174 Bishop Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Late Victorian seven-bay four storey over basement former residential care home, red brick with sandstone dressings. Built in 1892 to designs by E.J. Toye. Rectangular plan form with principal elevation facing North West; front entrance is set behind a low stone wall spanning between octagonal pillars with level access from the pavement. Situated on the South East side of Bishop Street Without with an adjoining modern red brick chapel to the North East side, built in 1962 to designs by Corr and McCormick (HB01/17/006), and the Nazareth House Primary School to the South East end, both connected via a single-storey link building to the rear. Up until 2013, Nazareth House was used as a residential care home for the aged; it was originally established as a children's care home.

Hipped natural slate roof with a platform centre and tubular steel guarding; large red brick chimney stack, centred on elevation to the NE side with buff clay pots. There is a smaller red brick chimney stack to the rear, SE side, with buff clay pots. Low stone parapet wall at eaves concealing hipped slate roof behind; three circular cast-iron downpipes with hoppers to front elevation.

The principal elevation (NW) is seven bays wide having a centrally placed half-hexagonal projecting bay three-storeys high with an elaborate advanced entrance porch containing a four-centred concentric arch supported by engaged colonettes, all in sandstone, flanked by three bays to each side, with equally sized and spaced windows to ground, first and second floors and shorter windows to third floor level, all having toothed ashlar sandstone surrounds. The overall fenestration is asymmetrical. Gabled projecting bay to the left (NE) side containing a date stone of '1892'; small octagonal stone at apex to gable supported on corbel brackets; oriel window with sandstone dressings to second floor level; ashlar sandstone toothed quoins to exposed corners of gabled bay, terminating in corbelled circular turrets and cruciform finials at eaves level. Ground floor walling is of 'block and sneck' sandstone; principal entrance has a pair of two panel timber doors with plain glazed fanlight above. At the base of the projecting gabled bay there is a wide four-centred archivolt (now containing a window), with carved spandrels, decorated keystone, and square hood mould; all constructed in dressed sandstone and flanked by angled buttresses topped by stone gablets. The surround to the entrance door at the centre has similar treatment, with dressed stone tourelles, hood mould with foliated stops and dutch-style pediment with polshed granite stone engraving of a biblical scene within the tympanium; rising from either side of the doorcase at pediment level is a square base plinth, with spayed corners and circular top, possibly intended to support statuettes. Upper floor walling is of red brick laid in 'English Garden Wall' bond; continuous moulded sandstone cill-course to upper floor levels; low solid stone parapet wall to eaves level with moulded cornice. All windows to front elevation are multi-pane uPVC casements.

North East side elevation is of red brick laid in 'English Garden Wall' bond with toothed stone dressings to the right hand side corner. The ground floor level is abutted by a single storey entrance porch to adjoining modern chapel; there is a wall mounted bell at first floor level; upper floors are blank; low solid stone parapet wall to eaves has a moulded stone cornice, interrupted by a central red brick rectangular shouldered chimney stack with seven circular buff clay pots.
Beyond the blank red-brick end to the Bishop Street facade, there is a two-bay wide red brick recess and then a further red brick gable to the left hand side that has cream brick dressings. Within the recess, the fenestration pattern is irregular with square-headed openings to the right, of various sizes all having uPVC casement windows; natural slate pitched roof and uPVC rainwater goods; shouldered red brick chimney stack with moulded sandstone cap and two clay pots to the left. The gable end to the left (SE) is symmetrical, three bays wide with rubble stone base, dressed sandstone splayed cill course to round arched openings at ground floor level (now infilled with rendered surround to various sized windows), segmental arched windows to first floor and pointed arched windows to second and third floor. Cream brick toothed quoins to outer corners, continuous string course at impost level and soldier coursed surrounds to upper floor windows. All windows are timber casements. Corbelled stone kneeler with pediment to both sides of gable, with stone copings to raised verge behind. Flat roofed dormer to both slopes of duo-pitched roof behind gable, with artificial slate cladding to cheeks, painted timber fascia, uPVC rainwater goods and casement windows.
Abutting the NE elevation is a modern steel external fire escape stair within a corrugated polycarbonate mono-pitched enclosure that has vertically boarded timber to the base. Immediately to the right there is a further flat roofed single storey link building that connects Nazareth House to the chapel and the school; the latter has continuous painted timber eaves board, uPVC guttering and uPVC glazing, on painted smooth render wall. A small external courtyard remains within the recessed bay at the NE re-entrant corner.

Rear (SE) elevation is almost entirely concealed by concrete framed duo-pitched extension that rises to eaves level; the latter is open at ground level, with a circular-headed arcade (formed in square based columns) and continuous timber framed ribbon glazing to first and second floor level having vertical slate cladding to spandrel panels between each floor; all slate to this extension is artificial and rainwater goods are uPVC. Decorative cast metal gates, painted black, enclose the SE side of the open arcade. A flat roofed slate clad dormer spans the entire width of the SE facing roof slope (described above). Ground floor level to original building, exposed within open arcade, comprises an entrance within paired round-arched recessed openings, with wide stone entrance steps and raked walling flanked by open light-wells to basement level. Original four-panelled doors within ornate moulded timber surround and glazed fanlight over to both recessed arches. Rubble stone walling to basement and lower ground floor, with red brick walling above and cream brick dressings to both doors and two segmental arched windows to either side; windows have been replaced with uPVC casements. To the far right (E) two large round-arched openings, also having cream brick surrounds, retain tripartite sliding sash windows. Cream brick quoins to full height of building and bream brick corbelled eaves exposed to SW corner. To right of centre of the concrete framed extension, there is a further external fire escape stair, enclosed in corrugated polycarbonate with mono-pitched roof and vertically boarded timber base, as above.

