22 Charlemont Square East, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

Two-storey two-bay mid-Victorian terraced house built between 1862 and 1866 to designs by an unknown architect. The building forms one of twenty-seven similar houses comprising the eastern terrace of Charlemont Square, a formally designed mid-Victorian square of 66 buildings in total arranged on three sides around a central green. The square was constructed as planned mill workers' dwellings and shops, primarily accessed from Fountain Street to the southeast.

The house is built of generally random-coursed rock-faced local Newry Granodiorite walling with red brick dressings. Stone cills and stepped red brick surrounds frame gauged-brick cambered door and window openings, although window heads are generally now squared off with bands of painted smooth cement render to the surrounds. The pitched roof is covered with fibre cement tiles with angled black clay ridge tiles. A rectangular-section red brick chimney to the northwest has a single black clay pot. Flush eaves feature a red brick corbel course with half-round guttering discharging to circular section downpipes. Metal rainwater goods serve the main building, with uPVC to the rear return at the northeast.

The principal southwest-facing elevation is nearly symmetrical and flush with the main terrace, set back narrowly from the larger shop buildings at its southeastern end. A modest paved front yard enclosed by smooth render dwarf walling topped with hooped metal railings provides access. A concrete path leads from a painted metal foot gate to a six-panelled painted timber door positioned to the southeast of the facade, which has a semi-circular glazed section to its top and black iron door furniture. A rectangular fanlight sits above the door. A single window is positioned to the northwest side. The facade has a regular fenestration pattern with two windows at first-floor level aligned with ground-floor openings, all featuring double-hung 1/1 sliding timber sash windows with horns and exposed sash boxes.

The building is attached to No. 24 Charlemont Square East on the northwest and to No. 21 Charlemont Square East on the southeast. The northeast-facing rear elevation is enclosed by rock-faced random-coursed stone walling to a boundary of concrete yard accessed through a planked painted timber door from the rear access route. At ground-floor level to the southwest end is an increased-width side opening casement window with replacement concrete cill. A double-hung sliding timber sash window occupies the centre elevation at first-floor level. A single-storey rear return projects northeast to the yard boundary walling with a flat felt-covered roof. The southeast side of the rear return has a panelled painted timber door with two glazed sections to its top half, a top-opening timber casement window to its right, and a separate boiler house accessed from the yard through a painted planked timber door. The boiler house appears to incorporate an earlier outbuilding retaining its original planked timber door, with the pattern of remaining lime wash suggesting it originally had a monipitch roof. The rear elevation generally has a smooth rendered finish with concrete cills and timber casement windows to ground-floor level, original stone walling retained at first-floor level, and the rear return finished in cement render with uPVC rainwater goods.

Within Charlemont Square, terraces to the east and west are stepped in groups of two dwellings to respect the subtle relief of the site. Each dwelling typically has a larger enclosed rear yard with random-coursed rubble stone walling and a square-headed door opening onto a wide rear access route. Front facades are nearly uniform across the east and west terraces, with five larger buildings to the southeast of Charlemont Square East and one to the southeast of Charlemont Square West featuring traditional shop fronts at ground-floor level with dwellings above. The northern terrace comprises only eight houses and consists of distinctly larger two-and-a-half storey paired buildings. The central green is now laid to lawn and enclosed by hooped galvanized metal railings with some established trees at its boundary. A children's playground is located to the southeast together with a monument to the installation of electric lighting in 1911. Bessbrook's War Memorial is centrally located to the southeast of the playground.