St Peter's RC Church, Great George's Street, Warrenpoint, Newry, Co Down, BT34 3NF

St Peter's Roman Catholic Church is an early 19th-century cruciform-plan church designed by the architect Thomas Duff, with its foundation stone laid in 1834 and construction completed in 1841 at a cost of £2,500. It occupies an attractive raised corner site at the junction of Great George's Street and St Peter's Street, facing a town park to the south-east. The building has evolved considerably over time, receiving a tower in 1875, a sanctuary and side chapels in 1928, and further works in the 1990s.

The roof is pitched natural slate with crested ridge tiles, leaded valleys, moulded rainwater goods on wrought iron brackets, ogee metal gutters and square-section metal downpipes throughout. Saddle-coped gables with cross finials appear on all gables except the front, which is abutted by the tower. The walls generally have a chamfered base course and are cement dry-dashed, with a smooth rendered band at window cill level and another at the spring of arch level. All windows are tall lancets with smooth rendered architraves, flush cills, chamfered reveals and hood moulds; glazing is either original cast iron tracery in clear and pink glass or, in the modern porch, later stained and leaded glass. Two-stage clasping buttresses appear at the corners of all gables: broad and plain at the lower stage with a moulded sloping coping, then more slender above, with a moulded stringcourse at gable level, rising further to form an octagonal pinnacle with a plat band and conical cap terminated in a foliated finial.

The front south-east-facing gable is in ashlar granite and is almost entirely concealed by the later tower. The two side walls of the nave — facing south-west and north-east — are identical, each with three tracery windows. The north-east elevation is additionally abutted at its left by a modern porch, which obscures the lower part of the left-hand window. This porch has a pitched natural slate roof with crested ridge tiles, cement-dashed walls on a polished granite chamfered base course, and clasping buttresses to the gable end constructed in thin panels of polished granite with a concrete coping. Its south-east wall and north-east gable each have a small modern lancet window with a polished granite cill and modern stained glass. Its north-west wall has a wide doorway with a depressed Gothic head containing a pair of modern tongue-and-groove sheeted stained doors.

The south-east-facing wall of each transept is identical, with one tracery window to the centre. The end gables of the transepts — one facing south-west, the other north-east — are also identical. Each has a ground-floor doorway with a pair of diagonally sheeted doors fitted with strap hinges, set within a deep chamfered Gothic-headed door case with a hood mould over. A modern granite holy water font is set into the splayed jamb of the door on the left-hand side of the north-east elevation and the right-hand side of the south-west elevation. A moulded stringcourse runs between ground and first-floor level, tied into the buttresses on either side. At first-floor level in the gable is a pair of lancet windows with a quatrefoil ventilator set high in the gable above. The rear north-west-facing walls of the transepts are blank and abutted by the lower side chapels.

The side chapels, added in 1928, sit in the angles between the sanctuary and the transepts and are identical to one another. They have flat roofs concealed behind an embattled parapet. Their walls are roughly wet-dashed with smooth rendered quoins and banding, and the parapet has a concrete coping. The rear north-west walls are blank; the end walls facing south-west and north-east each have three small lancet windows with leaded glazing and rendered architraves. The ground falls away at this point, revealing a basement level.

Each side wall of the sanctuary is identical, abutted at ground-floor level by the side chapels. Above the chapels are three small lancet windows set in granite architraves with hood moulds, their cills level with the side chapel roofs, surmounted by a small coped gable with a matching pitched natural slate roof tied into the main sanctuary roof. The rear north-west gable of the sanctuary has a semi-basement and is abutted at basement and ground-floor level by a modern sacristy block. The remaining portion of this gable is smooth rendered to first-floor level and wet-dashed below. The basement wall has a large modern timber window at the right end. In the gable are three tall lancet windows — the central one taller than the flanking pair — all stained and leaded glass. Above, in the apex, is a small lancet vent, and the gable apex has a broken finial.

The sacristy is two storeys, with a pitched natural slate roof and wet-dashed walls. Its ground floor is level with the basement of the sanctuary. Its windows are all modern lancets with stained timber frames and plain or stained glass. The main door on the south-west wall is tongue-and-groove sheeted and set in a Gothic-headed opening; the north-east wall has modern louvred doors and shutters. The sacristy passage is enclosed by railings.

