19-27 Lower Catherine Street, Newry, Co Down, BT35 6BE

A terrace of five three-storey, two-bay red brick houses fronting the east side of Lower Catherine Street at its north end, built between 1880 and 1899. The buildings are of considerable interest because of their extensive and decorative use of polychromatic brick, and they reflect the systematic development of Lower Catherine Street in the later 19th century.

Each house has a continuous pitched natural slate roof. Rainwater goods are supported by projecting eaves resting on corbelled yellow brick brackets. The eaves line is broken at the front by gablets positioned over each pair of second-floor windows. All ground-floor walls are clad or rendered.

A projecting granite string course runs between the ground and first floors, and forms window cills to the latter. The upper floors are constructed of red brick with decorative courses of differently coloured brick across the entire façade. These comprise: alternating black and yellow triangles sandwiched between a row of black brick above and yellow brick below, running around and between the first-floor window heads; two rows of black brick between which are yellow brick inserts forming a quatrefoil design, running below the second-floor window cills; and a line of black brick under the eaves brackets. Each gablet is characterised by its own geometric design in red, black and yellow brick or tiles. The quoins of the end houses (nos 27 and 19) are formed of stepped yellow brick. All upper-floor window openings have chamfered jambs of stepped yellow brick, segmental heads of alternating yellow and red brick, and granite cills. The windows on the top floor are diminished.

No 27 and 25 have been refurbished as a single property with modern metal rainwater goods. The ground-floor façades are now faced with thin rectangular slabs of cut granite. Projecting letters across the top read "Casey & Casey Solicitors". There is a modern door at left and three new window openings, all with plastic windows, have been inserted to the right. First and second-floor windows are plastic replacements set into original openings. Both properties have no chimneys to the front pitch. The gablets retain their original fretted timber barge boards. The left gable is cement-wet-dashed and blank with plain barge boards. Both properties have gabled two-storey asbestos-slated returns sharing a party wall, with all walls cement-rendered and modern replacement windows.

No 23 has metal rainwater goods. The ground floor is cement-rendered with a modern door at right, which has a plainly glazed segmental-headed transom light above. The door opening head has scroll consoles supporting a moulded entablature with pole-moulded jambs. To the left, the original window opening has been altered to take a wider three-paned timber casement window. The paired window openings on first and second floors retain their original 2/2 sliding sashes with vertical glazing bars and segmental-headed frames. There is a modern brick chimney at left on the front roof pitch. The gablet has plain barge boards. The walls are cement-rendered. The ground floor has a modern window and single 6/6 sliding sash windows to each upper floor. A two-storey cement-rendered return at left of the rear elevation shares a party wall with a similar return to no 21. An original chimney stands in the corner at the gable end, though modern replacement windows have been installed.

No 21 is the mirror image of no 23 in terms of its window and door openings. It has cyma recta rainwater goods. The ground floor façade is cement-rendered. There is a modern door to the left with a segmental-headed transom light above. The original segmental-headed window opening at right has a modern PVC window. A projecting plastic sign is positioned above. Upper-floor windows are all modern plastic replacements. At the right of the front roof pitch is an original chimney shared with no 19, constructed in red brick with a battered base and decorated with two bands of yellow brick at top and bottom, with cement-rendered copings. An identical chimney stands on the back pitch of the roof. The gablet has plain barge boards. The rear elevation has a two-storey return at right, sharing a party wall with the return of no 21. Rainwater goods run over moulded brackets along the eaves. The walls are cement-rendered. An original chimney stands in the corner of the gable end. The property has undergone extensive alterations including a first-floor balcony and plastic windows.

No 19 has cyma recta rainwater goods. The ground-floor façade is cement-rendered. The door at right is infilled with concrete blocks. Wall openings are as no 21, but all window openings are infilled with concrete blocks as the house is vacant. It shares a chimney with no 21. The gablet retains a portion of its fretted timber barge boards. The right gable abuts a lower building. An exposed section is slate-hung on either side of the abutted chimney. There is a skylight to the rear pitch of the roof. Rainwater goods run over moulded brackets along the eaves. The rear wall is of random rubble granite with a brick eaves course and reveals. Granite cills to window openings, of which there is one to each floor, are evident. A two-storey return at left has a gabled roof and small chimney on the corner at the gable end. The yard-facing wall of the return has a door and window on the ground floor, and a window on the first floor, with a first-floor window in the gable; all openings are now infilled.

Nos 19, 21 and 23 are first cited in the Valuation Revision book of 1883, and are first occupied in this and the following year. Nos 25 and 27 first appear in 1886, and are occupied the following year. The owner is given as John O'Hare, who also developed the adjoining terrace (nos 1-17) in the 1870s.