5 Monaghan Street, Newry, Co Down, BT34 6BB

A two-storey, three-bay red brick building fronting the north side of Monaghan Street, constructed between 1900 and 1919 as a purpose-built commercial unit. The building demonstrates considerable architectural interest in its utilitarian proportions and materials.

The front elevation is constructed entirely of red brick in English garden wall bond, rising from a projecting rendered and painted base course. The façade is divided into two panels by three shallow brick piers with stop-end chamfers—one at each end and one to the left of the coach arch at the right. A moulded terracotta string course runs between the ground and first floors, with a second, narrower string course between the first floor and roof parapet. The parapet, coped with concrete, makes a ramped step over the piers and is raised between the pairs of first floor windows to conceal the middle chimney from view. The roof is flat with brick chimneys positioned at the middle and left.

At the extreme left is a door opening flanked by the corner pier and a pilaster rising to first floor level. The door is a modern timber-panelled design above which sits a segmental-headed transom light set into a rectangular opening. At the extreme right is a coach arch with a semi-elliptical brick head (painted 'Central Laundry'), flanked by two wall piers and containing a two-leaf modern corrugated metal door. Between the left door and right arch are two shop fronts. The left shopfront contains three plate-glass windows with fixed metal grilles and a door at right with transom over, all set in segmental-headed timber frames within rectangular openings. A painted fascia above reads "Felix McNally / MPSNI / Dispensing Chemist". The right shopfront, now boarded up, is a timber construction with a painted wooden fascia reading "Central Laundry / Ltd."

The first floor features two pairs of 1/1 top-hung timber windows, one pair above each shop, and a fifth identical window above the coach arch. All have terracotta acanthus keyblocks, chamfered brick jambs and granite cills. Between the two pairs of windows is a projecting box sign and a cast-iron down pipe from the rainwater valley behind the parapet, which turns along the top of the chemist's sign and continues to ground level at the right side of the right pilaster.

The right gable is abutted by an adjoining building. The exposed left gable section is painted brick to ground floor level and reads "Pharmacy / McNally's". The left gable is partially abutted by an adjoining building.

The rear elevation is cement-rendered with plastic rainwater gutters. The coach arch at the left side has a horizontal head on this façade, supported across the middle of the passage by a steel girder. A wall runs from the coachway to form a yard on the right. Immediately to the right of the coach arch inside the yard is a door with transom light over (both now infilled) leading from the laundry into a passage with a lean-to slate roof that runs along the inside face of the yard wall and connects with the actual laundry at the rear of the property.

The rear of the chemist's shop is abutted by a one-storey lean-to with a central door and small lights either side, partially obscuring a rear window of the chemists. The first floor has three 1/1 sliding sash windows—two above the yard and one above the coach arch—all with granite cills and metal grilles. The return elevation has a flat roof with brick chimney and cement-rendered walls. The ground floor yard elevation features a door in the middle with a 1/1 sliding sash window either side; the first floor has two identical windows. All openings are fitted with metal grilles.

The actual laundry comprises a large one-storey shed with a sarked corrugated asbestos cement gabled roof over steel trusses, cement-rendered rubble granite walls and concrete floor. Louvred ventilators are positioned in both gables. This building is currently in very poor condition and devoid of machinery save for an extractor fan.

Although a building stood on this site in the 19th century, the present structure first appears in the 1917 Valuation revision book, indicated by an increase in valuation from £7 to £48. The premises were described at that time as a 'house, shop, workshop and yard' and belonged to James McNally. Throughout the 1920s it was let for various purposes, including as a tailor and outfitters shop (J.A. Hamilton, 1918) and grocery shop (T. Byrne, 1924), suggesting it was originally built for general commercial use rather than any specific function.

The building is situated within a conservation area.