152 Newry Rd, Kilkeel, Newry, Co Down, BT34 4ET

152 Newry Road, Kilkeel

A two-storey, three-bay L-plan house on the north side of Newry Road, situated immediately south of St Colman's Church. Built in the 1920s, it served as a rectory or manse associated with the church and St Louis's School nearby. The building is of local interest primarily because of these connections.

The house features a pitched natural slate roof with terracotta crested ridges and coped verges. Four rendered chimneys punctuate the roofline: two to the front pitch on either side of the central bay (aligned perpendicular to the facade) and two to the rear pitch on each end bay (aligned parallel with the facade). Cast iron ogee rainwater goods serve the roof. Walls are constructed of rockfaced concrete blockwork laid in regular courses over an advanced base course with a smooth chamfered top. The walls are finished with rendered corbelled eaves. All dressings consist of smooth concrete blockwork with stop-ended chamfered arrises. A moulded stringcourse runs between ground and first floor, extending around all four walls of the main block.

The principal facade faces south towards the road. The entrance is positioned centrally, reached by two concrete steps. A modern eight-panelled door with sidelights and concrete cills forms the entrance; all glazing is leaded and stained. Modern transom lights sit above the door and sidelights, flanked by modern metal lantern lights. At first floor, a large modern stained glass window is set within an original opening. All windows have concrete cills. To either side of the central bay are two-storey canted bays with hipped natural slate roofs and terracotta finials. Each cheek of both floors features a 6/1 sliding sash window, though those on the first floor right have been replaced by modern 6/1 top-hung casements. Each set of bay windows shares a continuous cill.

The left elevation is two bays wide. Its left bay has a slightly advanced coped gable with a natural slate roof and 6/1 sliding sashes to both ground and first floors. The right bay contains a 6/1 sliding sash to ground and first floors on its right side. The rear elevation of the main block is blank, abutted to the left by a two-storey return. The return walls replicate the main block construction but lack base and stringcourses. Its roof and verge match the main block proportions with a slightly lower ridge and eaves. One rendered chimney sits on the ridge, parallel to the facade.

The west elevation (right cheek) of the return has a four-panelled bolection-moulded door at ground floor right, reached by two concrete steps with a retaining wall at left topped by heavy concrete coping. A small 6/6 sliding sash sits to the left of the door. Between ground and first floor at the extreme left is a 6/1 landing light. Three windows occupy the first floor: two 6/1 sashes flanking a narrow 4/1 sliding sash. At ground floor left, a one-storey gabled outshot extends from the wall and contains a 1/1 sliding sash. The north-facing gable of the rear return is abutted at ground floor right by this outshot. The outshot's ground floor left wall is rendered and painted with two modern top-hung casements. Its first floor is centred with a 6/1 sliding sash and a small 1/1 sash to the attic above. A modern metal boiler flue is fixed to the right-hand side of this wall. The outshot has a monopitch slate roof sloping to the yard. The yard is enclosed by a high coped wall and a sheeted timber door to the north elevation.

The left elevation of the main block contains four 6/1 sashes to ground floor and three to first floor, though the top left has been replaced by a modern casement. The wall continues to the right as the plain left cheek of the two-storey return, with two 6/1 sashes to ground and first floors.

To the front is a small garden bounded by a modern granite wall to the road. The immediate areas around the house are surfaced with tarmac. An asbestos-roofed garage stands at the rear.

The building remains in use as a rectory or manse associated with the Roman Catholic Church.