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

Glebe House is a substantial two-storey, three-bay house with a three-storey tower, set in mature landscaped grounds on the east side of Windsor Avenue in Newry. The building is constructed in red brick laid in English garden wall bond (three stretcher courses for every header course) over a chamfered base course.

The main façade faces west. A flat roof to most of the house, probably reinforced concrete, is 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, with the rear return of similar profile and material. Four red brick chimneys rise from the wall head at the rear, with a third at middle right and a fourth (truncated) to the left. A gabled canopy with a four-panelled glass and timber door sits on top of the roof, leading out from a stairway ascending from the first floor.

Moulded brick string courses run between the ground and first floors, and at eaves level. The parapet is of lighter-coloured brick with a concrete coping and may be a later reconstruction of the original.

The main entrance is accessed by four steps at the left of the middle bay. The painted four-panelled timber door has a segmental head and comprises a pair of obscured glass side lights (with herringbone timber panels below) and a three-pane segmental-headed leaded transom. The opening has a roll-mould chamfered brick segmental head with a hood mould and terracotta label stops.

The left bay projects forward slightly from the central bay, with an exposed right cheek that is plain. At ground floor is a canted bay window with a hipped parapeted roof. Each of the three cheeks has a segmental-headed 1/1 sliding sash window with granite cill and hood mould. Windows and openings throughout are similarly detailed unless otherwise stated.

The tower occupies the right bay and projects forward from the middle bay, with an exposed plain left cheek. At ground floor is a pair of windows as in the left bay but sharing a common drip mould. At first floor of all three bays are pairs of windows in line with the ground floor openings; those to the central bay are narrower than the others. The second floor of the tower has three 1/1 top-opening timber casements to the façade and similar casements on its left and right elevations. All share a rendered lintel course with an ogee head inset above each opening. A corbelled brick cornice indented with triangular patterns surmounts these, over which is a crenellated cement-rendered parapet concealing a leaded roof. On the tower's rear face at second floor level is a painted door set in a segmental stop-end chamfered opening, providing the only access to the tower's second floor.

The right elevation is three bays wide and of the same construction as the façade. The left bay is the right cheek of the tower already described. The middle bay has single windows on left and right sides at both ground and first floors. The right bay breaks forward and has pairs of similar windows to 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 forward slightly with a pair of windows to ground floor (but with higher cill levels than façade windows) and one at first floor. The eaves appear to have been raised in brick to accommodate the new roof. At ground floor of the middle bay is a four-panel painted timber door with six-paned sidelights and a rendered lintel over. At first floor is a large six-pane timber window serving an internal landing. Each top sash has a semicircular head, with the middle window pane set higher and wider. Mullions take the form of slender colonettes with a roundel in the spandrel above, all set within a roll-moulded segmental-headed opening with a label-stopped hood mould. The right bay has a single window to ground floor and is blank at first floor. Three terracotta panels are inset in the parapet.

The rear elevation has its right bay abutted by a two-storey return, with the wall head raised in brick to accommodate the reconfigured roof. The left bay is blank. At ground and first floors of the middle bay is a pair of 2/2 vertically-divided sashes. The return has had its walls raised in brick to accommodate the new roof, with a blank end wall. Its right cheek, flush with the left elevation of the main block, has four equally-spaced segmental-headed openings to ground floor. The opening second from the left contains a modern plywood and glass door, whilst that at the right is a four-panel painted timber door. The remaining openings are 2/2 sashes. At first floor are three similar windows in line with the first three ground floor openings. The left cheek of the return has a single tongued-and-grooved sheeted door to the 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 finished in rubble granite, squared at the entrance. Modern brick gate piers with concrete copings flank the entrance, with an older pair (probably original) of wrought iron gates between them. The left gate pier bears a modern polished granite plaque incised with "Glebe House".