9 St. Colman’s Park, Newry, Co Down, BT34 2BX

9 St. Colman's Park, Newry

A three-storey granite terraced house with basement, built in the early 19th century as part of a significant mid-19th century town planning scheme. The building dates from between 1820 and 1839, and is now in office use.

The house forms the second property from the top of a seven-building terrace that slopes down St. Colman's Park. All properties in the terrace are of identical construction with pitched natural slate roofs and squared rubble granite walls brought to courses. The building is two bays wide on its street elevation.

The street façade is of considerable architectural merit within the cohesive terrace that forms one side of the square. The ground floor features a four-panel painted timber door at right with a small rectangular stained glass transom light above. The door jambs and head are cement-rendered brick with a moulded architrave, and scrolled consoles support a projecting entablature at the top of the jambs. A boot scraper stands just to the right of the door. To the left is an 8/8 sliding sash window with a 3/3 basement window beneath it, protected by a metal security grille. The basement walls have been rendered. The first floor contains two 6/6 sliding sash windows aligned with the ground floor openings, while the second floor has three smaller 3/3 sash windows. All windows have granite cills, cement-rendered heads, and stepped brick jambs. Three-piece keystoned lintels cap the ground and first floor window heads. Wrought iron railings featuring cast-iron urn-topped posts run along the top of the basement passage at front and along the exposed side of the entrance, sitting above a chamfered granite plinth. Similar railings front the other houses in the terrace and the corner block fronting John Mitchel Place.

The building is stepped down slightly from number 7 and sits at the same height as number 11. Both gables are abutted by adjoining houses. A rendered chimney sits on the left party wall, with half-round metal gutters that share a downpipe with number 7 to the right.

At the rear, walls are cement-rendered to basement and ground floors, with unrendered stone above. Half-round metal rainwater goods run the length of the elevation. A single-storey extension with monopitch natural slate roof abuts at ground floor left, connecting the main block to an outbuilding at the back of the yard. This extension has cement-rendered walls with windows and door to the yard, and skylights in the roof. An outside passage runs across the basement at right, lit by a 6/6 sliding sash window. Ground and first floors have 6/6 sash windows at right, with a 3/3 sash on the top floor. At left, a 3/3 sash window lights the half-landing between ground and first floors, and a 6/6 sash lights the half-landing between first and second floors. Window opening faces are trimmed with unrendered, stepped brick, and some openings have three-piece keystoned lintels above their brick heads similar to the street elevation.

The outbuilding, forming part of a continuous block running the length of the terrace, is two storeys high with a gabled roof. Natural slates cover the outside north-facing slope, with asbestos slates on the yard pitch. Walls are unrendered rubble granite brought to courses with plastic rainwater goods. On the north elevation at left is a brick-trimmed semi-elliptical arch, now infilled with a modern metal-clad door and metal security door over. Directly above at first floor is a loading door opening, infilled with brick and a modern window with metal security grille. Narrow ventilation slits at right on each floor are now infilled. Both gables are abutted by similar outhouses. On the yard elevation, a one-storey link block abuts at right, with cement-rendered walls above and unrendered rubble granite below. Modern top-hung plastic windows with metal security grilles sit at ground and first floor left.

Historical Context

The terrace was initiated as part of mid-19th century town planning by James McAllister, who also erected the corner block at John Mitchel Place. The 1835 Ordnance Survey map shows the building as part of "McAllister's Terrace", which also included numbers 1, 3, and 5 (above number 7), now demolished. The 1835 valuation records it as belonging to James McAllister but unfinished, suggesting it was still under construction at that date, though likely completed shortly thereafter. By 1863, the property was recorded as a police barracks, a function it retained through 1899. The building is situated within a conservation area and is notable as an example of early 19th century terraced housing and local planning initiative.