16 BOND'S HILL

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A mid-terrace three-bay two-storey (with attic) ruled and lined rendered early-Victorian house, built c.1840s (Architect unknown). Rectangular plan form facing west. 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 brick chimney to left (north) with buff clay pots on party wall with No.17 (HB01/09/006 K) which has been raised to take the chimney above the roof of No.17. Slightly projecting uPVC fascia with extruded aluminium ogee gutter discharging to square rainwater pipe. Window openings are plain square-headed uPVC casements on painted concrete sills in contrasting colour unless otherwise noted.

Front (west) elevation is ruled & lined render with painted finish. uPVC principal entrance door with overlight set within a square-headed opening to right of centre. Door flanked to left by a single wide window and to right by a single square-headed vertically sheeted timber door which accesses the entry to the rear yard. First floor has three equally spaced windows (not aligned with ground floor openings).

The north side is abutted by No.17 Bond’s Hill (HB01/09/006 K).

Rear (east) elevation is painted cement render finish with irregularly placed windows, the majority of which are uPVC. Two small modern rooflights to rear roof slope.

The south side is abutted by No.15 adjacent (HB01/09/006 I).

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).
The yard to the rear has a small detached outbuilding with white washed lime rendered stone walling and pitched natural slate roof. There appears to be a further outbuilding to the rear of the site which is mostly concealed by vegetation; steps centred on the rubblestone retaining wall at the rear of the garden remain. Rubblestone walls to boundaries with adjoining rear gardens to No.15 & 17, also white washed in places.

Materials:
Roof : Natural Slate
RWGs : Extruded aluminium/uPVC
Walling: Ruled &Lined Painted Render
Windows: uPVC casements.
Doors : Replacement uPVC

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.16 Bond’s Hill, a two-storey three-bay house, was constructed between c.1839 and 1848-49. Griffith’s Valuation (1856) records that the building was originally utilised as a police barracks and was valued at £10 and 10 shillings (exempt from taxation). The site was leased from James Murray, a local borough magistrate and continued to be utilised as a barracks until the late-1860s when the building became a private dwelling. The first recorded occupant of No. 16 Bond’s Hill was a Mr. Thomas Jameson although the inhabitants of the house changed with great frequency over the following decades. In 1901 the census recorded that William James Boyce, a local tutor, resided at the house. In that year the census building return described No. 16 Bond’s Hill as a 2nd class dwelling that consisted of nine rooms and possessed a shed as its sole outbuilding. The contemporary Ordnance Survey Town Plan (1904-05) depicted the house along its current layout suggesting that few major structural changes have been made to the building (a remnant of the original shed has survived in the rear yard). In 1911 the house had passed to John Logue, a local driver. The Logue family continued to reside at the site until 1944 when a Mr. Maurice Campbell took possession of the site. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57) ownership of the building had passed to a Ms. Mary Sweeney and the value of the house had been increased to £15. Occupant and owner remained unchanged by the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956-72) at which time the value of No. 16 Bond’s Hill stood at £18.

Nos 9-24 Bond’s Hill were listed in 1979. The NIEA HB Records note that No. 16 Bond’s Hill underwent an extensive renovation in 1986 which involved the reslating of its roof in natural slate, the installation of cast iron rainwater goods, the addition of a new entrance door and the repointing of its chimney (NIEA HB Records). Field inspection of the site, carried out as part of the Second Survey, has found that No. 16 Bond’s Hill 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. First Survey Record – HB01/09/006B (No Date)
13. NIEA HB Records – HB01/09/006J

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
X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

An early-Victorian mid-terrace three-bay two-storey (with attic) ruled and lined rendered house, built c.1840 as a police barracks 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 9-15 & 17-21 Bond’s Hill (HB01/09/006B-I & K-O). The house has been modernised both externally and internally with loss of historic fabric and detailing including replacement windows and doors. However, although altered, it is integral to the group value and interest of the terrace that, as a whole, is a good example of the type. The rear yard is bound by rubblestone walling on all three sides and retains a white-washed rubblestone outbuilding which significantly enhances the quality of its setting.