9 BOND'S HILL

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

End-of-terrace three-bay two-storey rendered early Victorian house, built c.1840s (Architect unknown). Rectangular plan form facing west. Plain render to front elevation with painted stucco details to window surrounds. Part of a terrace of sixteen buildings of varying styles which line the east side of Bond’s Hill stepping up the hill. (HB01/09/006 B-R).

Pitched natural slate roof with a two-stage rendered and concrete block chimney stack with four buff clay pots centred on ridge at dividing wall between the house and the coach way. Slightly projecting rendered eaves with half-round uPVC guttering on drive through brackets discharging to uPVC circular downpipe to right of front elevation. All openings have 1/1 double hung timber sliding sash windows with moulded horns unless otherwise noted.

Front (west) elevation is smooth rendered painted finish. Window openings are square-headed with moulded architrave stucco surrounds and painted sills in contrasting colour. Single window to the ground floor flanked to left by entrance door also with stucco architrave and to right by a square-headed coach way. First floor has three square headed windows with moulded architrave stucco surrounds and painted stone sills in contrasting colour.

No.9 is fully abutted to the north by No.10 Bond’s Hill (HB01/09/006C).

Rear (east) elevation is pebble dashed and is abutted by a two-storey pitched roofed return to right. Exposed section to left comprises a square-headed coach way to left and a single window to right at ground floor with two 2/2 timber sliding sash windows to first floor.
The return has a blank north face and a blank gable (east) apart from a small steel framed window contained within a small out-shot. The south face has a square-headed replacement flush door to left with glazed upper panel and a replacement timber casement window to right set within a modified opening. First floor has a narrow 2/2 timber sliding sash window to left and a 1/1 timber sliding sash window to right.

Gable (south) elevation to main house is smooth rendered and has a single diminutive timber sliding sash window to first floor left.

Setting:
Part of a terrace of sixteen buildings of varying styles which line the east side of Bond’s Hill stepping up the hill. (HB01/09/006 B-R).
Large lean-to and pitched roof out-buildings (of little interest) are located to the rear (east) and enclose a small yard.

Materials:
Roof: Natural Slate
RWGs: Half round uPVC
Walling : Painted Render
Windows: Timber Sliding Sash
Doors: Replacement Hard wood front door. Galvanised sheeting to archway door

Historical information

Bond’s Hill was laid out in c.1839 in order to provide access to Ebrington Barracks (which had been constructed between 1839 and 1841) and was one of the first streets to be developed on the Waterside District of Londonderry during the 19th century. The current site of Bond’s Hill remained undeveloped in the 1830s with no buildings depicted on the first edition Ordnance Survey map. Hume states that prior to 1841 the Waterside consisted of a single street and possessed 105 houses. The area was slow to develop due to the steepness of its hills and as a result of expensive tolls that were imposed on carts and pedestrians crossing the city’s wooden bridge. Hume states that the construction of the barracks and the setting up of industrial establishments initiated the rapid development of the Waterside and drew people into the city from the rural hinterland east of the Foyle. In 1849 the Londonderry Standard described the change in the area in the following terms: ‘The Waterside, which from being some 20 years since, little more than a small street, has now become a place of considerable importance having a distillery, two large mills for the manufacture of oatmeal and a third about to be erected’ (Hume, pp 32-34).

Calley states that Bond’s Hill was named after the owners of Clooney House, a late-18th century house which stood at the top of the hill (now demolished and replaced with terraced housing). The street was first depicted on the Ordnance Survey Town Plan of 1848-49 which records that a number of houses (including a church on the current site of the Former Reformed Presbyterian (Covenanter’s) Church – see HB01/09/010) had already been constructed along the route by that time. Nos 9-24 Bond’s Hill, a terrace of two and three-storey Victorian houses also known as Melrose Terrace, was constructed in stages between c.1840 and 1891. Nos 9-17 Bond’s Hill were the first buildings to have been built on the street and can be seen on the Ordnance Survey Town Plan of 1848-49 (Calley, p. 59).

