1-7 Helen’s Terrace, Orior Road, Newry, Co Down, BT35 6EN

This terrace of seven, two-storey houses with attics and semi-basements is located off Orior Road in Newry. Built between 1880 and 1899, the terrace was initially known as “Helen’s Place” and is referenced in valuation records from 1887, where each building was valued at £9.

The architectural style is generally simple, although the original detailing has been altered. The roofs are pitched and covered with artificial slates, with modern skylights added to the front pitch of each property. Only numbers 1, 2, and 6 retain their original decorative ridges. Rainwater goods are a mix of plastic and metal. Each property has a single, stepped red brick chimney with yellow banding and projecting yellow ender bricks to the coping, located on the party wall between the bays. The external walls are granite rubble, brought to courses, with brick quoins, eaves, and dressings. Stepped red brick is used for the quoins and eaves, with regular corbels of yellow ender bricks. All window and door openings are framed by stepped red brick jambs and soldier course heads.

Modern doors are present at the main entrance on the ground floor left of each house. Number 2 features a large, modern porch with a hipped roof supported by reproduction Ionic columns, while number 5 has a similarly styled porch with cement-rendered walls and a modern door. All windows are modern, except for number 2, which retains original 1/1 sliding sash windows with horns.

The left gable of number 1 has a blocked-up doorway on the ground floor left and a circular attic window with red and yellow brick keystones to the cardinal points. The right gable has a similar attic window, along with windows centered on each floor below. A basement, exposed to the elevation due to the topography, contains a doorway with a painted timber door. The rear elevation also features a basement exposed by the sloping site, with two windows to ground and first floors on each property; numbers 6 and 7 have basement windows as well. Numbers 2, 3, and 5 have enlarged their rear left ground floor windows into doorways and added concrete steps leading up from the rear.

A common footpath runs along the front of the terrace, leading to narrow, individual front gardens that become progressively longer as the terrace continues. To the rear is an overgrown communal parking area, although number 1 has enclosed its plot.