43 Kilmorey Street, Newry, Co Down, BT34 2DF

43 Kilmorey Street, Newry

This is one of a terrace of five identical two and a half storey, two bay houses built between 1860 and 1879, fronting directly onto the west side of Kilmorey Street. The terrace forms part of a cohesive group of modest High Victorian houses characterised by ornate detailing to openings and eaves, one of several such terraces along the street that together greatly enhance the character of this part of the town. The building was first recorded in the 1878 valuation revision book as vacant, indicating it had recently been completed, and was occupied by the following year.

The house has a gabled natural slate roof with an ornate chimney at the right end of the apex comprising three separate square-based flues of square cross-section, all conjoined by an oversailing cap. The walls are cement rendered over a projecting base course, embellished with incised lines on the ground floor. A moulded cill course runs across the façade at first floor window level. At the top of the façade, four pairs of brackets support a deep projecting eaves course on which sits a leaded rainwater gutter, with a narrow moulded string course connecting each pair of brackets at their bases.

A gabled timber-framed dormer window rises from the eaves, featuring fretted bargeboards and a carved wooden finial. The dormer contains a 2/2 top-hung window to the front with a circular vent above and glazed cheeks.

The main entrance is positioned at the left and comprises a stained timber door with four raised and fielded panels and a transom light above. It is set within an ornate stucco surround featuring a distinctive geometric panel in the middle of each jamb. At the top of the jambs are two corbelled colonettes supporting an entablature, in the middle of which is a raised panel embossed with "19". To the right of the entrance is a 2/2 horizontally-divided sliding sash window with a painted cill. Two 2/2 vertically-divided windows are positioned at first floor level, aligned with the ground floor openings. The window openings have ornate stucco architraves embellished with rosettes in the middle of the jambs and keystoned heads. The windows and door are modern replacements.

The right gable is abutted by an adjacent building. The left gable is cement rendered with two supporting buttresses, evidence of a previously demolished terrace of houses that once stood there. The rear wall is cement rendered.

Internally, there is a 2/2 top-hung window to the half landing between ground and first floor, and an identical window to the first floor back room. Three skylights serve the rear pitch of the roof.