6 Charlemont Square East, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

A two-storey, two-bay mid-Victorian terraced house built between 1862 and 1866 to designs by an unknown architect. The building is of L-plan form facing southwest, with a large two-storey rear return added around 1989.

No. 6 is one of twenty-seven similar houses forming the eastern terrace of Charlemont Square, a formally designed mid-Victorian square of 66 buildings arranged on three sides around a central green, primarily accessed from Fountain Street to the southeast. The five larger two-and-a-half storey shop buildings to the southeast of the eastern terrace are separate structures.

The walls are constructed of generally random-coursed rock-faced local Newry Granodiorite with painted red brick dressings. Stone cills and stepped red brick surrounds frame the gauged-brick cambered door and window openings. The pitched roof is covered with fibre cement tiles with angled black clay ridge tiles. A rectangular-section red brick chimney to the northwest carries two terracotta pots. The eaves are flush with a red brick corbel course, and metal rainwater goods with half-round guttering discharge via circular section downpipes.

The principal southwest-facing elevation is nearly symmetrical, flush with the main terrace to the northwest and narrowly set back from the shop buildings to the southeast. A modest paved front yard is enclosed by smooth cement-rendered dwarf walling topped by plain hooped painted metal railings, with a matching foot gate hung on slim square-section posts to the southeast. A concrete path leads from the gate to a panelled painted timber door positioned to the southeast of the façade, with a semi-circular-headed glazed upper panel, brass furniture, and a square-headed fanlight above containing replacement glazing. The regular fenestration pattern comprises two windows at first-floor level aligned with the ground-floor entrance door. The front elevation now has replacement uPVC top-opening casement windows with horizontal glazing bars.

The building is attached on the northwest to No. 7 Charlemont Square East and on the southeast to No. 5 Charlemont Square East. The rear northeast-facing elevation has a single-bay two-storey pitched-roof return projecting to the rear boundary. A planked painted timber door provides access from a narrow rear yard to a covered area at first-floor level with corrugated Perspex roofing, which leads to the back door on the northwest side of the rear return. The rear and return elevations have a generally smooth cement-rendered finish with a mixture of uPVC and timber top-opening casement windows, and uPVC side-opening casement windows to the rear return.

The square's formal arrangement includes uniform front façades across the east and west terraces, each house set back from the perimeter public road with a modest front yard. The east and west terraces are stepped in groups of two dwellings to respect the site's subtle relief. Each dwelling has a larger rear yard enclosed by random-coursed rubble stone walling with a square-headed door opening onto a wide rear access route. Rear façades are much altered with various extensions of different sizes and shapes. The northern terrace consists of eight larger two-and-a-half storey paired buildings. The central green area is now laid to lawn and enclosed by hooped galvanised metal railings with established trees at its boundary. A children's playground is located to the southeast, including a monument to the installation of electric lighting in 1911, and Bessbrook's War Memorial is centrally located to the southeast of the playground.