3 Charlemont Square East, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

A two-and-a-half-storey terraced shop and house, built between 1862 and 1866 to designs by an unknown architect. The building has a rectangular plan facing southwest with a single-storey flat-roofed rear return.

This is one of five similar two-and-a-half-storey buildings originally designed with ground-floor shop fronts and dwellings above. Together with twenty-seven smaller terrace dwellings to the northwest, these form the eastern terrace of Charlemont Square, a formally designed mid-Victorian square comprising 66 buildings in total, arranged on three sides around a central green. The square is primarily accessed from Fountain Street to the southeast.

The walling is generally random-coursed rock-faced local Newry Granodiorite with red brick dressings. Stone cills and stepped red brick surrounds frame the shop front, door opening, and gauged-brick cambered window openings. The pitched roof is fibre cement with roll-top terracotta clay ridge tiles. A half-dormer window to the southwest elevation was rebuilt around 1998, as was the replacement rectangular-section red brick chimney to the northwest, which has four terracotta pots. Projecting eaves have painted timber facia and soffit; cast iron rainwater goods with half-round guttering discharge to circular-section downpipes, though guttering to the rear elevation and return is uPVC.

The front elevation abuts the public footpath. At the ground-floor level, there is a panelled painted timber door with glazed upper half leading to the private dwelling entrance, fitted with brass furniture, a modern painted metal safety shutter, and a semi-circular arched fanlight with plain glazing above. To the northwest, also at ground-floor level, is a painted timber shop front with a panelled painted timber door and glazed upper half with square-headed fanlight featuring two vertical glazing bars; this too now has a modern painted metal safety shutter. Above the shop front is a projecting painted moulded timber sign board displaying "B. McGinn Family Grocer est. 1968" with a large glazed panel below, set on replacement dwarf walling and supported by three painted timber corbels on fluted pilasters, with a corbelled painted timber cornice to the entablature. The facade displays a near-regular fenestration pattern with two windows at first-floor level and a half-dormer window to attic level (rebuilt around 1998 to replace a former inappropriate three-part box dormer). The windows are generally double-hung sliding timber sashes with 2/2 horizontal glazing bars and window horns.

The northwest elevation is attached to No. 4 Charlemont Square East. The northeast rear elevation faces northeast with two double-hung sliding timber sashes with vertical glazing bars and metal grills at first-floor level, two skylights to the pitched roof, and a full-width single-storey flat-roof rear return projecting to rear yard boundaries. The return has a felt roof and smooth rendered finish with two concrete steps in the rear access route leading to a blocked doorway at its centre. The ground-floor level has a smooth cement-rendered finish, with original stone walling above and some replacement stone walling evident at eaves level. The southeast elevation is attached to No. 2 Charlemont Square East.

As part of Charlemont Square East, the building forms part of a planned arrangement of 66 mill workers' dwellings and shops comprising a formal square with East, North, and West terraces arranged around a central green. Each house is set back from the perimeter public road and footpath with a modest front yard typically enclosed by dwarf walling topped by hooped metal railings. The East and West terraces are stepped in groups of two dwellings to respect the site's subtle relief. Larger rear yards are generally enclosed by random-coursed rubble stone walling with square-headed door openings onto a wide rear access route. Rear facades are much altered with various extensions of differing shapes and sizes. Front facades are nearly uniform along the East and West terraces, with the five larger buildings to the southeast of Charlemont Square East (including this one) and one to the southeast of Charlemont Square West generally having traditional shop fronts at ground-floor level with dwellings above. The northern terrace is the shortest at eight houses wide, comprising distinctly larger two-and-a-half-storey paired buildings. The central area of the square is now laid to lawn and enclosed by hooped galvanized metal railings with established trees at its boundary. A children's playground is located to the southeast, including a monument to the installation of electric lighting in 1911, while Bessbrook's War Memorial is centrally located to the southeast of the playground.