7 Charlemont Square East, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

Two-storey two-bay mid-Victorian terraced house built between 1862 and 1866 to designs by an unknown architect. The building has a rectangular plan and faces southwest.

No. 7 Charlemont Square East is one of twenty-seven similar houses forming the eastern terrace of Charlemont Square. Together with five larger two-and-a-half storey shop buildings to the southeast, these dwellings are part of a formally designed mid-Victorian square of 66 buildings total, arranged on three sides around a central green. The square is primarily accessed from Fountain Street to the southeast.

The walling is generally random-coursed rock-faced local Newry Granodiorite with painted red brick dressings. Stone cills are painted, and the gauged-brick cambered door and window openings have stepped red brick surrounds (window heads are now generally squared off with painted smooth cement render). The pitched fibre cement roof features angled black clay ridge tiles. A rectangular-section red brick chimney on the northwest side has two terracotta clay pots. Flush eaves are supported by a red brick corbel course. uPVC rainwater goods with half-round guttering discharge to circular section downpipes.

The principal southwest-facing elevation is nearly symmetrical and flush with the main terrace of houses. A modest paved front yard is enclosed by smooth cement-rendered dwarf walling topped with modern replacement galvanized metal scrollwork railings and a similar foot gate to the southeast. A concrete path from the gate leads to the painted timber front door, located southeast of the facade centre. The door has a square planked panel to the bottom half and four glazed square sections to the top half, with brass furniture. The facade has a regular fenestration pattern with two windows at first floor level aligned with ground floor openings. All windows are 1/1 single-glazed timber sash windows.

The building is attached on the northwest to No. 8 Charlemont Square East and on the southeast to No. 6 Charlemont Square East.

The northeast elevation has limited access but shows a single-storey monopitched outbuilding extending to the northeast boundary in the rear yard. Where visible, this elevation consists of rough-cast cement render walling with two later first floor window openings containing top and side opening timber casement windows. A planked painted timber door in the roughcast walling of the monopitched outbuilding leads from the rear access route to the yard, with corrugated Perspex to the roof and a timber casement window to the left of the door.

Charlemont Square was conceived as a planned workers' housing arrangement for mill employees, comprising a formal square with East, West, and North terraces arranged around a central green. Each house is set back from the perimeter public road and footpath with a modest front yard typically enclosed by dwarf walling topped by hooped metal railings. The East and West terraces are stepped in groups of two dwellings to respect the site's subtle relief. Each dwelling typically has a larger rear yard enclosed by random-coursed rubble stone walling, with a square-headed door opening onto a wide rear access route. Front facades remain nearly uniform along the East and West terraces, though rear facades are much altered with various extensions of different shapes and sizes. The central area of the square is now laid to lawn and enclosed by hooped galvanized metal railings, with established trees at its boundary.