Patrick Murphy and Sons, Abbey Yard, Newry, Co Down, BT34 2EG

Patrick Murphy and Sons is a complex of three buildings comprising a shop, store, and outbuilding, situated on the east side of Abbey Yard in Newry. Dating from the early 19th century (1800–1819), the buildings form part of an important architectural grouping around Abbey Yard. The shop and adjacent store retain most of their original external features and some internal fittings, though the outbuilding has undergone greater alteration. The complex encloses two yards.

The shop has a hipped roof of fibre cement slate with terracotta ridges. The façade is lined render with raised render eaves course. A pair of large timber tongued-and-grooved doors occupies the centre, with plain jambs and head; the left jamb retains the remains of stepped granite quoins with alternate ones raised. Above the doorway, traditional sign writing is painted directly onto the render. On either side, high in the wall, are single tall exposed box 6/6 sliding sash windows with horns. Each window has plain render jambs, painted granite cills, and five stepped flat-headed oversized projecting ashlar granite voussoirs, with the centre keyblock projecting most. External tongued-and-grooved sheeted and braced shutters with original iron latches and hinges protect each window. The right elevation is rendered as the façade with no openings. The remaining walls at eaves level are painted random rubble with a corbelled eaves course of three bricks, the central course being headers with pointed ends. The rear elevation is painted random rubble with an eaves course matching the left elevation. To the left of centre is a single sheet metal door with metal grill over; to the right is a narrow landscape-oriented fixed timber window with security bars. A large rear yard is enclosed by a random rubble wall. Access from Courtney Hill is via a pair of tongued-and-grooved sheeted gates with wicket gate and original iron furniture, set within two brick piers.

The store is a single-storey structure adjoining the left elevation of the shop. Its pitched roof is covered in fibre cement slates with terracotta ridges, and has a cast metal skylight to the left pitch. Rainwater goods comprise leaded valleys with a metal downpipe to the right of the front elevation. The façade gable wall is cement rendered with an uneven gable, longer pitched to the right side. Offset to the left is a pair of tongued-and-grooved doors within a tongued-and-grooved headed Gothic-headed coach arch. The arch has chamfered granite jambs and head, with its left jamb forming the left corner and shared by a similar arch in the outbuilding return.

The outbuilding is two storeys with a right gable abutting the left elevation of the store. Its roof is pitched and sheeted in corrugated fibre cement with semicircular metal rainwater goods. The gabled return features an artificial slate roof hipped to the front elevation toward Abbey Yard. Façade walls are painted random rubble. Most ground floor openings have been infilled with concrete blocks. At ground floor, a pedestrian way to the rear yard is located to the left (now blocked), and at centre is a pair of new tongued-and-grooved sheeted doors within a semi-elliptical headed coach arch. To the left of these is a low tongued-and-grooved sheeted door. At first floor are six openings: a narrow opening over the alley (now sheeted in), a sheeted loading door over the ground floor door, a square louvred opening over the wall between door and coach arch, a narrow louvred opening over the coach arch, a sheeted loading door in the wall to the right of the previous opening, and a small infilled opening at the extreme right. The right gable is a party wall with the store. The rear elevation is painted random rubble with an alleyway opening at the extreme right and a loading door to its left at first floor; to the extreme left is another first floor loading door. The remainder is blank and abutted by a long derelict rendered concrete block shed. The return projecting from the right of the façade has a roof matching the outbuilding with a hipped gable fronting Abbey Yard. Its façade gable is painted lined cement render with a pair of tongued-and-grooved timber sheeted doors set within a Gothic-headed arch with chamfered granite jambs and head. The left elevation is rendered random rubble with a raised render eaves course and a low segmental-headed opening leading to a half-height ground floor. At first floor is a tongued-and-grooved sheeted timber loading door with a small tongued-and-grooved sheeted opening to its left. The right section of the wall cants forward as a tall arch spanning to the opposite yard wall, with random granite rubble as spandrel. The internal wall has an infilled arch at ground floor and a single circular window at first floor.

Historical records show Abbey Yard was owned by the Corry family from the mid-18th century. No buildings stood on this site—then at the lower end of Boat Street—according to John Rocque's 1760 map. The building is described as a weigh house in the 1838 valuation and as a market house in the 1863 valuation, where it is noted as being used for weighing potatoes for about three months annually at one penny per day. It continued in use as a market house until around 1913, when the valuation entry changed to describe it as a store.