Convent of Mercy, Catherine St, Newry, Co Down, BT35 6JG

Convent of Mercy, Catherine Street, Newry

This is a fine example of the Lombardic Neo-Romanesque style, dating from around 1862, and by virtue of its scale forms the principal architectural focal point of Catherine Street. The landscaped gardens provide a formal setting for the building.

The main building is a three-storey structure with basement, seven bays wide and symmetrical in composition, built in coursed squared granite rubble that has been repointed. It stands on the east side of Catherine Street, set back from the street and separated from it by cast iron railings. The building is double-piled beneath a natural slate hipped roof with a central valley running parallel with the façade. The roof projects slightly beyond the first and seventh bays at either end. Overhanging eaves to the front elevation are supported by cast iron brackets — six between the windows of the central block, and two to each of the advanced end bays. Between basement and ground floor, the west-facing façade carries a projecting canted granite stringcourse.

There are three cement-rendered chimneys with overhanging concrete copings to the front pitch: one on the party wall between the second and third bays, a mirror of this between the fifth and sixth bays, and a third that is lower and deeper, positioned between the sixth and seventh bays. To the central valley rises a square-section louvred ventilator stack with a swept leaded pagoda roof topped by a cross finial. Single rendered and coped chimneys rise from the wall head to the right pitch, and three concrete-coped cement-rendered chimneys serve the rear pitch — the first breaking the ridge and continuing into the valley between the first and second bays as viewed from the rear, the second also breaking the ridge on the party wall between the fourth and fifth bays from the left, and the third being lower and centred behind the roof vent. Semicircular metal rainwater goods with cast iron downpipes are fitted to the inner cheeks of the advanced bays.

The main entrance occupies the central, fifth bay. A single granite step from the street leads to a granite-paved entrance platform enclosed to left and right by cast iron spear-headed railings set on an ogee-moulded ashlar granite plinth. The front door is a pair of modern three-panelled raised-and-fielded stained timber doors, flanked by squared three-quarter-attached granite pillars with coved capitals set on square plinths. Similarly detailed pilasters are set to each opening reveal, and between the pillars and pilasters are glazed sidelights with painted granite cills and painted rendered aprons on ashlar granite skirtings — the left-hand one incorporating a wrought iron bootscraper. The pillars and pilasters support a moulded granite entablature, above which is a semicircular radial cobweb fanlight with an outer ring of seven large glazed hoops, all set within a two-stepped semicircular-headed opening with painted stepped granite ashlar quoins and a painted stepped archivolt. The instepped reveals and intrados are similarly painted. A gilded and painted iron Celtic cross is fixed to the granite entablature.

All windows to the façade are painted timber sliding sashes without horns, with granite cills and stepped rendered jambs and archivolts. Those to the first floor share a continuous moulded granite cill course. To the left and right of the main entrance at ground floor are three equally spaced 6-over-6 radial-headed windows. To the first floor are seven equally spaced 6-over-6 windows aligned with those below, with radiused heads set within semicircular-headed openings whose heads are rendered. The seven second-floor windows, also in line with those below, are diminished in height, 6-over-6 with shouldered heads set within segmental-headed openings with rendered heads.

The advanced bays to left and right are mirror images of one another. Their windows follow the same pattern as the main block but are narrower, with very narrow central panes to each sash. At ground floor each advanced bay has a pair of 6-over-6 windows with radial-headed fanlights, all recessed within a semicircular-headed opening with rendered infilling. At first floor are two 9-over-6 windows with radial heads recessed within a similar rendered semicircular-headed opening, served by the continuous cill course from the main block. At second floor, pairs of 6-over-6 windows are recessed within rendered segmental-headed openings. The advanced bays also have V-channelled stepped render quoins to their corners, though not at basement level.

The basement wall matches the façade in materials and character. All basement windows are sliding sashes with granite cills and stepped brick jambs and heads with painted rendered reveals and intrados. From left to right: the left advanced bay has a tongue-and-groove sheeted painted timber door with a six-paned segmental-headed transom light above and a security grill, with a recessed bell push to the right of the door jamb. To the basement of the main block, left of the main entrance, are three 6-over-6 windows. Beneath the entrance platform, the supporting rendered walls have a glazed painted plywood door where the right wall meets the main building. To the right of the main entrance are three further windows as those to the left. The right advanced bay has a single 6-over-6 semicircular-headed window with similar detailing. The basement area passage is paved and reached by a flight of granite steps off the street to the left of the façade, enclosed at street level by cast iron spear-headed railings on an ogee-shaped ashlar granite plinth with urn-topped cast iron posts at each end. As the ground falls to the right, the railings and plinth step down accordingly. The gate to the left, leading to the basement steps, is flanked by similar posts and made up of matching spiked railings on a frame.

Flanking the entrance platform, alongside the urn-topped posts, is a pair of later elaborately scrolled cylindrical wrought iron entrance posts supporting a wrought iron overthrow archway emblazoned with CONVENT OF MERCY in gilt lettering and topped with wrought ironwork and a gilt cross. The entrance posts support a pair of wrought iron gates in a similar style; the right stile of the left gate rises high and terminates in a wrought iron cross.

