1 Charlemont Square East, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

No. 1 Charlemont Square East is a two-and-a-half-storey, eight-bay end-of-terrace corner building, originally constructed between 1862 and 1866 as a shop and temperance hotel. It is the largest of the 66 buildings that make up Charlemont Square, a formally planned mid-Victorian square in the village of Bessbrook, County Armagh. The architect is unknown. The building is currently in use as a shop and post office at ground floor level.

ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION

The building has an irregular L-shaped plan. The principal block faces southwest across Charlemont Square and is three bays wide and five bays deep, with a canted corner bay at its southeastern end that faces south and carries a clock. Attached to the southeast of the main block, and extending eastward along Fountain Street, is a single-storey, flat-roofed block of triangular plan, which now houses Bessbrook Post Office.

Walling throughout is generally in random-coursed, rock-faced local Newry Granodiorite (a granite quarried from the former Charlemont Estate), with red brick dressings. Details include brick quoins, stone sills, stepped red brick surrounds to the shop front and door openings, and gauged-brick cambered heads to window openings. The roof is pitched and finished in fibre cement with roll-top and angled terracotta clay ridge tiles; the original natural slate has been replaced, which detracts somewhat from the building's character. There are two half-dormer windows to the southwest elevation fitted with plain replacement bargeboards, and two further half-dormers to the southeast elevation that retain their original lobed painted timber bargeboards. A replacement rectangular-section red brick chimney to the northwest carries five buff clay pots. Eaves project with painted timber fascia and soffit. Rainwater goods are generally uPVC with half-round guttering and circular-section downpipes, though some original cast iron rainwater goods survive to the triangular rear block.

Upper-floor windows are typically double-hung sliding timber sash windows with horizontal glazing bars and window horns. At ground floor level, the shop windows are arched fixed-light panes set within square-headed openings, now fitted with modern security shutters.

PRINCIPAL (SOUTHWEST) ELEVATION

The front elevation abuts the public footpath and faces southwest onto Charlemont Square. It is near-symmetrical, with two half-dormer windows at roof level, three wider timber sash windows at first-floor level, and two separate four-part shop windows at ground floor level. The shop windows are framed by painted timber segmental arcading, above which runs a continuous painted timber signboard with a two-stage dentilated cornice, currently displaying signage for a beauty clinic called 'Perfections'. The canted corner bay to the right-hand (southeast) side faces south and features a double-leaf planked square-headed timber door at ground floor level, which opens onto two granite steps. Above the door is a sandstone plaque with no legible inscription. At first-floor level, the circular clock face — made by Smith's of London — is set within a sandstone surround composed of a circular moulding within a square field.

NORTHWEST ELEVATION

The building is attached on the northwest to No. 2 Charlemont Square East.

NORTHEAST (REAR) ELEVATION

The rear elevation faces northeast. The large two-and-a-half-storey gabled block at the southeastern end extends to a rear access route and has no openings on its northeast-facing wall; two windows at first-floor level face northwest. Abutting this gabled block to the southeast is the single-storey flat-roofed triangular-plan block, which extends to the rear access route with a single window opening to its northeast elevation. A single-storey mono-pitched extension with a skylight is attached to the northwest of the two-and-a-half-storey block and extends from the northeast elevation to the rear site boundary; it has a painted steel plate door. Above the mono-pitched extension at first-floor level is a single sliding timber sash window with exposed sash boxes and window horns. The rear walling is generally original random-coursed rock-faced stone with stone quoins, though modern galvanised metal grills have been fitted to the windows. The triangular plan block retains a circular-section downpipe and a polygonal hopper.

SOUTHEAST ELEVATION

This elevation forms the southeastern end of Charlemont Square East and abuts the public footpath. The projecting single-storey triangular-plan block at ground floor level faces south with a parapet to its flat roof. Behind it, the two-and-a-half-storey block faces southeast with five sash windows at first-floor level, two dormers at roof level, and a skylight to the centre of the roof.

