Newry Baptist Church, 11 Downshire Place, Newry, Co Down, BT34 1DZ

Newry Baptist Church

This is the left-hand property of a symmetrical terrace of four two-storey houses with semi-basement and attic, each three bays wide, situated on the east side of Downshire Road. The building represents a fine example of early 19th-century Georgian townhouse architecture in virtually original condition and demonstrates early town planning by an improving landlord. Its architectural significance is enhanced by restrained decoration, particularly the doorcase, and its grouping within an intact symmetrical terrace.

The façade is rendered in painted line render with stepped render quoins and a plain rendered projecting eaves course. The roof is hipped with artificial slate and L-shaped, gabled at the right where it adjoins number 9. Cement rendered chimneys with projecting caps rise from either end of the front ridge, with the right chimney shared with the adjacent property.

The principal entrance at ground floor centre is approached by a single granite step rising to a granite paved platform. The doorway is flanked by two three-quarter attached granite Tuscan columns supporting a moulded granite entablature. Above is a decorative lead Greek Revival rectangular transom light with one-piece moulded granite jambs and scrolled consoles at the top supporting a moulded granite cornice. Original palmette-headed cast iron railings flank the sides of the platform, and metal boot scrapers are inset into the granite paving on either side. The door itself is painted timber with beaded muntin and four bolection moulded panels.

At ground floor, to the left and right of the doorway, are single 6/6 sliding sash windows with horizontal drip moulds featuring foliated stops. These and all other windows have horns and painted granite cills unless otherwise stated. At basement level, in line with the ground floor windows, are 3/3 sliding sashes without labels, beneath an entrance platform. The porch beneath this platform divides the passage across the front of the basement into two sections and has a tongue-and-groove sheeted door on its right cheek. The first floor contains three equally spaced labelled windows, similar to the ground floor but slightly diminished in height.

The left elevation is rendered as the façade with a passage to the front, similar quoins to each corner, and a projecting eaves course. There are three equally spaced 3/3 sliding sash windows at basement level, and three labelled 6/6 sashes at ground and first floors in line with each other, with those at first floor slightly diminished in height. The right gable forms a party wall with the adjacent property.

Due to the site's sloping topography, the basement to the rear elevation is at ground level. The right section of this elevation forms a hipped return to the front section, with painted unlined render and a projecting eaves course. Between the back of the main block and the left cheek of the return is a one-storey extension. The exposed section of the main block wall at the left contains a pair of small modern top-hung casement windows with concrete cills at basement level. At ground floor left is a 3/3 sliding sash window. To the right, on a half landing between ground and first floors, is a tall 6/6 sliding sash half-landing window. At first floor left, in line with the ground floor window, is a 6/6 sliding sash window. The return section has a hipped, overhanging artificial slate roof and smooth rendered walls. At basement level are a pair of modern timber and glass doors with matching sidelights. At ground floor, left and right, are single 1/1 sliding sashes. At first floor is a single 3/3 sliding sash window with horns and concrete cill. The extension has a pair of modern doors with sidelights in its rear wall, with a small modern top-hung window to the immediate left of the doors and similar to the left cheek.

The property is set within a front garden bounded to the street by a painted and rendered coped wall. A concrete path from the gate leads to the entrance steps. The side garden is bounded by a random rubble wall and contains a stained timber picket fence with a gate to the rear garden. The rear garden is enclosed to the sides by granite rubble walls and to the back by a modern rendered cement coped wall with a pair of timber gates to Church Avenue.

The building is shown in its present form on the 1834 Ordnance Survey map. It was owned by Colonel William Hamilton in the 1838 Valuation. The house was probably erected in the 1820s or early 1830s as part of the development of Downshire Road by the Marquis of Downshire and appears to have been conceived as part of a longer terrace that was never completed. The property was purchased by the Trustees of the First Newry Presbyterian Church (Sandys Street) in 1855 for use as a minister's house. It is now used as a church.