19a & c Monaghan Street, Newry, Co. Down, BT35 6BB

19a & c Monaghan Street, Newry

A two and a half storey, five bay block comprising two dormered dwellings of the late 19th century, arranged symmetrically about a central coach arch on the north side of Monaghan Street. No. 19c occupies the left portion and no. 19a the right, though they share a common structural framework.

The buildings are notable for their use of polychromatic brickwork, typical of the area during the later 19th century. The gabled natural slate roof carries rendered chimneys to each gable and cyma recta rainwater goods resting on a bracketed brick eaves course. Between the brackets are panels of yellow tiles. Three equally spaced skylights light the rear pitch, with plain metal gutters throughout.

The ground floor façade is cement rendered and painted over a projecting rendered base course. At first floor the walls are of red brick. A projecting granite string course separates the ground and first floors, with the granite also forming the cills to the first floor windows. Two bands of yellow brick run horizontally across the façade: one at mid-window jamb height and another at window head level. A course of black brick runs over the first floor window heads and another under the eaves brackets.

The central coach arch dominates the ground floor. It has ashlar granite jambs supporting a shallow semi-elliptical brick head, with a pair of large sheeted timber doors and wicket gate. The coach arch jambs are shared with the doors into each house. Both house doors are modern stained timber with glazed top panels and two fielded bottom panels. To the left of the no. 19c door is a 1/1 top hung casement window with painted granite cill; the corresponding opening to no. 19a is boarded up.

At first floor are five equally spaced 1/1 modern top hung casement timber windows, with the central one positioned over the coach arch. Their arches are punctuated with groups of black bricks. Rising from the front pitch of the roof are five equally spaced dormers, each with a fixed single pane in a timber frame. The dormers have plain barge boards and slate hung cheeks; a drop finial survives on the dormer above the coach arch.

The rear elevation, accessed only on no. 19c, is of random granite rubble, lightly rendered in places with lime mortar and a brick eaves course. A one-room return abuts the coach arch bay at rear, roofed with asbestos slates and finished at its north gable with a rendered and painted brick parapet. A one-storey kitchen extension abuts the angle between this return and the rear of no. 19c, with natural slate roof, cement rendered walls, modern yard-side windows and a door into the house. To the right on the ground floor of no. 19c is a 1/1 sliding sash window, with an identical window in line at first floor. Above the kitchen extension are smaller 1/1 sash windows to ground-first and first-attic floor landings. The room above the coach arch is lit by a 6/6 sash window. All rear wall windows have brick jambs and heads with granite cills. No. 19a appears to be a mirror image.

A small one-storey, one-room building stands just beyond the rear of the extended passage way at the left. It has a gabled natural slate roof hipped at one end and rendered and whitewashed brick walls. A plain timber door is set at left of the façade facing the passage, with two window openings to the right (now sheeted over) sharing a single granite cill, jambs and chamfered head. Inside is a small fireplace abutting the rear wall of the coach arch extension.

Historical record shows these buildings first appearing in the 1882 Valuation Revision book, replacing structures formerly belonging to Newry Distillery. The valuation map indicates the rear coach arch extension to be an original feature, possibly the workshop cited in the valuation entry. The buildings date from 1880 to 1899 and remain in private residential use within a conservation area, though they have not been formally listed.