The triangular block has two doorways on its south-facing facade. To the eastern end, the doorway now leads to Bessbrook Post Office; it has a panelled painted timber door with two glazed upper panels, panelled and glazed sidelights, and a square-headed fanlight above. The door opens onto three granite steps, and is flanked by two-part arcaded fixed-light shop windows in square-headed openings. A 'GR' post box is positioned to the east of this door. To the western end of the south facade is a second doorway with a four-panelled painted timber door with a half-moon shaped light to its upper section and a semi-circular-arched fanlight above, with red and buff brick dressings to the head. This door opens onto a single granite step and is accompanied by a single three-part arcaded shop window to its west, set in a slightly canted section of walling.

INTERIOR

The building retains its original plan form and most of its original internal joinery.

SETTING

No. 1 Charlemont Square East is part of a planned arrangement of 66 mill workers' dwellings and shops forming a formal square made up of East, North, and West terraces arranged around a central green. Each house is set back from the perimeter road and footpath by a modest front yard typically enclosed by dwarf walling topped with hooped metal railings. The terraces on the east and west sides are stepped in groups of two dwellings to follow the subtle relief of the site. Each dwelling generally has a larger rear yard enclosed by random-coursed rubble stone walling, with a square-headed door opening onto a wide rear access route. Rear facades are much altered with extensions of various shapes and sizes.

The five larger buildings at the southeastern end of Charlemont Square East — of which this building is one — and one building at the southeastern end of Charlemont Square West generally have traditional shop fronts at ground floor level with dwellings above. The northern terrace is the shortest at only eight houses wide, though those buildings are distinctly larger two-and-a-half-storey paired structures. The central area of the square is now laid to lawn and enclosed by hooped galvanised metal railings with some established trees at its boundary. A children's playground is located to the southeast, which includes a monument to the installation of electric lighting in 1911. Bessbrook's War Memorial is centrally located to the southeast of the playground.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The development of industry at Bessbrook dates from 1761, when the first woollen mill and bleach green were opened by a Mr. John Pollock. The site was then known simply as 'The Green' but was renamed Bessbrook after Pollock's wife Elizabeth (known as Bess) and the nearby Camlough River. The first edition Ordnance Survey map of the 1830s records very little built development at Bessbrook at that time, with only Mount Caulfield House and a number of thread manufactories and bleach mills depicted.

The village of Bessbrook was effectively founded in 1845 when John Grubb Richardson (1813–1891), a linen merchant from Lambeg, purchased one of the derelict mills on the site and began building housing for his factory workers nearby. Richardson, in his own words, 'had a great aversion to be responsible for a factory population in a large town, so on looking around, fixed upon a place near Newry… with water power and a thick population around, and in a country district where flax was cultivated in considerable quantities.' He was a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and, according to historian R. Harrison, possessed a typical Quaker mix of pragmatic and altruistic expectation — providing jobs and good working conditions for his employees while hoping to improve their circumstances. Richardson's layout of the village was influenced by the work of William Penn, the American Quaker responsible for planning Philadelphia in the late 17th century.

Bessbrook was established in phases, beginning with the laying out of Fountain Street in the 1840s. Richardson brought the poor, the unqualified, and beggars from the surrounding countryside to work and live at Bessbrook. He established the village as a social experiment in which workers could both live and work in contentment. Bessbrook became widely known as a village without the 'Three Ps' — no Public House, no Pawn Shop, and therefore no need for Police to be stationed there. In exchange for keeping the village free of alcohol, Richardson provided recreational and educational facilities at the Institute, a number of well-stocked shops (located at Nos. 1–5 Charlemont Square East), and had milk, tea, and cocoa distributed to his mill workers. The strategy proved effective: the majority of the population voted to preserve the ordinance in the 1870s, and to this day there remains no public house at Bessbrook. Police were not stationed in the village until the turn of the 20th century.

