17 Windsor Hill, Newry, Co Down, BT34 1ER

17 Windsor Hill, Newry

A two-storey, three-bay house set in mature grounds on the east side of Windsor Hill. This is a substantial late Victorian suburban residence built in 1893–1896 by Alexander Whelan, a noted Newry building contractor, on land leased from the Downshire Estate. The house features good brick and terracotta detailing and a largely original interior.

The building has a pitched natural slate roof with scalloped terracotta ridges, hip knobs and overhanging eaves. Three return roofs tie into the rear pitch: the left and right are pitched, whilst the centre is hipped. A stepped red brick chimney with yellow brick banding rises from the roof ridge between the left and centre bays. At the front left of the façade is a hipped canted bay with similar slate, ridges and terracotta hip knob.

The front wall is constructed of red brick with a chamfered base course and a single course of black bricks at the head level of ground floor windows. A moulded brick string course runs between the ground and first floors, with a second projecting course at first floor window cill level. A course of black and yellow bricks marks the head level of first floor windows. The main entrance is set within a central gabled brick porch with a pitched ashlar granite roof rising from moulded granite kneestones. Its walls are red brick with a matching base course. The walls splay outwards towards the ground on either side of the door opening. A single granite step leads to a pair of multi-panelled timber doors with the top two panels glazed, and a plain semicircular fanlight above, all set within a semi-elliptical headed chamfered opening surmounted by a course of purple brick. Above this is a projecting moulded string course. The gable apex contains an inset foliated terracotta diamond panel. Stepped brick plinths with chamfered granite caps flank the door opening.

All windows are 1/1 sashes with segmental heads, swept stooled ends and granite cills. Those on the ground floor façade feature decorative terracotta lintels with embossed rosettes, raised keystone and roll-mould chamfering. First floor windows have chamfered brick reveals and heads. Above the porch are a pair of windows with a common cill broken by the porch roof ridge. To the left is a canted bay window with single 1/1 sliding sashes to each cheek of both floors. The ground floor right bay contains a pair of windows with a single window centred above.

The right elevation is two bays wide with the left bay gabled. Wall details match the façade. The gable is decorated with three different bands of red, black and yellow bricks. At ground floor left is a single-storey rectangular bay with a pair of windows to the front. At right is a single-storey canted bay window with a single window to each cheek. Both projecting bays are capped by a granite blocking course at the cill level of the first floor. The first floor has two pairs of windows in line with those below. The left elevation is two bays wide, with the right bay forming a projecting two-storey gable with matching wall and gable detailing. At ground floor left is a pair of windows, above which is a large segmental headed stained glass landing window with yellow and black brick panels below the cill. The right gable has a 1/1 sash to each floor.

The rear elevation is abutted by three returns. The left and right returns (as viewed from the rear) are gabled with natural slate and each has a stepped red brick chimney with yellow banding to the ends. The left cheek of the left return continues from the right elevation of the main block; the right cheek of the right return continues from the left elevation of the main block. The left return has a blank left wall with its end gable abutted by a single storey return, the exposed section of gable above being blank. The right cheek forms a party wall with the middle return. The smaller central return has a pitched natural slate roof and rendered gable. The right return has, on its right cheek, a continuation of the string courses from the main block, with a 1/1 sash to each floor. Its gable is abutted by a one-and-a-half storey return with a blank wall above. The left cheek projects forward from the middle return and has a single 1/1 sash to each floor. The smaller return has a pitched natural slate roof with a sliding sash to the ground floor of its right cheek and 1/1 sashes to each floor of its gable. Its left cheek has a central door and 1/1 sash to the right. Linking the two returns is a central return with a natural slate hipped roof. At ground floor it has a modern top-hung timber window to the right and two 1/1 sliding sashes to the left. The first floor has two 1/1 sliding sashes.

The boundary to Windsor Hill is formed by coursed granite rubble with rock faced coping. Square ashlar gate piers on chamfered bases have oversailing pyramidal tops, with a wrought iron pedestrian gate between them. The front and side gardens are lawned with planting and shade trees. A wall between the left and right returns encloses a rear yard which contains a manually operated cast iron water pump. An outhouse on the rear boundary wall towards Arthur Street has a pitched natural slate roof, random rubble walls with red brick dressings, and openings to all sides.

The land was leased from the Downshire Estate to Samuel Duncan in 1893 and sold the following year to Alexander Whelan, who erected this house and also numbers 19 and 21 Windsor Hill. The house first appears (as vacant) in the 1895 Valuation Book and was occupied from 1896. Whelan died in 1902 and the property passed to his daughter Florence Booth Whelan. The present owners purchased the house after the Second World War. Two pre-war watercolours show the gardens were laid out with elaborate flowerbeds, hedge arches and mature shrubs and trees. The house was cited as 'Braeside' on the 1902 Ordnance Survey map. The building is currently used as a rectory or manse.