1 Trevor Hill, Newry, Co Down, BT34 1DN

1 Trevor Hill, Newry

A three-storey townhouse with basement and attic, built between 1770 and 1775 by Andrew Thompson, a Newry merchant with warehouses on Merchants Quay. The building stands in a terrace on the east side of Trevor Hill and is a substantial example of late 18th-century domestic architecture, though its conversion to restaurant and night club use has substantially compromised its original character.

The granite façade is five openings wide with a symmetrical design. The roof is double pitched and naturally slated with a central valley and hipped stairwell roof to the centre of the rear pitch. Four chimneys, all cement rendered with projecting coping and pots, rise from the front gables, ridge, and rear eaves. Metal semicircular guttering sits on modern timber eaves fascia.

At ground floor, four granite steps rise to the central entrance, which has a pair of modern two-panel fielded doors surmounted by a semicircular Y-tracery timber fanlight with voussoired head and projecting keystone. Flanking the door are two three-paned sidelights with granite cills and heads. To the left of the entrance are two windows; to the right, a single window. At the far right stands a pair of modern framed and sheeted timber doors with glazed lights in their upper section, set within a segmental-headed coach arch with granite voussoirs and projecting keystone. Basement openings are obscured by planters. All windows to the façade are inappropriate modern painted 6/6-paned sashes with top-hung transoms and granite cills.

At first-floor centre is a Venetian window comprising a central Y-tracery head over a 6/6 window, with granite posts separating three-paned fixed sidelights topped by cyma-recta moulded granite cornices. The Y-tracery window sits within a voussoired-headed opening with projecting keystone. Two windows flank this composition to left and right, aligned with ground-floor openings below. At second floor, the centre of the façade features a segmental-headed six-paned fixed window with Y-tracery head, with two windows to left and two to right, diminished in height but aligned with openings below.

Modern plain metal spiked railings enclose the front steps and basement area, resting on a granite dwarf wall. Two modern wrought-metal signage posts rise from the railings at the base of the front steps.

The rear elevation shows the original building now abutted by a large modern extension filling the entire back yard and incorporating an outhouse. The original back wall features a central projecting stairwell with hipped roof. Nearly all rear openings have been widened to provide internal balconies. One original four-over-two sliding sash window remains on the extreme left at second-floor level, but has been blocked from inside.

Historical photographs and survey material document the building's original appearance. The eaves were originally cyma-recta moulded masonry. Windows were originally sliding sashes: ground-floor windows were 6/1, first-floor windows were 6/6, and second-floor windows were 6/3. The dog-legged staircase was lit by a 19th-century stained glass window. Interior plans record basement stairs below the main staircase and corner fireplaces at ground-floor right. The front hall and stair hall featured dentilled cornices; the stair hall had a dado rail. Original panelled doors had moulded and eared architraves. The front left room had a moulded dentilled cornice. The original front door, which survives, comprises eight raised and fielded panels arranged as three bottom panels, three middle panels, and two horizontal top panels, with intact original doorframe and three-paned sidelights.

Andrew Thompson, who erected the building, was a merchant and served as Captain of the Newry Rangers mounted Volunteer Corps in the 1790s. His son John was shot and killed in a duel at Violet Hill, Newry, on 11 October 1793. Valuation records from the 19th century document no significant alterations to the building's structure. A survey slide from 1969 shows the building already possessed its present modern roof with overhanging timber eaves by that date.

The conversion of the interior to restaurant and night club use has resulted in the loss of practically all original room divisions and the replacement of original windows and doors to the façade, significantly detracting from the building's quality despite its imposing granite construction and fine granite surrounds to the openings.