63 Canal Street, Newry, Co Down, BT35 6JF

63 Canal Street, Newry is the right-hand house of a pair of three-storey houses with attic storey and three bays, fronting the east side of Canal Street. Dating from the late 18th or early 19th century, it retains distinctive classical proportions and special architectural and historic interest, enhanced by its pairing with an adjoining house of almost identical design.

The front elevation is faced with strap-pointed squared rubble granite brought to courses, with a projecting finely dressed eaves course. It is roofed in pitched natural slate with a rendered chimney to the south gable and half-round metal gutters to front and back. Window openings are trimmed with brick (stepped to the jambs) and have granite cills with cement-rendered reveals.

At ground floor level, a coach arch with elliptical head occupies the left side. It has vee-jointed ashlar jambs and voussoirs with keystone and imposts, and now contains a pair of modern stained timber doors, one with a wicket gate. Immediately to its right, sharing its jamb, is the entrance. This comprises a similarly arched and dressed opening with a modern stained timber door (with timber panel to right) flanked by a pair of granite Tuscan columns on square plinths. These columns support a moulded granite entablature over which sits a stained glass fanlight—this classical door surround is a defining feature of the building. To the right of the entrance is a window opening with a pair of 1/1 sliding sash windows with broad central mullion, which based on the adjoining house would originally have been a single 8/8 sash. The first and second floors each contain three 6/6 sliding sash windows in line with the ground floor openings; the upper set is diminished in height.

The left gable forms the party wall with the adjoining house. The right gable forms an obtuse angle with the façade and is abutted by a lower adjacent building; its exposed section is blank and smooth cement rendered.

The rear elevation has pebble-dashed walls with eaves raised to almost the height of the ridge line to accommodate an additional floor. A modern three-storey flat-roofed return abuts the extreme left side. At ground floor centre is a modern partially-glazed door, with the arched passage through to the street to its right and a 6/6 sliding sash window to its left. Directly above the door at ground-to-first floor and first-to-second floor half landings are spoke-headed 3/6 sliding sashes. The right bay has modern doors and casement windows at first and second floors, with the first-floor door opening onto a balcony with metal fire escape. The left bay has a 6/6 sash window to each floor. The new top floor half landing is lit by a modern two-paned casement window, with a door and casement window at right and a casement at left. Only the spoke-headed half-landing lights and 6/6 sashes retain their original granite cills; the rest have concrete cills.

Historical records indicate that houses existed in this location on Bernard Scale's 1763 map of Armagh, though they are drawn schematically and it is uncertain whether they represent the existing building or an earlier structure. The existing house is cited in the 1836 Valuation Book, where it is listed alongside no. 65 as owned by Francis Ogle and described as measuring 24 feet by 31 feet 6 inches by 37 feet, with a further 8-foot-wide section over the coach arch. On balance, the house is considered to date from the late 18th or early 19th century.