24 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 has an L-plan form facing southwest, with a large two-storey rear return added around 1988. It forms one of twenty-seven similar houses on the eastern terrace of Charlemont Square, a formally designed mid-Victorian square of 66 buildings arranged on three sides around a central green.

The house is constructed of random-coursed, rock-faced local Newry Granodiorite with painted smooth render dressings. It features painted stone cills and stepped smooth render surrounds to square-headed door and window openings. Windows are typically top-opening timber casements. The pitched fibre cement roof is topped with angled black clay ridge tiles, and a rectangular-section red brick chimney rises to the northwest. The eaves are flush with a red brick corbel course; rainwater goods are uPVC with half-round guttering discharging to circular-section downpipes.

The principal elevation faces southwest and is nearly symmetrical, set flush with the main terrace. A modest gravelled front yard is enclosed by a painted block dwarf wall topped by replacement painted metal scroll railings, with a similar gate hung on square section metal posts to the southeast. A concrete path leads from the gate to a planked painted timber door to the southeast of the facade, which has a rectangular glazed upper section and a rectangular fanlight above. There are two windows at first floor level, aligned with ground floor openings, both with top-opening timber casement windows, one to the northwest side.

The building is attached to No. 25 Charlemont Square East on its northwest side and to No. 23 on its southeast side.

The rear elevation faces northeast and incorporates a single-bay two-storey pitched roof rear return projecting to the rear boundary. A planked painted timber door opens from a narrow rear access route onto an L-shaped yard. A panelled and glazed uPVC back door is positioned on the northwest side of the rear return. The rear facades have a generally smooth cement rendered finish with uPVC top or side-opening casement windows.

The building forms part of a planned arrangement of mill workers' dwellings and shops comprising a formal square with East, North and West terraces arranged around a central green. 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 terraces to the east and west are stepped in groups of two dwellings to respect the subtle relief of the site. Each dwelling typically 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 facades show various alterations and extensions of different shapes and sizes. Front facades are nearly uniform along the East and West terraces. Five larger shop buildings to the southeast of Charlemont Square East and one to the southeast of Charlemont Square West feature traditional shop fronts at ground floor level with dwellings above. The central area of the square is laid to lawn and enclosed by hooped galvanized metal railings with established trees at its boundary. A children's playground to the southeast includes a monument marking the installation of electric lighting in 1911, and Bessbrook's War Memorial is centrally located to the southeast of the playground.