Moore Lodge, 58 Belfast Road, Newry, Co Down, BT34 1QQ

Moore Lodge is a substantial two-storey, U-plan house of around 1910–1915, designed in an Arts and Crafts style externally and fitted with a neo-Georgian revival interior typical of the Edwardian period. It was designed by S. Wilson Reside, a well-known Newry architect, and built for John Hunter Moore, who had been appointed agent to the Kilmorey Estate in 1908. Moore was the son of Jack Moore of Moore Lodge, Kilkeel, a family long employed as estate managers by the Kilmoreys of Mourne Park, Kilkeel. The house is first recorded in the Valuation revision book of 1915, and appears as Moore Lodge on the Ordnance Survey 6-inch map of 1919. A 'motor house' is also noted in the schedule at that date, indicating Moore's considerable prosperity. On the deaths of Mr and Mrs Hunter Moore, the property reverted to the Kilmoreys. The house sits in extensive mature grounds off the Belfast Road, with a gate lodge at the entrance.

Layout and Plan

The left part of the building is double-piled, with a gable return to the centre of the façade. Two rear returns are aligned north to south, one at each end. The principal elevation faces south.

Roofs and External Fabric

The pitched roofs are aligned west to east, clad in Rosemary tiles, and feature decorative terracotta finials, overhanging eaves with exposed rafter tails, and plain bargeboards. Rainwater goods are moulded cast iron with decorative hoppers. All chimneys are cement-dashed and rendered, with terracotta pots. There is a chimney to the centre of the front pile's ridge, one on the ridge of the front return, and one on each of the rear returns. The east pitch of the left rear return has two cast-iron skylights.

The walls are cement pebble-dashed, with an advanced cement-rendered base course, a moulded string course between ground and first floor, and small plain decorative panels at first-floor level on the façade.

South (Front) Elevation

The front elevation of the front pile is two bays wide, with the end gable of the front return forming a third bay to the right. All windows in these three bays are side-hung casements with transom lights above. Ground-floor windows are French windows; first-floor windows are diminished in height.

The left bay has a full-height bow window at ground floor, comprising six casement French windows with transoms and bowed dressed granite steps at ground (cill) level. The first floor above has a window of four casements.

The central bay has a pair of glazed French doors with transoms, matching sidelights, and two granite steps.

The right bay advances forward as a gable and has a bowed window at ground floor matching that of the left bay. The first floor has a window of three casements with transoms, standing taller than the other two first-floor windows. The narrow west cheek of this advancing front gable is blank. Its east cheek forms the end wall of the front pile, with a French window of four casements at ground floor and a window of three casements at first floor.

At this point, the right end of the rear pile becomes visible as a fourth bay, set back from the rest of the façade. Its south elevation has, at the far left, two granite steps serving a pair of two-panelled painted timber storm doors with decorative brass furniture. The bottom two panels are bolection-moulded and the top two are glazed with yellow obscured glass. At first-floor centre there is a window of two casements. Originally, a curving single-storey return at ground floor linked the rear pile with the right gable of the front pile; this no longer survives, though an early photograph held by Newry Museum records it. It was detailed to match the main house and had narrow tripartite casement windows; there is no visible door in the photograph, though there may have been one on the unseen cheek. If no front door existed here, the French windows to the central bay of the main façade may have served that purpose, as they lead into the lounge with the stairwell behind.

East Gable of the Rear Pile

Turning the right (east) corner, the east gable of the rear pile has two windows at ground floor, each containing a pair of casements, and a similar but smaller window at first-floor centre. This gable continues northward as the left cheek of the left rear return.

North (Rear) Elevation

The rear elevation is flanked at both ends by two-storey returns.

The left (east) return is two storeys high. Its east cheek has four 1-over-1 sliding sash windows at ground and first floors and is flush with the east gable of the rear pile. Its north gable has a 1-over-1 sliding sash window set to the right at first floor and a circular timber window at attic level. The ground floor is abutted by a flat-roofed addition with a tongue-and-groove sheeted door to the centre. The right (west), yard-facing cheek has a small window with a decorative grille above. The east cheek is blank. The west cheek of the left rear return cat-slides out slightly to its north end.

The ground floor of the main rear elevation is abutted centrally by two small lean-to returns under shallow roofs, detailed to match the rest of the rear returns and containing pantries. The exposed ground-floor sections at the far left and right ends each have a 1-over-1 sliding sash window. There are two 1-over-1 sliding sashes at first floor. The exposed central section of the rear elevation is quite wide. Set toward its right end, breaking through the moulded plat band between floors, is a large four-paned stairwell window. Below it is a tiny two-paned window serving a below-stairs cupboard. The remainder of this section has three 1-over-1 sliding sash windows to each floor.

The right (west) rear return is much shorter than the left. Its east face has a part-glazed four-panelled door with two granite steps, and a 1-over-1 sliding sash window with a concrete cill above at first floor. The north gable has two 1-over-1 sliding sashes to each floor; those to the ground floor left have bars over, and those to the right are narrower. The attic gable has a circular timber window. The west cheek of the right rear return faces the garden. It has a part-glazed four-panelled door to the right, with a window of two casements to its left and a matching window aligned above at first floor. This elevation is flush with the west end gables of both the front and rear piles of the main house.

West Gables and Lean-to

Both the front and rear piles are gabled on the west end. The front pile's gable has a wrought-iron cockerel weather vane attached. At ground floor the front pile is abutted by a lean-to with a mono-pitched roof and walls detailed to match the house. The lean-to's main west face has a French window of four casements; its north and south cheeks are narrow and blank. The first floor of the front pile's gable has a window of three casements. The gable apex has diamond detailing in render. The rear pile's west gable has a French window of four casements at ground floor and a window of three casements at first floor.

Setting and Outbuildings

A tree-lined serpentine gravel driveway leads from the gate lodge on the Belfast Road up to the house. There are lawns immediately to the south and west of the house. To the north is a domestic yard, enclosed on the north by an outbuilding and on the west by a garage. The southeast corner of the yard has two square-section piers with concrete pyramidal copings forming an entrance from the driveway, which runs down the left (west) side of the house. A small wrought-iron pedestrian gate on the west side of the yard, north of the garage, leads into the garden. A cast-iron water pump stands immediately to the west of the garage.

The outbuilding has a hipped roof detailed to match the house, with a domed cowl to the centre of the ridge. Its walls are dashed to match and its north, west and east elevations are blank. The south (yard-facing) elevation has tongue-and-groove sheeted doors and timber casement windows.

The garage is detailed to match the outbuilding, with a pitched roof and a chimney on its south end. Its south gable is abutted by a timber conservatory. The west elevation fronts the garden and has four pairs of casement windows with a shared transom above. The north gable is blank. The east (yard-facing) elevation has a window matching those on the west at the left, a glazed timber door to its right, and a tongue-and-groove sheeted and glazed sliding garage door filling the rest of the elevation.

Gate Lodge

The gate lodge to the Belfast Road is much altered and is one-and-a-half storeys with two bays. Its pitched artificial slate roof is aligned north to south. The walls are dashed. The front (west) elevation has a gabled return to the left and a veranda under a cat-slide roof to the right. Windows are fixed modern units with top-hung transoms.