65 Canal Street, Newry, Co Down, BT35 6JF

65 Canal Street, Newry, is the left-hand house of a distinctive pair of three-storey buildings with attic storeys, each containing three bays. Probably dating from the late 18th or early 19th century, it retains special architectural and historic interest enhanced by the presence of its near-identical neighbour.

The house has a pitched natural slate roof with skylights to front and back pitches, and a rendered chimney between the first and second bays from the left. The street-facing wall is constructed of squared granite rubble brought to courses, with a projecting finely dressed eaves course. Half-round metal gutters run along the front and back.

At ground floor level, the entrance occupies the right side, set within a semi-elliptical headed opening with vee-jointed ashlar jambs (now painted) and voussoirs featuring a keystone and imposts. The right jamb is shared with the coachway of the adjoining house. The entrance contains a stained timber door with six raised and fielded panels and a beaded muntin, flanked by a pair of granite Tuscan columns on square plinths supporting a moulded granite entablature. Above this is a radial timber fanlight. To the left on the ground floor is a slightly wider coach arch of similar profile and dress, though its head is now obscured by the timber fascia of the adjoining property. This arch contains a pair of painted tongue-and-groove sheeted doors. Between the front door and coach arch is a window opening now sheeted over, internally revealed to contain an 8/8 sliding sash window.

The first and second floors each contain three 6/6 sliding sash windows in line with the ground floor openings; the upper set is diminished in height. All window openings are trimmed with brick stepped to the jambs, with granite cills and cement-rendered reveals.

The left gable is abutted by a lower building; the exposed wall section is smooth cement-rendered with a small 2/2 sash window at attic level. The right gable forms the party wall with no. 63.

The rear elevation is constructed of unrendered random rubble granite. The right-hand bay is instepped slightly from the rest of the block. At ground floor left is a small link block adjacent to an original yard door opening, leading through to a one-storey hip-roofed annex of no architectural interest. Between the two openings is a 6/6 sliding sash window with stepped brick jambs and heads, cement-rendered reveals and granite cills. The left-hand bay contains spoked 3/6 sliding sash windows to the half landings between ground-first and first-second floors (both now in very poor condition), with a small semicircular fixed light illuminating the half landing between the second and attic floors. The two bays to the right each contain 6/6 sashes to both floors.

Bernard Scale's 1763 map of Armagh shows houses in this area, though they are drawn schematically and it is uncertain whether they represent the existing building or an earlier structure. The existing house is cited in the 1836 Valuation Book, owned by Samuel Ledlie and described as 20'6" by 31'6" by 37', with a further 8' wide section over the coach arch. On balance, the house is probably late 18th or early 19th century in date.