Bishop’s House, Violet Hill, Armagh Road, Newry, Co Down

Bishop's House is an Arts and Crafts style house with Tudor detailing, built in an informal design and positioned south-facing into mature grounds off Armagh Road. The house is two storeys high and four bays wide, with two rear returns and outhouses enclosing a yard at the back.

The roof is hipped and covered in natural slate with lead-dressed hips, valleys and ridges (formerly copper). The overhanging eaves have closed soffits supported by moulded timber brackets. On the south elevation (façade), the eaves are broken by sections of raised wall head and gables over the first-floor windows. There are four rock-faced granite block chimneys in total: the first rises at wall head, parallel with the façade over the party wall shared with the right return; the second rises parallel to the façade from the rear pitch on the fourth bay; a third similarly from the fifth bay; and the fourth is at the join between the left return and its second return. Semicircular metal rainwater goods include cast iron downpipes and rectangular hoppers emblazoned with a single Tudor rose.

The walls are constructed of struck and weathered pointed squared rock-faced granite rubble brought to courses, with corner stones dressed to a clean arris. All other dressings are in ashlar granite.

The south elevation features the main entrance in the second bay from the left, which is gabled and returns forward. Its roof is pitched and natural slated, tied into the main roof. Three dressed granite steps rise to a granite-paved platform with rock-faced granite flanking walls in four courses topped with stepped dressed ashlar block coping. The entrance is a Gothic-headed framed and panelled varnished oak door with bronze furniture, set within a Gothic-headed masonry arched opening. The arch has stepped dressed jambs with double coved stop-end chamfer to the opening. Cylindrical metal and glazed bracket lanterns (later additions) flank the door to left and right. On either side of the entrance bay are raised stepped two-stage buttresses which rise to eaves level and terminate in ashlar-coped gabled pinnacles to either side of the front gable. The gable has a moulded dressed coping with an ashlar cross finial to the apex. Centred on the wall above the door, just below first-floor cill level, is a square concrete plaque consisting of a raised cartouche imposed over a cross, with a bishop's hat above (with its tassels falling to left and right). The cartouche is decorated with the Virgin and Child in a niche, with a bishop below it. On the panel below is a linen-fold motto etched with "AD IESUUM PER MARIAM" (To Jesus through Mary).

All windows to the façade are steel-framed and plainly glazed with post and block ashlar granite jambs. Their flush cill, transom and lintel are each of a single granite piece, and all four faces of each opening are canted. Above the door at first floor is a two-stage, six-paned transom and mullion window, each casement inset with stained glass with an external polycarbonate protective sheet over. The left and right cheeks of the porch are identical, each with a blocking course above the eaves level of the main roof and a raised three-stage buttress to the front corner (the height of each stage is offset from and taller than those on the façade buttresses). Each flank has a tall two-staged transom window to the ground floor, and a smaller two-paned casement with leaded quarries set within a single opening to the first floor.

The left bay of the front face has a two-stage ten-paned transom and mullion window to each floor. The first-floor window is diminished in height and breaks the eaves level with an ashlar-coped blocking course above. Both windows have two-piece cills, transoms and lintels. The overhanging eaves of the main roof sweep around each end of this in typical Arts and Crafts manner. In the central bay (third from left), there is a two-stage, eight-paned transom and mullion window to the ground floor with a similar one above. The first-floor window is diminished in height, with a similar coped blocking course and swept eaves as the previous first-floor window. At the ground floor of the fourth bay is a single-storey canted bay window with a flat roof behind an ashlar-coped blocking course. It has a two-stage six-paned transom and mullion window to its face and two-stage, four-paned transom and mullion windows to each cheek. Above at first floor, below the overhanging eaves, is a single-stage three-paned casement. The right bay of the façade is as the left bay but with a slated gable breaking the eaves.

The west-facing left elevation is symmetrical and a single bay deep. The wall is as the façade with overhanging eaves. At ground floor centre is a two-stage six-paned transom and mullion window, and at first floor, centred to left and right of the ground-floor window, are single two-stage transom windows. Abutting to the left, and stepped back slightly, is the west cheek of the right rear return. This return has a hipped natural slate roof tied into the main roof but with a lower ridge line. The west cheek is in granite as the façade. To ground floor left is a small narrow barred casement; to ground floor right is a two-stage, six-paned transom and mullion window; and to first floor, in line with the opening below, is a three-paned single-stage casement with the wall head breaking the eaves. The rear wall of this return is cement rendered with a single narrow barred casement to the ground floor and a two-stage four-paned casement to the first floor. The left cheek of the return is abutted by a portion of the rear elevation. The remaining wall is lined render and devoid of openings.

The north (rear) elevation is abutted to the right (just described) and left by returns, with the roof between the two flat and concealed by a parapet. The rear wall (between the two returns) is lined cement render, and the right third projects forward where it abuts the right return. To the right of this raised section is an eight-panelled painted timber door (top six panels glazed) with a three-paned transom over. Centred at first floor, over the door, is a two-stage, six-paned transom and mullion window. The left portion of the rear wall has four windows to the ground floor: three are nine-over-nine sliding sashes and that to the right is a pair of six-over-six sashes set within a single opening. Centred at first floor are four six-over-six sliding sashes, and to their extreme left is a two-over-four sash with a lower cill level. All windows have horns and stooled projecting granite cills.

The right elevation of the main block is as the left. To its right, but stepped back, is the left cheek of the rear left return. This return has a hipped natural slate roof, tied into the main roof but with a lower ridge line. The wall is lined cement rendered and has three tall sliding sash windows to the ground floor: to the left is a nine-over-nine sash, to the centre is a twelve-over-twelve sash, and to the right is a six-over-six sash, all the same height but in varying widths. At basement level, steps fall from the left to a door, and at the top of the steps is a small basement window. Equally spaced at first floor are two six-over-six sliding sashes. To the extreme left, with a higher cill level, is a single metal casement with an ashlar surround.

Abutting to the right of this elevation is a second return. The second return is single storey and has a hipped natural slate roof abutting the rear wall of the first return. The pitch to this elevation contains a flat-roofed dormer window with three six-paned timber casement windows. Its rear pitch has a similar dormer containing a pair of six-paned windows. Its walls are a continuation of those to the other return and are lined cement rendered. To the ground floor left is a tall six-over-six window and to the right is a twelve-over-twelve window. The right cheek of these returns is lined cement render. To the ground floor right is a twelve-over-twelve sliding sash window and to its left is a tongue-and-groove sheeted door with transom over. To the first floor right is an eight-over-eight sliding sash. Abutting to the left is the cheek of the second return, which contains a tall six-over-six sliding sash to the left and a twelve-over-twelve window to the right. The rear wall is devoid of openings.

The rear yard is enclosed to left and right by dashed walls, both with doors, and to the rear by a single-storey garage and outbuildings with flat in-situ concrete roofs. The garden has a looped driveway to the front which continues to the garage at rear left; the centre of the loop is lawned and the remainder of the garden has mature trees and shrubs. Neighbouring to the east are the grounds of St. Colman's College, which complement the setting.