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

Bishop's House is an imposing two-storey Arts and Crafts style residence with Tudor detailing, built in 1932 — the year of the Eucharistic Congress — and designed by the Dublin-based architect John J. Robinson, who was also responsible for the nearby chapel opened in 1938. It is possibly one of the last buildings to be constructed in Newry granite, and carries a sombre dignity well suited to its purpose as a bishop's residence. The house is four bays wide on its south-facing principal elevation, with two rear returns, outhouses, and an enclosed yard to the rear. All original features remain intact.

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

South (principal) elevation: The second bay from the left is gabled, projects forward, and contains the main entrance. Its pitched, natural-slated roof is tied into the main roof. Three dressed granite steps rise to a granite-paved platform with rock-faced granite flanking walls in four courses, finished with stepped dressed ashlar block coping. The entrance itself is a Gothic-headed, framed and panelled varnished oak door with bronze furniture, set within a Gothic-headed masonry arched opening with stepped dressed jambs and a double coved stop-end chamfer to the opening. Cylindrical metal and glazed bracket lanterns are positioned to the left and right of the door and are later additions. Flanking the entrance bay are raised, stepped two-stage buttresses that rise to eaves level and terminate in ashlar-coped gabled pinnacles either side of the front gable. The gable has a moulded dressed coping with an ashlar cross finial at the apex.

Centred on the wall above the door, just below first-floor cill level, is a square concrete plaque. It consists 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 depicted below. A panel below carries a linen-fold motto etched with the words "AD IESEUM PER MARIAM" (To Jesus through Mary).

All windows to the facade are steel-framed and plainly glazed with post-and-block ashlar granite jambs. Their flush cills, transoms, and lintels are each of a single piece of granite, and all four faces of each opening are canted. To the first floor over the door is a two-stage, six-paned transom and mullion window; each casement is inset with stained glass, with an external polycarbonate protective sheet over.

The left and right cheeks of the porch are identical: each has a blocking course above eaves level of the main roof and a raised three-stage buttress to the front corner, with each stage offset from and taller than those of the buttresses on the facade. Each cheek flank has a tall two-stage 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 facade 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; the overhanging eaves of the main roof sweep around each end of this in a typical Arts and Crafts manner. Both windows have two-piece cills, transoms, and lintels.

The central bay (third from left) has a two-stage, eight-paned transom and mullion window to the ground floor, with a similar window above. The first-floor window is diminished in height, with a similar coped blocking course and swept eaves.

The fourth bay has a single-storey canted bay window to the ground floor, with a flat roof behind an ashlar-coped blocking course. Its face has a two-stage, six-paned transom and mullion window, and each cheek has a two-stage, four-paned transom and mullion window. Above, to the first floor beneath the overhanging eaves, is a single-stage three-paned casement.

The right bay of the facade mirrors the left bay but with a slated gable breaking the eaves.

West (left) elevation: This is symmetrical and a single bay deep, with walls matching the facade and overhanging eaves. To the ground floor centre is a two-stage, six-paned transom and mullion window; to the first floor, centred either side 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. Its west cheek is in granite matching the facade: to the ground floor left is a small narrow barred casement, to the ground floor right is a two-stage, six-paned transom and mullion window, and to the first floor in line with the opening below is a three-paned single-stage casement with wall head breaking 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, and the remaining wall is lined render with no openings.

North (rear) elevation: The rear wall is abutted to the right and left by the returns, with a flat roof concealed by a parapet between the two. The rear wall is lined cement render; its right third projects forward where it abuts the right return. To the right of this raised section is an eight-panelled painted timber door with the top six panels glazed and a three-paned transom over. Centred to the 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 9/9 sliding sashes and the fourth, to the right, is a pair of 6/6 sashes set within a single opening. Centred to the first floor are four 6/6 sliding sashes, and to their extreme left is a 2/4 sash with a lower cill level. All windows have horns and stooled projecting granite cills.

Right (east) elevation of the main block mirrors the left. To its right, 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 walls are lined cement rendered. To the ground floor are three tall sliding sash windows: to the left a 9/9 sash, to the centre a 12/12 sash, and to the right a 6/6 sash, all of the same height but varying widths. At basement level, steps descend from the left to a door, with a small basement window at the top of the steps. Two 6/6 sliding sashes are equally spaced to the first floor. To the extreme left, at a higher cill level, is a single metal casement with an ashlar surround.

Abutting to the right of this elevation is a second return. This is single storey with 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; the rear pitch has a similar dormer containing a pair of six-paned windows. The walls continue the lined cement render of the other return. To the ground floor left is a tall 6/6 window and to the right is a 12/12 window. The right cheek of these returns is lined cement render: to the ground floor right is a 12/12 sliding sash window; to its left is a tongue-and-groove sheeted door with transom over; to the first floor right is an 8/8 sliding sash. Abutting to the left is the cheek of the second return, which contains a tall 6/6 sliding sash to the left and a 12/12 window to the right. The rear wall is devoid of openings.

The rear yard is enclosed to the 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. To the front, a looped driveway continues to the garage at the rear left; the centre of the loop is lawned and the remainder of the garden is planted with mature trees and shrubs. To the east, the grounds of St. Colman's College adjoin the site and complement the setting.