23 College Square East, Bessbrook, Co Armagh

Two-storey, two-bay late-Victorian end-of-terrace house built around 1883 to designs by an unknown architect, though possibly designed by civil engineer John Hardy. The building has an L-plan form facing southwest with a two-storey extension to the rear added around 2003.

Number 23 College Square East forms part of a formal late-Victorian planned development of twenty-three similar houses on the eastern side of College Square. This wider scheme comprises 53 dwellings in total arranged on three sides around a central bowling green and playground, primarily accessed from Fountain Street to the southeast. The arrangement includes Bessbrook Town Hall to the southeast.

The house is constructed of generally random-coursed, rock-faced local Newry Granodiorite walling with stepped red brick dressings to jambs and painted stone cills. Door and window openings are square-headed with gauged brick lining. The pitched roof is covered with fibre cement tiles and finished with roll-top black clay ridge tiles. A replacement rectangular-section chimney to the northwest, rebuilt in rustic red brick, carries two terracotta clay pots. The eaves are flush with separate red and buff brick courses and an alternating red and buff brick corbel course above. Guttering is replacement uPVC with half-round profile discharging to circular section downpipes.

The principal front elevation facing southwest is near-symmetrical and flush with the rest of the terrace. A modest paved front yard is enclosed by replacement dwarf rustic red brick walling with a painted metal scrollwork foot 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. The door has a single segmental arched glazed panel to the upper half and a square-headed fanlight above. The facade has regular fenestration with two windows to first-floor level in line with ground-floor openings; all windows are top-opening timber casement windows.

The northwest elevation has a roughcast cement rendered finish with a chimney rising to the roof apex and painted timber bargeboard. Top-opening timber casement windows appear to both first and ground floor levels, with a single window to ground floor of the rear return.

The northeast elevation has limited visibility but shows rock-faced random-coursed stone walling where visible. Access to the rear northeast-facing elevation is through a painted timber door from the rear access route. From the northwest end of the facade, a two-storey pitched roof rear return projects northeast into the rear yard. This is abutted on its southeast by a single-storey monopitched roofed covered area. The rear yard is reduced in width at its southeast extent with a single window visible to first-floor level facing northeast. The rear return has a three-part casement window to its northeast gable. A flat-roofed outbuilding stands at the northern corner of the rear yard. The rear elevation generally has roughcast cement rendered finish with slim concrete cills and timber casement windows. The building is attached to Number 22 College Square East to the southeast.

College Square itself represents a planned arrangement of fifty-three mill workers' dwellings forming a formal square composed of 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 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 western terrace comprises paired dwellings in similar style. Rear yards to each dwelling are enclosed by random-coursed rubble stone walling with square-headed door openings onto a wide rear access route. Front facades are nearly uniform along the eastern terrace.

The central area of the square is now divided into three sections laid to lawn. The northwest section has 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 occupies the centre. These monuments commemorate long-serving company employees, James N. Richardson's garden gift to the children of Bessbrook in 1927, and the history of Bessbrook Mill from the Pollock family's ownership in 1760 to Bessbrook Spinning Company Limited in 1878.