The tower, added in 1875 and designed by Timothy Hevey, is three stages high and topped by a slender broached spire. Its walls are in ashlar granite and the spire in ashlar sandstone. Buttresses rise to full height on each elevation: broadest at the first stage, set in slightly from the corners on each upper stage, and stepping in progressively between stages, terminating midway up the third stage. The south-east-facing front wall of the first stage contains the main entrance, a pair of diagonally sheeted tongue-and-groove doors set within a deep chamfered Gothic-headed reveal with a hood mould over. Above this is a moulded stringcourse that continues around the tower and over the buttresses; it steps up over a modern polished granite plaque inscribed "1841 / 1991 / IN HONOREM SANCTI / PETRI APOSTOLI". The second stage, taller than the others, has three lancet openings, with the topmost taller than those below; the central opening contains a statue of St Peter on a truncated octagonal plinth, while the left and right openings have leaded lights of diamond quarries. Above these is a glazed quatrefoil with a flush plat band linking it to the buttresses. A moulded stringcourse separates the second and third stages. The third stage forms the belfry, narrower than the rest and instepping on three sloping courses of masonry. It contains a pair of lancets with a quatrefoil filling the common spandrel above, all set within a deep chamfered granite reveal with a hood mould that continues as a stringcourse; wire mesh grills protect all openings. The buttresses terminate at spring-of-arch level below this stringcourse. The broached spire has a small moulded cornice and its first masonry course is decorated with shallow cusps. Each of the four faces — south-east, north-west, south-west and north-east — has a tall slender lucarne with a pitched masonry roof and a lancet on the gable with a tiny quatrefoil above. Near the top, each face has a small gabled vent, and at the very top are two rounded crockets. A metallic cross finial crowns the spire.

The left and right cheeks of the tower — facing south-west and north-east — are abutted at the first stage and the lower part of the second stage by two-storey canted bays. Each bay has a two-stage base course, a stringcourse between stages continuing from the tower, and a window on each cheek: small lancets at first-stage level and small trefoils at second-stage level. Each has a pitched half-attached spire roof with a finial. Above these, on the tower wall, is a quatrefoil light matching that on the front face, and all further details replicate the front elevation. The north-west wall of the tower abuts the original front gable of the church at first- and second-stage levels; its remaining stages match the front.

The addition of the tower in 1875 obscured Thomas Duff's original south-east façade, which had been in ashlar granite. That original front contained a Gothic entrance flanked by small lancet lights — all with linked hood moulds — and a moulded stringcourse at the level of the first buttress stage. At first-floor level were three tall lancet windows with chamfered reveals, sloping flush cills, diamond-paned quarry glazing and linked hood moulds. High in the gable was a multi-foil cusped light and a cross finial. The front railings, originally parallel with this façade, were subsequently canted forward to accommodate the tower.

Internally the church has been modernised, though this does not substantially detract from its overall character. The sanctuary and side chapels added in 1928 are of exceptional quality, featuring marble and mosaic walls, fan-vaulted ceilings and stained glass by Michael Healy. Healy was at that time employed by F. G. O'Hare and Co. of Dublin and was a contemporary of Harry Clarke, whose windows are often found in Catholic churches in the Newry and Mourne area.

The most recent phase of works, undertaken in the 1990s, included the addition of the modern porch on the north-east elevation, alterations to the gallery, modern landscaping and the construction of the sacristy.

The boundary to Great George's Street is canted forward at the centre. It consists of a small dressed granite dwarf wall carrying iron railings with cast iron detailing to the top, bottom and middle of each vertical, and Gothic spear finials. The railings are supported at each outer end on plain granite piers with swept copings, and at the centre on one-piece granite gate piers with Gothic panels, incised spandrels and swept copings. The piers carry original gates matching the railings, fitted on modern hinges that allow the gates to swing back flush with the railings. On entering the church grounds, running parallel with the front boundary, is a retaining wall clad in modern mock-granite ceramic tiles and carrying modern railings; steps at either end rise to the main path around the church. At the transepts the ground falls away to the rear. The boundary to St Peter's Street is a cement-dashed wall with an irregular granite rubble coping. There is a modern car park to the rear with a small hall of no special interest.