164 Bishop Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Early Victorian five-bay two-storey over basement Georgian-style symmetrical rendered house, built in 1853-56. Rectangular plan form with principal elevation facing North West, front entrance is three steps up from pavement level. Situated on the South East side of Bishop Street Without set within a walled garden to the rear (SE) and to the South West side with the former Palace of the Church of Ireland Bishop Hervey built in 1877 (HB01/16/003) to the North West and the former Nazareth Convent (HB01/17/006) to the South West end. No. 164 was leased by the Honourable The Irish Society to Mrs. Anne Alexander soon after its construction.

Hipped natural slate roof with three rear hips has black clay ridge tiles and metal scroll finials with three large rendered chimney stacks mid-ridge with buff clay pots, two centred on the main roof and the third rising from the South West wing. Stepped rendered cornice at eaves; half-round cast-iron guttering supported by out-and-up iron brackets.

The front elevation (NW) has stepped corner quoins to each end; square headed windows with moulded architraves on sill bands painted in contrasting colour. All windows are 6/6 double hung timber sliding sashes, without horns; two bays on ground floor to either side of a recessed elliptical arched door opening with rendered moulded architrave surround, door case contains a raised-and-fielded four panel timber door flanked by columns of the Doric order on plinth blocks supporting entablature above with radial fanlight over; the entrance is approached via a short flight of stone steps with original boot scraper (partially intact) to the right of door case.

North East side elevation is of rendered painted finish abutted by a rendered high wall perpendicular to the main house concealing pump room behind at basement level and storage area on ground floor level; first floor level has a blind square headed window bay; stepped corner quoins to the NW end; half-round cast-iron guttering terminating at a circular downpipe to the NW corner. (Ground floor not visible).

The rear elevation to the South East side is smooth rendered with a projecting central bay containing an entrance door case on ground floor level approached via a flight of concrete steps leading to a panelled timber door with multiple-panes to upper section flanked by panelled side lighted with three glazed panes to upper section, door case is topped by an deep projecting moulded cornice supporting on plain console brackets to either side; large semicircular arched 6/6 timber sliding sash window with coloured margin panes above entrance door; side bays have multi-pane timber casement windows to basement level, 6/6 timber sliding sashes to ground and first floors with a 6/3 sliding sash on ground floor to the left side bay. Cast-iron rainwater goods to rear elevation. Rear garden is enclosed by a high red brick boundary wall with an iron gate leading to rear laneway accessed via Miller Street situated perpendicular with Bishop Street Without.

South West side elevation is of rendered painted finish; windows openings are square headed on painted sills with three evenly spaced multi-pane timber casements to basement level and 6/6 timber sliding sashes to ground and first floors; uPVC rainwater goods to SW elevation; North West corner on South West elevation is abutted by a curved red brick wall enclosing garden to the South West side with stepped corner quoin above.

Setting:
Located on the South East side of Bishop Street Without within a walled garden enclosed by a high red brick wall to the South West and South East side. Front elevation faces North West onto Bishop Street Without with the former summer palace of Bishop Hervey to the North West and the former Nazareth Convent to the South West.

Roof Natural Slate
RWGs Cast-iron & uPVC (SW)
Walling Painted Render
Windows Timber Sliding Sash & Timber casements

Historical information

No. 164 Bishop Street, an early-Victorian two-storey-over-basement five-bay dwelling with walled garden to rear, was constructed between 1853 and 1856. Bishop Street (Without) was first referred to as the King’s highway to Lifford in 1639. The street gained its current name by 1799 when all the stretch of road extending from The Diamond to the Foyle Road was known as Bishops Street. Calley states that Bishop Street (Without) ‘used to be an area of diverse building with different heights, materials, used and scale which made up a lively part of the city’ (Calley, p. 52).