The north elevation is abutted by two post-war buildings. The remaining wall is lined rendered, and centred to the second floor just below the eaves are a pair of painted timber segmentally-headed sliding sash windows — the left one 4-over-2 and the right one, which has a lower cill, 4-over-4. Both post-war extensions run parallel with the façade: the front one projects out to street level and the rear one sits slightly back from the rear elevation. Both have pitched natural slate roofs with boxed eaves and semicircular metal rainwater goods, with walls of rusticated concrete blockwork and cement wet-dashed left gables. The façade of the front block has a painted horizontal tongue-and-groove sheeted timber door with transom at ground floor left, and three modern six-paned windows to the remaining wall. To the first floor, aligned with the openings below, are four-paned casement windows, all with concrete cills and heads and modern security grills. The left gable of the front block is wet-dashed and without openings; the right gable matches the façade. The rear elevation was not inspected. The rear block fronts the rear elevation and is exposed to basement level; neither basement nor ground floor were inspected, and there are four windows to each floor as in the front block. The exposed gable is wet-dashed with two windows to the first floor right and similar fenestration to the second floor. The rear wall appears to have a similar opening configuration. It is believed the front and rear blocks are linked at ground floor by a flat-roofed corridor.

The rear elevation basement sits at ground level owing to the sloping topography of the site. The wall is coursed rubble granite as the façade, with a similar basement stringcourse, but without advanced bays. There are ten openings to each floor. All windows are sliding sashes with rendered jambs and heads and granite cills. At basement level there are eight 6-over-6 windows, with the sixth and tenth openings being doorways. The sixth is a painted timber-and-glass door leading to a single-storey rendered porch, which is flat-roofed behind a rendered blocking course with painted lined render walls, rendered pilasters to each corner, and a 2-over-1 semicircular-headed margin-paned painted timber sliding sash window with horns and a granite cill to the front. A second similar window is to the left cheek. To the right cheek is a four-panelled painted timber door with semicircular-headed fanlight over. The tenth opening is a doorway obscured by a porch with a monopitched natural slate roof falling to the right; its rear gable is smooth rendered and painted, and its right cheek is unpainted rendered. The rear wall of this porch has a doorway with steps leading to a cloister that encloses the rear garden. The right cheek has a pair of cast iron lancet-headed windows. Between the two porches is a niche containing a statue.

The ten ground-floor windows at the rear are 6-over-6 with radial heads, with the exception of the sixth window from the left over the porch, which is stained glass. The seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth windows are additionally margin-paned for decorative effect. To the first floor are ten 6-over-6 windows aligned with those below but diminished in height. Those to the second floor are identical but further diminished.

The right elevation is abutted to its centre by a two-storey link to the chapel. The remaining wall is painted and rendered with façade quoins to the left painted over. The exposed basement to the left of the façade is without openings, and to the right is a modern timber canted bay window with a felt roof. To the ground floor left is a narrow sliding sash window with a radial head detailed as those to the right advanced bay at ground floor of the façade, with similar windows above at first and second floor left. To the ground floor right, over the canted bay, is a 6-over-6 sliding sash with a radial head, and to its left a smaller 4-over-4 sliding sash with a radial head. To the first floor right is a 6-over-6 sliding sash as those to the same level at the rear, and to the second floor is a similar window. To the second floor centre, over the link block, are five window openings: the two to the left are tall 4-over-4 sliding sashes with segmental heads, and the three to the right are small 4-over-2 sliding sashes.

The rear garden is formal and symmetrical, lawned with three levels of mature flowerbeds linked by flights of granite steps flanked by decorative urns. At the top level is a subterranean well with steps down. The bottom level contains a small graveyard centred on a large granite Celtic cross. All graves are marked by Celtic crosses in wrought iron and enclosed by a chamfered ashlar granite plinth supporting attractive cast and wrought iron railings. The cloister to the right boundary of the garden steps down the hill with the garden. It has a pitched natural slate roof with semicircular metal rainwater goods. Its right wall and end gable at the bottom of the garden are rendered masonry, and its left cheek is open, supported by chamfered painted timber posts on granite blocks. The eaves carry painted vertical tongue-and-groove boards, each cut to a point for decorative effect. The floor of the cloister is a chequerboard of cream and brown terracotta tiles, and the steps are granite.

The building does not appear on the Ordnance Survey town map of 1835 but is present on the 1863 map, confirming a mid-19th century construction date of around 1862. The Valuation Book of 1863 describes it as the Convent of Mercy, recording the principal building as measuring 33.5 yards by 17 yards over three storeys plus basement. A one-storey chapel is also mentioned in the valuation, though it must have been contained within the main block, as nothing additional is shown on either the 1861 or 1873 town maps at the location where the present chapel now stands. The Valuation Revision Book notes that from 1865 part of the convent was used as a school, comprising two classrooms, a library, and a corridor. The present chapel appears on the 1903 town map, cited as Emmanuel R.C. Church, and was therefore built sometime between 1873 and 1903, with the internal style suggesting a date of around 1900. The convent and chapel were delisted and separately relisted in July 2001.