42 Hill Street, Newry, Co Down, BT34 1AR

42 Hill Street, Newry

A three-storey building with attic, constructed in granite and faience-ware with a Classical Revival frontage. The building sits on the west side of Hill Street, opposite the Cathedral of St Patrick and St Colman. The pitched roof is finished in natural slate with a string-coursed and corniced faience chimney to the right gable. The centre of the front pitch features a flat lead-roofed dormer containing two 2/3 paned timber casements, with gable dormers rising from the wall head at each end of the façade. A broad parapet gutter with cast metal downpipes runs along the façade, draining to left and right.

The ground floor is executed in highly polished smooth ashlar granite, particularly at the doorcase jambs. The upper floors employ golden-coloured faience-ware. The façade is symmetrically composed except for the off-centre doorway and chimney position.

The ground floor consists of a doorway on the left with four equally spaced window openings to its right. The doorway comprises a pair of timber doors topped by an oval timber transom with square glazing panes and a circular central pivoting section. The door and transom sit within a deep ashlar granite surround. The transom architrave features egg and dart moulding with projecting keystones at cardinal points, and the spandrels are panelled. Rising on either side of the door and transom is a band-rusticated pier. Halfway up each pier is a tapering pilaster resting on a corbel and rising to door head level, where a moulded bracket projects to support a deep broken pediment forming a canopy over the transom. The pediment is dentilled with a panelled underside. On each pitch of the pediment an ashlar granite wall rises to create a flat-headed parapet just below first floor level.

To the right of the door are four 2/2 fixed pane timber windows separated by tapering Ionic demi-columns rising from square bases at ground level and supporting a fascia above. To the right of the rightmost window is an Ionic pilaster of similar detailing rising to fascia level. Below each window is a decorative panelled stall-riser. The window at the right end accommodates an ATM. The frieze supported by the demi-columns carries modern plastic lettering. The fascia, which runs only over the windows and is level with the parapet over the door, features a dentilled cornice separating it from first floor level.

The first floor contains five equally spaced 1/1 sliding sash windows with horns. The central section of the façade is slightly recessed and contains three of these windows, with one window at each end set within a concave reveal tympanum above. The walls feature horizontal channelling that tapers to demarcate voussoirs. The walls to the central recessed panel are smooth, while those to the outer sections are band-rusticated. Each window has a moulded architrave with raised ears to head and cill, and each head bears a raised keystone supporting a cushion-moulded block. A cornice rests on each block and runs across the recessed section, projecting slightly over each cushion mould.

The second floor contains five windows aligned with those below but diminished in height. The three central windows occupy the recessed panel and each has a moulded architrave on a raised surround with bracketed moulded cill. A cyma-recta cornice on a raised base rests on the head of each surround and runs the full width of the façade. The windows at each end are identical to the central ones but are flanked by panelled pilasters, each resting on individual corbels projecting from the window head of the windows below. The pilasters continue to eaves level, crossed by the moulded stringcourse.

At parapet level, the central portion remains recessed with a dentilled moulded cornice running the full length of the façade, supporting a balustraded open parapet. The balustrading comprises three lengths, with recessed panelled plinths between each, all topped by a moulded baluster rail. On each side of the façade are broken pedimented gable dormers with plinth blocks resting on the cornice. Set into each pediment is a circular window with 3/3 glazing pattern, featuring a raised moulded reveal and projecting keystones at cardinal points. Each roundel head breaks the moulded base of the gable pediment.

The rear elevation is now abutted at first floor by a modern rear return extending to The Mall. The pitched roof is hipped to the rear, with a hipped return roof to the left and a flat lead-roofed return to the right. The right return incorporates a four-windowed 2/4 casement dormer with flat lead roof and slated sides and cheeks. A single modern skylight is positioned to the left of the main roof. A chimney base in brick sits on the left gable. Rainwater goods are cast iron.

The rear walls are constructed of red brick. The left return projects with a hipped roof, while the right return has a flat roof. Between these returns is a first-floor return with a slated lean-to roof rising to cill level of the second floor. At first floor left is a modern escape door with sidelights, and to the right is a fixed timber window. The second floor features two 1/1 sliding sashes. The right return, at the half landing between ground and first floors, contains an escape door with sidelights. At the half landing between first and second floors is a pair of 1/1 sliding sashes within a single opening. The left return at first floor contains a 1/1 sliding sash window with granite cill and brick head, with two 1/1 sliding sashes to second floor. The left gable is abutted by an adjacent property, whilst the right gable is abutted by a lower building. The exposed section is cement rendered, with the neighbouring property's chimney abutting the gable and rising up the faience chimney on the right side.