No. 164 Bishop Street is one of the earliest domestic buildings to survive along the lower stretch of the street which is characterised by late-Victorian and Edwardian terraces. The house was not depicted on the 1848-49 Ordnance Survey Town Plan or the second edition Ordnance Survey Map of 1853. The maps show that the plot on which the house was later built was located to the west of a tannery (now demolished). The two-storey with exposed basement to rear Georgian-style dwelling had been constructed by 1856 when it was recorded in Griffith’s Valuation. The valuer noted that the house was valued at £33 and 10 shillings and was leased by The Honourable The Irish Society to a Mrs. Anne Alexander. The Ulster Town Directories noted Mrs. Alexander amongst its list of Londonderry’s nobility and gentry (UTD).

Anne Alexander resided at No. 164 Bishop Street until c. 1864 when the house passed to James Alexander, a local merchant (of J & J Alexander, coal merchants with premises on Shipquay Street – UTD). James Alexander only briefly resided at the property before his death in 1868 (PRONI Wills) when administration of the house passed to Messers Robert and Joseph Alexander, proprietors of a flour and oatmeal steam mill on the Waterside (Mullin, p. 132). The building was depicted along its current layout in the c. 1873-1910 Annual Revisions Map suggesting that no major structural change has been made to the building since at least the late-Victorian period.

The house passed from the Alexander family in 1898 when John Brown, a Master Baker, purchased the house outright. The 1901 census described Brown’s house as a 1st class dwelling that consisted of 15 rooms and possessed a number of out offices including two stables and a coach house, a cow house, piggery and coal house in the walled yard to its rear. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57) the house had passed to a Mr. William Cooke and had been increased in value to £45. The Cooke family continued to own No. 164 Bishop Street until 1958 when it was sold to St. Columb’s College and converted into additional office and classroom accommodation for the college. By the end of the Second Revaluation (1956-72) the total rateable value of the building had been further increased to £75.

In 1970 the UAHS guide for Londonderry described No. 164 Bishop Street as ‘a two-storey symmetrically composed detached house rendered externally, hipped slated roof, with a walled garden’ (UAHS, p. 52). No. 164 Bishop Street was listed in 1979 and during the Second Survey the building had been returned to office use.

References

Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/5/20/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1853)
2. PRONI VAL/12/E/157/1/15 – Annual Revisions Town Plan (c. 1873-1910)
3. PRONI VAL/2/B/5/16E – Griffith’s Valuation (1856)
4. PRONI VAL/12/B/32/11A-11Y – Annual Revisions (1860-97)
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/33/3A-3C – Annual Revisions (1898-1929)
6. PRONI VAL/3/C/6/11 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57)
7. PRONI VAL/4/B/5/15 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
8. Ulster Town Directories (1860-1943)
9. PRONI Wills Catalogue (17 Nov 1868)
10. Census of Ireland (1901; 1911)
11. First Survey Record – HB01/17/001 (1970)
12. NIEA HB Records – HB01/17/001 (Missing)

Secondary Sources
1. Calley, D., ‘City of Derry: An historical gazetteer to the buildings of Londonderry’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2013 (includes 1899 Valuation Map).
2. Ferguson, W. S; Rowan, A. J; Tracey, J. J., ‘List of historic buildings, groups of buildings, areas of architectural importance in and near the city of Derry’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1970.
3. Mullin, T. H., Ulster’s historic city: Derry – Londonderry’ Londonderry: Coleraine Bookshop, 1986.

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
T. Historic Importance
X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
U. Historic Associations
S. Authenticity

Evaluation

A substantial early-Victorian, Georgian-style two-storey-over-basement rendered house, built 1853-1856 and located on the south-east side of Bishop Street (Without) at the corner of Miller Street. This former dwelling is located within a walled garden enclosed by high red brick and stone walls. The building presents a two-storey symmetrical elevation to the street and a three-storey elevation to the rear and sides, where the basement level is exposed. Shortly after the house was built it was leased by The Honourable The Irish Society. This is one of the earliest domestic buildings to survive along the lower stretch of Bishop Street. The exterior has retained much of its historic character such as the radial fanlight over central Georgian style doorcase and the internal layout has been retained with detailing largely intact and consistent for its time and style.