6 College Square East, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

Two-storey two-bay late-Victorian terraced house, built around 1883 to designs by an unknown architect, although possibly the work of civil engineer John Hardy. The building has a rectangular plan form facing southwest.

No. 6 College Square East is one of twenty-three similar houses which, together with Bessbrook Town Hall to the southeast, form the eastern side of College Square: a formally designed late-Victorian square consisting of 53 dwellings in total, arranged on three sides around a central bowling green and playground.

The walls are constructed of generally random-coursed rock-faced local Newry Granodiorite with stepped red brick dressings to jambs, stone cills and square-headed gauged-brick door and window openings. The pitched natural slate roof carries roll-top black clay ridge tiles. A rectangular-section red brick chimney to the northwest has segmented half-round coping. The flush eaves have separate red and buff brick eaves courses with an alternating red and buff brick corbel course above. Cast iron rainwater goods with half-round guttering discharge to circular section downpipes.

The principal front elevation faces southwest and is flush with the rest of the terrace. It is near symmetrical with a regular fenestration pattern: two windows to first-floor level in line with the main entrance door and a window to ground-floor level. The modest-sized front garden is enclosed by red brick dwarf walling with a paved path to the southeast leading to a painted planked timber door with a square-headed fanlight above having a single vertical glazing bar. A window is positioned to the northwest side of the elevation.

Double hung 3/3 sliding timber sash windows with window horns and granite cills are used throughout.

The building is attached to No. 7 College Square East to the northwest and to No. 5 College Square East to the southeast.

The rear elevation faces northeast and is enclosed by rock-faced random-coursed stone walling to the rear yard boundary. Fenestration here is irregular, with a single window at the centre of first-floor level and an off-centre door at ground-floor level flanked by a window to its northwest and a smaller window to its southeast; all are double hung sliding timber sash, the smaller window lacking glazing bars. A single red brick corbel course runs to the flush eaves with cast iron rainwater goods. A single-storey outbuilding at the northern corner of the rear yard has a monopitched natural slate roof and smooth rendered finish. The rear yard is finished with quarry tiles.

College Square forms part of a planned arrangement of mill workers' dwellings comprising a formal square composed of east, north and west terraces arranged around a central bowling green, playground and lawn. Each house is set back from the perimeter public road and footpath with a modest-sized front yard typically enclosed by dwarf walling topped by hooped metal railings. The eastern terrace is stepped in groups of six dwellings to respect the subtle relief of the site. The western terrace is composed of paired dwellings in similar style. Rear yards to each dwelling are enclosed by random-coursed rubble stone walling with square-headed door openings onto a wide rear access route. Rear facades are generally much altered, whilst front facades remain nearly uniform along the eastern terrace.

The village Town Hall (the old Institute building) is located to the southeast. The northern terrace comprises twelve houses and consists of distinctly larger two-and-a-half storey buildings in similar style.

The central area of the square is now divided into three sections, each laid to lawn. The area to the northwest has a bowling pavilion and green enclosed by painted hooped metal railings with established trees at its northwest boundary. A lawn enclosed by hooped metal railings is located to the southeast, and an open children's playground with three granite monuments is located in the centre of the square. One monument records those who served the Bessbrook firm for nearly 50 years; another records the garden created in memory of James N. Richardson as a playground for the children of Bessbrook; a third, recently moved from the grounds of Bessbrook Mill, details the mill's history from ownership by the Pollock family in 1760 to Bessbrook Spinning Co Ltd in 1878.