1 College Square West, Bessbrook, Co.Down

One College Square West is a two-storey, two-bay late-Victorian mill workers' end terraced house built around 1874 in local stone, possibly to designs by civil engineer John Hardy. The building forms part of the western terrace of College Square, a formally planned late-Victorian housing development of 53 dwellings arranged on three sides around a central bowling green and playground.

The house is constructed of random-coursed rock-faced local Newry Granodiorite walling with stepped red brick dressings to jambs and painted stone cills. It has an L-plan form with a two-storey rear return added around 1992. The front northeast-facing principal elevation is organised symmetrically with paired dwellings throughout the terrace, each pair flanked by raised roof verges in red brick with clay tile coping that rise to rectangular section chimneys. Stepped red brick quoins and recessed downpipes continue this verge line vertically down each front facade. The roof is pitched with fibre cement tiles and roll-top black clay ridge tiles. The northwest-facing chimney, rebuilt in rustic brick, carries six terracotta clay pots. Flush eaves feature a double red brick course, a single buff brick course, and an alternating red and buff brick corbel course above.

The front elevation has regular fenestration with two windows to first-floor level aligned with ground-floor openings. All windows are double-hung 1/1 sliding timber sash with horns. Ground-floor windows and door have stepped red brick surrounds and gauged brick arches with flush keystone detail to the head. A modest front garden is enclosed by dwarf red brick walling topped with hooped painted metal railings and has a similar foot gate. A concrete path leads to a painted panelled timber door with two glazed panels to its upper half, brass furniture, and a square-headed fanlight above.

The southeast elevation abuts a public walkway and consists of a two-storey gabled block to the northeast and a two-storey rear return to the southwest, finished in roughcast cement render with no visible openings. The southwest elevation has limited access but shows a single reduced bay with uPVC top opening casement windows aligned between ground and first-floor levels, a two-storey return projecting into an enclosed L-shaped concrete rear yard, and an uPVC facia. Rear boundary walling is of roughcast cement render with a painted sheeted timber door serving the rear access route.

The building is set within College Square, which comprises three terraces of mill workers' dwellings arranged around a central bowling green, playground, and lawn. Each house is set back from the perimeter public road with a modest front yard typically enclosed by dwarf walling and hooped metal railings. Rear yards are enclosed by random-coursed rubble stone walling with square-headed door openings onto a wide rear access route. The central area of the square includes a bowling pavilion and green to the northwest, an enclosed lawn to the southeast, and an open children's playground in the centre, the latter featuring three granite monuments recording local figures and the mill's history.