In 1863, Richardson became the sole owner of the Bessbrook Spinning Company following the purchase of his brother's shares. The local linen industry experienced a boom during the American Civil War (1861–65), when access to American cotton was cut off. Richardson greatly enlarged his factory and increased his workforce in response. Lord Charlemont sold the remainder of the Camlough Estate to Richardson in 1865, making Richardson the principal landowner and main employer in Bessbrook by the mid-1860s.

Charlemont Square was laid out between 1862 and 1866 to accommodate the influx of new workers. Between 1861 and 1871 the population of Bessbrook rose from 637 to 2,215, and the number of houses from 73 to 296. C. E. B. Brett describes Charlemont Square as forming the centrepiece of the new developments. The two-storey and two-and-a-half-storey houses were built along three sides of an open green intended as a recreational space (the 1906 Ordnance Survey Town Plan depicted a tennis ground within it). The architect of the houses is not known with certainty; Brett suggests that John Hardy, a civil engineer appointed as company architect in 1881, may have carried out some work in Bessbrook in the 1860s, though his role may have been limited to the expansion of the mill buildings. The terraces were built by masons and joiners employed by the Bessbrook Spinning Company.

The stone used — Newry Granodiorite — was quarried locally from a quarry opened on the former Charlemont Estate. This granite is of high quality and was also used in the construction of Manchester Town Hall and the great steps of St. George's Hall in Liverpool.

Charlemont Square was not shown on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1861, but construction had commenced by 1862. In that year, Griffith's Valuation noted that Charlemont Square West (described as 'new row') was the only completed side of the square, though all 26 buildings along it remained unoccupied. The rest of the square was completed and occupied by at least 1866, according to the Annual Revisions.

Each house in Bessbrook was owned by the Bessbrook Spinning Company and contained between three and five rooms. Tenants were required to sign an agreement containing stipulations about the keeping of fowl and pigs (permitted in a pig-sty and fowl-run in the garden but not in the house or yard) and were obliged to send their children to school until they were old enough for mill work.

No. 1 Charlemont Square East was initially let by the Bessbrook Spinning Company to a Mr. James Weir and was valued at £25. Brett records that the building was originally used as the village's temperance hotel, though he suggests it may have been more of a boarding house. The 1906 Ordnance Survey Town Plan shows the building in its current layout, and an early 20th century photograph confirms that the shopfront on Fountain Street and the clock are original features.

The occupants changed frequently over the following decades. The 1911 Census of Ireland recorded the hotel as being operated by Ms. Mary Emma Darker and described it as a first-class hotel consisting of 13 rooms. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), the building was no longer in use as a hotel but was occupied as a private dwelling and shops, with a Mr. James Chambers recorded as occupant. The building's rateable value was increased to £40. The single-storey shop facing Fountain Street was at that time occupied by a Ms. Annie Bell.

During the Second World War, the mill workers at Bessbrook were tasked with supplying cloth for uniforms. The Bessbrook Spinning Company continued to own the housing in Bessbrook until the 1960s, when the dwellings along Charlemont Square began to be sold to private individuals and firms; the majority of the houses were purchased by C. R. Morrow, a local car and farm machinery dealer, around 1970. These sales were necessitated by the post-war downturn in the local textile market, which ultimately led to the closure of the mill in 1972, after which the building was occupied by the British Army. The Chambers family purchased No. 1 Charlemont Square East outright in 1968. Under the Second General Revaluation (1956–72), the building's value was further increased to £61, with the ground floor shop in use as the village post office.

No. 1 Charlemont Square East was listed in 1981 and was included within the Bessbrook Conservation Area, designated in 1983 in recognition of Bessbrook's historical significance as a planned mill village with a distinct form and character. The Conservation Area Guide notes that the carefully planned development of Bessbrook — including the uniform terraces at Charlemont Square and College Square — influenced the design of the English model villages at Saltaire (1852), Port Sunlight (1888), and Bourneville (developed by the Cadbury family from 1895), which 'have directly influenced town and country planning all over the world.' General repair work was carried out on the building around 1986. By the time of the second survey, the ground floor had been subdivided into two retail units, one of which continues to be used as the village post office.