20 College Square East, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

Two-storey two-bay late-Victorian terraced house, built around 1883 to designs by an unknown architect, though possibly by civil engineer Mr John Hardy. The building has a rectangular plan facing southwest with a single-storey extension to the rear added around 1983.

No. 20 is one of twenty-three similar houses forming the eastern side of College Square, a formally designed late-Victorian square of fifty-three dwellings in total. The square is arranged on three sides around a central bowling green and playground, with primary access from Fountain Street to the southeast.

The exterior walls are constructed of generally random-coursed rock-faced local Newry Granodiorite with stepped red brick dressings to jambs and painted stone cills. The door and window openings have square-headed gauged-brick surrounds. The pitched roof is covered with natural slate and topped with roll-top black clay ridge tiles. A rectangular-section red brick chimney on the northwest elevation has been rebuilt in rustic red brick and carries two terracotta clay pots. The flush eaves have separate red and buff brick courses with an alternating red and buff brick corbel course above.

The front elevation is nearly symmetrical and flush with the rest of the terrace. A modest-sized front garden is enclosed by smooth rendered dwarf walling topped by painted hooped metal railings, with a matching gate on slim posts to the southeast. A concrete path leads from the gate to a panelled painted timber door at the southeast end of the facade, featuring two glazed panels to its upper half, black iron furniture, and a square-headed fanlight above. The fenestration is regular: two windows at first-floor level in line with the main entrance door, and one window at ground-floor level. Double-hung 1/1 sliding timber sash windows with window horns face the front southwest elevation; the rear northeast elevation features top-opening timber casements.

To the northwest, the building is attached to No. 21 College Square East. The rear northeast-facing elevation, where visible, consists of a single-storey monopitched roof return projecting into the rear yard, with a timber casement window at first-floor level to the centre and a smaller window to its northwest. Random-coursed rock-faced yard boundary walling features a painted planked timber door with two steps leading to the rear access route. The original stone walling at first-floor level is topped by painted smooth render to the rear return. A flat-roofed outbuilding is visible at the northern corner of the yard. To the southeast, the building is attached to No. 19 College Square East.

The building forms part of a planned arrangement of mill workers' dwellings comprising a formal square with east, north, and west terraces arranged around a central bowling green, playground, and lawn. Each house is set back from the perimeter public road and footpath with a modest-sized front yard typically enclosed by dwarf walling topped by hooped metal railings. The eastern terrace is stepped in groups of six dwellings to respect the subtle relief of the site. The west terrace comprises paired dwellings in a similar style. Rear yards are enclosed by random-coursed rubble stone walling with square-headed door openings onto a wide rear access route. Bessbrook Town Hall (the old Institute building) is located to the southeast.

The central area of the square is now divided into three sections laid to lawn. The northwestern section contains a bowling pavilion and green enclosed by painted hooped metal railings with established trees at its northwest boundary. A lawn enclosed by hooped metal railings is located to the southeast, and an open children's playground with three granite monuments sits in the centre of the square.

Materials: Roof in natural slate; rainwater goods in uPVC and cast iron; walling in Newry Granodiorite; windows in timber sash and timber casement.