Salvation Army Citadel, Trevor Hill, Newry, Co Down, BT34 1DN

Salvation Army Citadel, Trevor Hill, Newry

A two-storey hall with classical façade, set back from the east side of Trevor Hill within a railed forecourt. This is an early example of a non-conformist religious building still in related use, with a reasonably intact façade and setting, though the integrity of the building is diminished by its modern interior.

The building has a pitched artificial slate roof with a pedimented gable to the façade and metal rainwater goods. The façade walls are painted lime render. The ground floor features banded rustication, while the first floor is lined with stepped rendered quoins. Rendered pilasters rise from a platband at first floor level to support a plain frieze underneath a moulded cornice. The frieze carries the words "The Salvation Army". Above the cornice is a moulded pediment within which a modern Salvation Army logo has been affixed.

A single storey porch projects at the centre of the ground floor, with a flat roof and platband beneath (a continuation of the façade). Its walls are painted lined render. The wall facing the street contains a pair of square-headed panelled painted timber doors with lancet-shaped top panels. On each cheek of the porch is a small segmental-headed 1/1 sliding sash window with rendered painted cill. On either side of the porch, on the gable wall of the main block, is a segmental-headed 3/3 sash window, each with a moulded architrave and rendered cill. Placed in the three spaces between the pilasters at first floor are three tall semicircular-headed 4/4 sliding sash windows, each in line with the ground floor openings. These also have moulded architraves and painted cills.

The right elevation is cement rendered without openings. The back wall is cement dashed over a smooth rendered base and contains two 6/4 sash windows in semicircular-headed openings symmetrically placed, trimmed with granite and having granite cills. There is also a small louvred vent in the apex. The left elevation is identical to the right but is abutted at its left by a kitchen extension with a monopitch artificial slate roof and smooth rendered walls. The left cheek of this extension, in line with the back gable of the main block, contains a modern glazed timber door and semicircular-headed casement window. This extension is abutted by a smaller extension which has an artificial slate roof and a tall rendered chimney rising from it.

The front of the premises is bounded by cast iron railings with decorative iron corner posts over a coped rendered wall. The main entrance gates at the middle are flanked by plain rendered painted piers. There is also a smaller entrance at the right with decorative cast iron posts.

Originally known as the Ebenezer Chapel, the building was erected in 1816 and is shown on the 1835 Ordnance Survey map. A 19th-century plan of Newry illustrating prominent buildings shows the building as it appears today but without the porch (it then had a stucco doorcase) and its pediment bears a plaque stating "Ebenezer chapel". The 1861 Ordnance Survey map shows a school house a short distance east of the premises, now gone, which was financed by a levy of one penny to four pence per week on each pupil and £10 per year from the congregation. No porch is shown on the chapel on the 1873 Ordnance Survey map, so this is clearly a later addition. This map also shows a small return at the east end of the north wall, where the present rear porch stands. In 1908 the Salvation Army moved into the chapel, where they have remained since.