36b & 37 Merchant's Quay, Newry, Co Down, BT35 8HF

A four-storey building on the west side of Merchant's Quay in Newry, arranged symmetrically about a central arch and forming part of a terrace. Of primary interest for its size, proportion, and contribution to the historical character of the Conservation Area.

The building dates from the period 1860–1879, probably erected as an office and store for the timber yard at the rear. It was subsequently adapted following a refurbishment around 1903, when the Valuation records indicate it was split into a shop and house.

The facade is cement rendered and painted green. At ground floor level, cement pilasters at each end terminate at the first-floor level in scrolls surmounted by mini gablets, above which are painted stepped quoins. Moulded string courses delineate each floor and run between window openings; on the first and third floors these strings continue around the openings as hood moulds. The central feature is a coach arch with ashlar granite jambs and semi-elliptical head over projecting spring stones. To the left of the arch is a modern shop entrance within a plastic pilastered entablature, flanked to its left by a modern single-pane window set within an original hood-moulded opening with fascia. To the right of the arch stands a matching shop front, though the corresponding window to its right has been enlarged and its hood moulding removed. Each of the upper three floors contains four windows set in line. All upper-floor windows are modern timber 1/1 top-hung casements with stop-end chamfered reveals. The left and right gables are abutted by slightly lower adjacent buildings; the exposed sections above are rendered cement with linear detailing.

The pitched artificial slate roof carries a rendered chimney on the left gable and a skylight to the rear pitch. Asbestos rainwater goods run over a moulded eaves course.

The rear elevation is of coursed random rubble with dressed quoins. All window openings have one-piece granite jambs, lintels, and cills. The coach arch is finished internally with a semi-elliptical brick voussoir. Modern monopitched single-storey sheds now abut either side of the arch, obscuring ground-floor openings. The upper floors have three windows per floor, all in line; some retain modern single or double-paned timber frames, others are boarded over or fitted with metal bars. At the right on landings between floors are 2/2 sliding sash windows, the lower without a cill.

The building is of industrial archaeological interest, having originally served the timber yard and associated spade factory (constructed by Messrs Carvill in 1869) that occupied the rear of the site.