Griffith's Shop, 5 Church Road, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh, BT35 7AQ

Griffith's Shop, 5 Church Road, Bessbrook

This is a late 19th-century single-storey former draper's shop built in Newry granodiorite stone, located on the west side of Bessbrook village on the north side of Church Street. Constructed around 1894, it forms part of a wider house and farm complex and is a detached, split-level building — a single-storey shop at the front with a two-storey section running perpendicular to the rear. It is rectangular on plan. The shopfront detailing is early 20th century in character, though its most striking feature is a mid-20th century neo-classical shopfront that remains largely intact and is a relatively rare surviving example of this type.

Architectural Overview

The roof is a pitched natural slate finish, inset with timber-framed five-light rooflights throughout, some of which are boarded over. The ridge is finished with roll-top terracotta tiles. A red brick chimneystack is centrally placed on the two-storey rear section, and cast iron rainwater goods are used throughout. The walls are random coursed granite rubble with cement ribbon pointing, except for the shopfront, which is rendered. Windows are timber-framed with brick reveals and granite cills.

Shopfront

The shopfront faces south and is the building's most architecturally significant feature. It is gabled and symmetrically composed, with a pediment bearing a heavy moulded surround inset with raised painted plaster lettering reading 'GRIFFITH / DRAPER / MILLINER'. The pediment is carried on an iron beam stamped with the maker's mark 'Bell / Belfast', and is flanked on either side by wide pilasters with contrasting mouldings corresponding to capitals and plinths, with additional geometric detailing. To either side of a central recessed porch are two large timber-framed display windows, currently boarded over, each with multi-paned top panels and resting on rendered stallrisers with decorative ventilation grilles. The porch itself has glazed side walls forming the main entrance front, a geometric tiled threshold, and a timber-sheeted ceiling divided into sections by timber ribs. The entrance door is a replacement timber and glazed door with a leaded stained glass overlight. The shopfront is currently secured by modern metal grilles and a gate.

Other Elevations

The west elevation is largely blank, with the exception of a replacement timber door to the two-storey rear section, set within an original timber frame with a two-light overlight. The rear elevation is also blank and is abutted at ground floor level by a later 20th-century concrete block outbuilding. The east elevation has openings only in the two-storey section: three replacement hardwood six-light windows at ground floor and three original six-light top-hung casement windows at first floor. The single-storey section of the east elevation is blank.

Interior

The shop retains much of its original interior, which has remained largely unchanged since the 1950s. Features include a high ceiling with the roof structure and rooflights visible, a cast-iron spiral staircase, timber-sheeted walls and partitions, and decorative glazing and lettering. Historical valuation records describe the interior as spacious and lofty, wood-lined throughout, with tiled floors and stock rooms to the rear and on the first floor, the latter accessed via the spiral staircase.

Setting

The building is set back from the street, with a tarmac pavement extending to its perimeter. There is a closed access entry to the east. The rear and west elevations bound the yard and the garden of the adjoining property — a detached late 19th-century two-storey house with several outbuildings to the rear. The building sits in close proximity to Charlemont Square and other buildings associated with the Bessbrook Spinning Company.

Historical Background

The building is first shown on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1906, at which point it did not yet include the present mono-pitched section to the north. Valuation records indicate that from around 1894 to 1909, the shop — with a rateable value of £13 — was occupied by a draper named William Barr, and comprised a house, shop, shed and yard. The adjacent detached house to the west and an associated linear range of outbuildings were built around 1909 and occupied by another draper, Margaret 'Madge' Pearson, a widow originally from Cork, as recorded in the 1911 Census. The shop passed from William Barr to his wife Sara around 1923, then to a Peter Gibbons in 1927. Evidence from the First General Revaluation of 1935 suggests that around 1930, both properties were acquired by a further draper, Elizabeth Griffith, and their combined rateable value rose to £73. By this time, the stores to the rear of the shop had already been added.

A valuer of the period described Griffith's shop as 'a really good building, well finished and well maintained', with 'a good modern front' and 'good internal fittings'. The shop operated as a credit drapery, also selling boots and hardware. The narrow range of detached outbuildings to the north-west served as garages and stabling for the private carriages and hearses of an undertaking business also run from the premises. Contemporary maps confirm that the footprints of both the shop and the adjacent house have been unchanged since at least the 1950s, as shown on the fifth edition Ordnance Survey map of 1956. A larger detached outbuilding to the north was added at some point during the latter half of the 20th century.

Bessbrook itself was developed by John Richardson during the mid-19th century as a self-contained industrial colony, its planned layout reflecting the most advanced social thinking of the day. The American Civil War of the 1860s drove demand for linen and made Bessbrook an important centre of production, prompting a major period of expansion. Over 600 houses were built between 1845 and 1888, primarily in granite quarried from Richardson's own land. Workers' housing and communal facilities — including a school, butcher's shop and dairy — were provided by the Bessbrook Spinning Company. Griffith's Shop was built in the latter years of this expansionary period and remains of significant local historic interest.