71 Hill Street, Newry, Co Down, BT34 1DG

71 Hill Street, Newry

This four-storey building with attic space stands on the east side of Hill Street and contains two properties. It is a classically styled rendered structure, five window openings wide, with a pitched natural slated roof and two chimney stacks rising to the gable ends. The facade features a parapet gutter with metal downpipes.

The ground floor is the most distinctive element. Six fluted tapering Doric demi-columns, resting on squared plinths, separate three doorways and two shop windows across the full width. A painted timber fascia board with moulded cornice, supported by these columns, runs the entire length of the ground floor. At the centre of the fascia is a plaque reading: "Nos.71-73 Hill St / Site of the former Theatre Royal, / open 1783 / 1144 - 1994".

The left doorway and shop front (no.75) has a four-panelled timber door with two plain glass transom lights above, set at a lowered level—the second transom has been inserted to accommodate the reduced door height. The shop window beside it is a single pane with a roller shutter box attached just below the fascia.

The central shop front (no.71) to its left features a two-paned window divided by a mullion, with infilled transoms and a roller shutter box above. The right doorway (leading to the upper floors of no.73) is marked by a projecting plastic sign fixed over the transom between the columns.

Nos.71/73 has a pair of two-panelled doors accessed via two granite steps. The right doorway (four-panelled with transom over) ascends two granite steps to reach the upper floor access.

To the upper floors, pilasters separate each opening and rise to parapet level. Each pilaster rests on a moulded plinth, has a moulded abacus, and is topped with an ornate Grecian-style capital.

The first floor contains five equally spaced 6/6 sliding sash windows with no horns. Each has a deeply moulded architrave, a Greek-key frieze, and a moulded cornice, with the window cill forming the plinth over the fascia.

The second floor has five window openings of diminishing height. Four of these are 6/6 sliding sash windows with no horns, while the first and second windows from the left are 1/1. All have deeply moulded architraves and plain render cills meeting the pilasters to either side. The pilasters terminate in Grecian capitals at the level of the second-floor window heads.

Resting on these capitals is a fascia composed of three broad bands of smooth render, which step outward as they rise. The cill of the third floor sits on the top band.

The third floor contains five equally spaced 3/3 sliding sash windows with no horns, all aligned with the openings below. Between these windows, in line with the pilasters below, are raised piers each featuring an instepped panel. These piers rise to parapet level and are topped with decorative semicircular antefixae with open anthemion to the centre. Between the window head and parapet head are raised render bands supporting a projecting overhanging cornice, which projects over each pier.

The upper storeys have rendered walls painted to the facade. The right elevation is abutted by a neighbouring property up to second-floor level. The remaining walls feature line render with a banded chimney to the gable. The front side of the left elevation has a single 3/3 sliding sash window with a render cill at the third floor level.

The right and left elevations have been treated with recent lined cement render.