5 Wakefield Terrace, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

5 Wakefield Terrace is a two-storey, two-bay corner terraced house in painted lined cement render, built around 1865 to designs by an unknown architect. The building was substantially altered around 1926 when it was rebuilt and extended by the addition of a two-storey rear return and the gentrification of the front facade.

The house forms part of a terrace of six dwellings located on a corner site at the south-west end of Fountain Street and to the south-east of Church Road, at the south-east end of Charlemont Square. It is positioned with numbers 1 to 5 of the terrace facing north-east towards Fountain Street and fronted by the public footpath, while number 6 faces north-west onto Church Road and is set back narrowly from the public footpath.

The building has a rectangular plan form with a two-storey rear return added around 1926. Square-headed door and window openings are set into the painted stone render walling with painted stone cills. The pitched roof is covered with fibre cement tiles with angled black clay ridge tiles and a valley between the front block and rear return. Rectangular-section red brick chimneys with buff clay pots are positioned to the south-east and on the north-west gable of the rear return. Flush eaves are finished with a painted timber facia. Metal rainwater goods include half-round guttering discharging to circular section downpipes.

The principal north-east elevation is flush with the rest of the terrace. A window to the north-west side of the door is matched by a gabled window in-line above it on the first floor. All windows are double-hung 3/3 sliding timber sash with horns and reduced-height top sashes. The door surround is painted with plain rectangular-section pilasters and a moulded entablature. The door itself is a painted panelled and fielded timber door with four panels, with a square-headed fanlight now blocked, opening onto the public footpath. A ground-floor window sits to the north-west side of the door. Raised render quoins to the north-west support a modern metal street sign.

The north-west side elevation is set back from Church Road behind a modest concrete front yard enclosed by dwarf red brick walling topped with painted hooped metal railings replaced around 1989. Similar foot gates are hung on a circular-section cast iron post to the south-west and on slim posts to the north-east. The elevation consists of two similarly sized two-storey gabled blocks with a valley between them. The north-east block has raised render quoins to the north-east and a modern vent to centre covered with metal mesh. The south-west block has two double-hung 3/3 sliding timber sash windows with reduced-height top sashes at first-floor level and two similar windows at ground-floor level. The ground-floor window to the south-west is reduced in width with a painted panelled and fielded timber door with four panels and a square-headed fanlight beside it. Windows have modern galvanised metal screens fitted. This elevation has a lined cement render finish with painted stone cills.

The building is attached to number 4 Wakefield Terrace to the south-east and number 6 Wakefield Terrace to the south-west. Rear yards are open to neighbouring dwellings and are typically enclosed by random-coursed rubble stone walling to the south-west, with a section of original yard walling facing south-east rendered with a tall pier with concrete capping.