No. 9 Bond’s Hill, a two-storey three-bay house possessing a coach arch, was constructed between c.1839 and 1848-49. Griffith’s Valuation (1856) records that the house was valued at £6 and 10 shillings and was initially leased by James Murray, a local borough magistrate. The Annual Revisions note that a Mr. Thomas McCormick inhabited the house in the 1860s. The occupants of the house changed with frequency over the following decades with the occupants of the houses at the lower end of Bond’s Hill coming from a working class background. During the 1901 Census the house was occupied by Patrick Callan, a local carter. In that year the census building return described No. 9 Bond’s Hill as a 2nd class dwelling which consisted of six rooms and possessed a shed as its sole outbuilding. The house was depicted on the Ordnance Survey Town Plan of 1904-05 which records that the building did not possess its two-storey rear return at that time. In 1910 ownership of nos 9-10 Bond’s Hill passed to William Reynolds, a car proprietor who also held No. 11A. Reynolds leased No. 9 Bond’s Hill to John Kerrigan, a blacksmith who resided at the address until his death in 1914 (PRONI Wills). Following Kerrigan’s death, his family continued to live at the site until 1938 when the house was purchased outright by a Ms. Jane Reynolds who rented the property out to other tenants. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57) the total rateable value of the house was increased to £15 and 10 shillings. Ownership of the house had passed to a Ms. Edith Miller (who continued to rent it out to tenants) by the end of the Second Revaluation (1956-72) at which time the value of No. 9 Bond’s Hill was further raised to £27.

Nos 9-24 Bond’s Hill were listed in 1979. Field inspection of No. 9 Bond’s Hill, carried out as part of the Second Survey, has found that the building continues to be utilised as a private dwelling.

References

Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/5/20/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1830)
2. PRONI OS/6/5/20/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1853)
3. PRONI VAL/12/E/157/1 – Annual Revisions Town Plan (c. 1873-1910)
4. PRONI VAL/2/B/5/16H – Griffith’s Valuation (1856)
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/32/14A-14G – Annual Revisions (1860-1897)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/33/4C-4D – Annual Revisions (1898-1930)
7. PRONI VAL/3/C/6/13 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57))
8. PRONI VAL/4/B/5/18 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
9. Londonderry Standard (5 Jul 1849)
10. Ulster Town Directories (1843-1918)
11. Census of Ireland (1901; 1911)
12. PRONI Wills Catalogue (5 Apr 1914)
13. First Survey Record – HB01/09/006B (No Date)
14. NIEA HB Records – HB01/09/006B

Secondary Sources
1. Calley, D., ‘City of Derry: An historical gazetteer to the buildings of Londonderry’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2013.
2. Hume, J., ‘Derry beyond the walls: Social and economic aspects of the growth of Derry 1825-1850’ Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 2002.
3. Thomas, A., ‘Irish Historic Town Atlas, No. 15: Derry – Londonderry’ Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 2005 - includes Ordnance Survey Town Plan (1904-05).

Online Resources
1. Digital Atlas of Derry - http://www.ria.ie/digitalatlasderry - including Ordnance Survey Town Plan (1848-49)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

An early-Victorian end-of-terrace three-bay two-storey rendered house, built c.1840 and situated on the east side of Bond’s Hill. Part of a terrace of sixteen buildings of varying styles, it has group value with Nos 10-21 Bond’s Hill (HB01/09/006C-O). Bond’s Hill was laid out in c.1839 to provide access to Ebrington Barracks (HB01/09/002A-II) which was constructed between 1839 and 1841. The terrace properties were constructed along the east side of the street over a fifty year period resulting in a terrace which displays the progression of design and detailing through the Victorian period.
Despite the loss of some historic fabric both internally and externally, a large amount good historic detailing remains. Although of interest in its own right, it is integral to the group value and interest of the terrace that, as a whole, is also a good example of the type.