North Lodge, 53 Downshire Road, Newry, Co Down, BT34 1EE

North Lodge

North Lodge is one of a pair of two-storey detached houses on the east side of Downshire Road. Originally two bay in plan, the building has since been extended with various additions. It is set back from the main road.

Principal Façade

The principal façade faces west towards Downshire Road. The walls are painted wet dash with a smooth render basecourse and stepped quoins. The roof is hipped with artificial slate covering, clay ridge and hip tiles, and a rendered chimney rises behind the ridge on the rear pitch. Semicircular metal rainwater goods are fitted throughout.

Ground floor windows are centred on this elevation. A pair of narrow fixed pane windows with coloured leaded transoms (circa 1900) occupy the centre, with roll moulded stop-end chamfered timber frames and a shared common painted cill. To left and right are single 1/1 sliding sashes with horns and painted granite cills. Above at first floor level are three equally spaced 1/1 sashes, each half the height of those on ground floor. There is no door on the principal façade.

Left Elevation and Additions

The left elevation of the main block is abutted by a two-storey lean-to. The exposed section of the main block matches the façade treatment with stepped quoins but contains no openings. The right gable of the lean-to faces the road and is painted lined render. This gable contains the main entrance, accessed by a single granite step. The door is four panelled and painted, with a beaded muntin, raised and fielded panels, and ornate Victorian brass furniture. Above the door is a modern glass transom, all set within an exposed timber frame resting on painted granite plinths. A modern coach lamp is positioned at doorhead level to the left.

Right Elevation and Annexe

The right elevation of the main block is abutted at ground floor by a single storey annex stepped back from the façade. The exposed section of the main block to the left is wet dashed with stepped quoins. The wall at first floor level is smooth cement rendered with no openings.

The annex has a pitched artificial slate roof running parallel with the side of the house, with a plain timber bargeboard to its façade gable. Its walls are painted lined render. The façade gable contains a pair of 1/1 sliding sash windows with horns sharing a common granite cill. The side wall forms the boundary with the adjacent property. The rear gable is abutted by a return at the rear.

Rear Elevation and Returns

The rear elevation of the main block is abutted on the right by a two-storey return. The exposed wall of the main block is wet dashed with a smooth render basecourse. Ground floor left has two top-hung modern timber windows, and first floor right has a modern three-pane timber window. The return itself has a natural slate roof with wet dashed walls and a blank end gable.

The right cheek of this return is a continuation of the left elevation of the main block. This elevation contains four windows to ground floor; all except that at the right are top hung with painted concrete cills. Between the third and fourth windows from the left, the wall is indented to accommodate side gates. At the right end of the lean-to is a fixed pane window set inside a sliding sash box with stained glass pieces depicting a Bishop glued onto the inside surface. The first floor has three equally spaced top hung timber windows similar to those on ground floor.

The left cheek of the return has a modern timber and glass door with modern transom at ground floor left, and two modern timber casements to the remaining wall. The first floor has two modern top hung windows with granite cills, positioned roughly in line with the ground floor windows.

At the left, abutting the rear of the single storey annex, is a two-storey return with pitched natural slate roof and rendered chimney to the party wall with the annex. Its walls are painted smooth render. The gable and left cheek are blank. The right cheek has a tongued and grooved sheeted door with two paned transom to ground floor left and a 6/6 sliding sash window with horns and granite cill to the right. The first floor has a 1/1 sliding sash window with horns and painted granite cill, positioned in line with the ground floor window.

Setting and Outhouses

To the front is a mature garden with mature trees and shrubs. To the rear is a yard containing a long two-storey outhouse, now converted into a games room, with pitched natural slate roof and painted rubble walls. Behind it are the remains of two low outhouses, possibly once used for domestic animals. Land to the rear, now under separate ownership, was once the orchard to this property.