rear yard. A planked painted timber door in random-coursed rock-faced stone boundary walling provides access from the rear access route to the yard. The rear elevation retains original random-coursed rock-faced walling with one timber sash window visible at first-floor level; the rear return has a smooth rendered finish. The yard boundary walling remains in near original condition and retains a segmental arch red brick drainage feature.

Charlemont Square East is part of a planned arrangement of mill workers' dwellings with each house set back from the perimeter public road and footpath by a modest front yard, typically enclosed by dwarf walling topped by hooped metal railings. The terraces to the east and west are stepped in groups of two dwellings to respect the subtle relief of the site. Each dwelling has a larger rear yard enclosed by random coursed rubble stone walling with a square-headed door opening onto a wide rear access route. Rear facades throughout the development are much altered with various extensions of different shapes and sizes, whilst front facades remain nearly uniform. The central area of the square is laid to lawn and enclosed by hooped galvanised metal railings with established trees at its boundary. A children's playground is located to the southeast, and includes a monument to the installation of electric lighting in 1911. Bessbrook's War Memorial is centrally located to the southeast of the playground.