Glebe House, Windsor Avenue, Newry, Co Down, BT34 1EQ

Glebe House, Windsor Avenue, Newry

This distinctive red-brick Edwardian house is notable for its prominent three-storey tower and high-quality interior spaces, though later alterations to the rear roofing have detracted from its original appearance. Built as a purpose-built vicarage for the Church of Ireland, it remains an important local landmark.

The building was designed by architect James Watson in 1904 and erected in 1905. It is a two-storey, three-bay house with a three-storey tower occupying the right bay, set within mature landscaped grounds on the east side of Windsor Avenue. The structure is built in red brick laid in English garden wall bond (three stretcher courses for each header course) over a chamfered base course. Most of the main roof is flat (probably reinforced concrete) and concealed behind a parapet to the front, sides and part of the rear. The rear left section of the main roof has been reconfigured as a hipped concrete tile roof, and the rear return shares this profile and material. Four red brick chimneys rise from the wall head at the rear, with a third at the middle right and a fourth (truncated) to the left. A gabled canopy with a four-panelled glass and timber door surmounts the roof, providing access from a stairway rising from the first floor.

The walls are detailed with a moulded brick string course between ground and first floors, and another at eaves level. The parapet, composed of lighter-coloured brick with concrete coping, may represent a later reconstruction of the original.

The principal façade faces west. Four steps rise to the main entrance at the left of the middle bay. The entrance comprises a painted four-panelled timber door with segmental head, flanked by a pair of obscured glass side lights with herringbone timber panels below, and a three-pane segmental-headed leaded transom. The opening features a roll-moulded chamfered brick segmental head with a hood mould over, topped with terracotta label stops. The left bay projects slightly forward from the central bay, with an exposed plain right cheek. At ground floor is a canted bay window with a hipped parapeted roof, each of its three cheeks containing a segmental-headed 1/1 sliding sash window with granite cill and hood mould. The tower occupies the right bay and projects forward from the middle bay, its left cheek plainly exposed. At its ground floor are a pair of windows identical to those of the left bay but sharing a common drip mould.

To the first floor of all three bays are paired windows, aligned with the ground floor openings, though those to the central bay are narrower. The second floor of the tower contains three 1/1 top-opening timber casements to the façade, with similar casements on its left and right elevations. All share a rendered lintel course, with an ogee head inset above each opening. These are surmounted by a corbelled brick cornice indented with triangular patterns, above which rises a crenellated cement-rendered parapet concealing a leaded roof. The tower's rear face at second floor level features a painted door set in a segmental stop-end chamfered opening, providing the only access to this level.

The right elevation is three bays wide and of identical construction to the façade. The middle bay has single windows at both ground and first floors on its left and right sides. The right bay breaks forward and contains paired similar windows at each floor. The roof parapet is inset with two panels, each containing three foliated terracotta plaques.

The left elevation is three bays wide and of identical construction to the façade. The left bay projects slightly forward, with paired windows at ground floor (set at higher cill levels than those on the façade) and one window at first floor. The eaves appear to have been raised in brick to accommodate the new roof. The middle bay contains a four-panelled painted timber door with six-paned sidelights and a rendered lintel at ground floor level, with a large six-pane timber window at first floor serving an internal landing. The top sashes of this window feature semicircular heads, with the middle window pane set higher and wider than the others. Mullions take the form of slender colonettes, with a roundel in the spandrel above. All sit within a roll-moulded segmental-headed opening with a label-stopped hood mould. The right bay has a single window to the ground floor, blank at first floor level. Three terracotta panels are inset in the parapet.

On the rear elevation, the right bay is abutted by a two-storey return, its wall head raised in brick to accommodate the reconfigured roof. The left bay is blank. The middle bay has a pair of 2/2 (vertically divided) sash windows to ground and first floors. The return's right cheek, flush with the left elevation of the main block, contains four equally spaced segmental-headed openings at ground floor level. The second opening from the left contains a modern plywood and glass door, whilst that at the right holds a four-panelled painted timber door. The remaining openings contain 2/2 sash windows. To the first floor are three similar windows, aligned with the first three ground floor openings. The return's left cheek has a single tongue-and-groove sheeted door at its extreme left and a tall 4/6 sliding sash window to its right at landing level. The rear is enclosed by a wall forming a yard.

Abutting the left wall (as viewed from the rear) is a modern red-brick garage with a mono-pitched roof behind a brick parapet. The boundary to Windsor Avenue is defined by rubble granite, squared at the entrance, with modern brick gate piers of concrete copings flanking an older pair of wrought-iron gates (probably original). The left gate pier bears a modern polished granite plaque incised with 'Glebe House'.

The architect's plans in the occupant's possession confirm the building was designed in 1904 and erected in 1905. An 'S' mark on the newel post is believed to be the initial of Reverend Smart, its first occupant. The plans show that the front and side parapets were originally inset with terracotta panels, most of which were removed during later parapet rebuilding. The plans also reveal that upon execution, the bay window arrangement was reversed: the design showed a bay window to the left elevation and none to the façade, but as built this was reversed.

The house first appears in the 1906 Valuation, with Reverend Samuel Smart listed as occupant. At that date, Windsor Avenue was known as Bellman's Lane. The occupant believes the tower was built to house a tuberculosis sufferer who required separation from other residents.