South West elevation is red brick with moulded stone cornice to parapet at the Bishop Street side (abutted by later two-storey building); to the rear (E), the gable end is rendered in wet-dash (painted) and abutted by a modern four-storey tower and a single-storey flat roof extension to the right hand corner, also rough-cast rendered with a mix of uPVC and timber casement windows.

Roof : Natural Slate
RWGs : Cast-iron & uPVC (NW, NE, SE)
Walling : Red brick/Sandstone dressings
Windows: Timber Sliding Sash/Timber casements & uPVC Casements

Setting:
Located on the South East side of Bishop Street Without, set back behind a low stone wall that spans between octagonal stone pillars, of same height. Front elevation faces North West onto Bishop Street Without and is set between two modern red bricked buildings; to the left is Corr and McCormick's modern chapel with duo-pitched copper roof (HB01/17/006). Lumen Christi College (HB01.16.003 A-D inclusive) sits directly opposite. Rear garden is enclosed by a low hedge and boundary wall with Nazareth School, a three-storey sandstone gabled building with double-pile roof and multiple chimneys also designed by Toye (almost a decade later), situated at 90 degrees to the NE side and connected via a single storey glazed link.

Historical information

Nazareth House, a four-storey seven-bay red-brick building with sandstone dressings located on Bishop Street (Without), was constructed in 1892. The UAHS guide for Derry records that Nazareth House was established, with the aid of a bequest from a Mrs. Waters, as a care home for children and the elderly from the local Roman Catholic community.

The home, which was initially known as ‘Sunnyside’ was designed by Edward J. Toye. A local architect, Toye (1857-1932) was a pupil of J. G. Ferguson and formed a partnership with James Croom between the 1870s and 1890s. Leaving the partnership Toye set up an independent practice in Derry that the Dictionary of Irish Architects described as a ‘busy one in which work for the Catholic Church predominated.’ Toye was responsible for the design of the city’s most important Roman Catholic buildings including the Long Tower Girl’s School (1893), the spire of St. Eugene’s Cathedral (1900-02), the extension and remodelling of St. Columba’s Church at Long Tower (1908) and the design of the Convent of Mercy Primary School on Artillery Street (1911). Nazareth House was one of the earliest independent contracts that Toye carried out for the Catholic Church (DIA).

Two houses were demolished to make way for Nazareth House which was completed in 1892 and was initially valued at £234 by the Annual Revisions. The UAHS guide for Derry described the care home as a ‘red-brick building with a centrally placed half-hexagon bay three-storeys high, with elaborately emphasised entrance, all in sandstone. The façade is not entirely symmetrical for to the north there is a flat bay projection the full height of the building and terminated at the ground floor with a further larger elaborate entrance (now a window).’ The Care home was administered by the Sisters of Nazareth, an ‘independent pious society of laywomen’ which was first recognised in 1864. The Sisters of Nazareth founded a number of Nazareth Houses throughout England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Only a decade after the completion of the building, Nazareth Home was extended with the construction of the three-storey sandstone schoolhouse on Miller Street (to the east of the original structure). The school was also designed by Toye and the cornerstone was laid by Bishop John K. O’Doherty. Calley describes schoolhouse as a ‘three-storey gable-ended double-pile with its many chimneys interestingly placed in the valley between the two gable roofs.’ Following the completion of the adjoining schoolhouse the total value of Nazareth House was raised to £592 (UAHS guide, p. 36; Calley, pp 54-55; Sister of Nazareth website).

Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57) the value of Nazareth House was increased to £1,200. In 1962 a terrace of houses was demolished to make was for the modernist chapel now located to the north-side of the building. This chapel was designed by Corr & McCormick and was described by the UAHS guide as ‘a restrained piece of street architecture executed in red-brick and neatly composed. Calley noted that the building, which possessed simple leaded casement windows and a copper roof and need spire, ‘makes a good foil to Toye’s richer offering next door and demonstrates that old and new can work very well together.’ Following the construction of the chapel the total value of Nazareth House was increased to £2,836 by the end of the Second Revaluation (1956-72).

Nazareth House was listed in 1979 and the building continued as a children’s home until 2000 when it became a residential care home; it ceased to be used as the latter in 2013. The adjoining Nazareth House Primary School continues to operate in the three-storey sandstone building designed by Edward J. Toye in 1902 (NIEA HB Records; Nazareth House Primary School website).

References

Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/5/20/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1853)
2. PRONI VAL/12/E/157/1 – Annual Revisions Town Plan (c. 1873-1910)
3. PRONI VAL/12/B/32/11Y – Annual Revisions (1892-97)
4. PRONI VAL/12/B/33/3A-3C – Annual Revisions (1898-1929)
5. PRONI VAL/3/C/6/12 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57)
6. PRONI VAL/4/B/5/17 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
7. Ulster Town Directories (1880-1943)
8. First Survey Record – HB01/17/002 (1970)
9. NIEA HB Records – HB01/17/002
10. Belfast Telegraph (7 Jun 2013)

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.

Online Resources
1. Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie/
2. Sisters of Nazareth website - http://www.sistersofnazareth.com
3. Nazareth House Primary School website - http://nazarethps.net/

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

A substantial late-Victorian four-storey seven-bay former residential home in red brick with sandstone dressings, built 1892 to designs by E.J. Toye, as one of his first commissions for the Catholic Church. Rectangular on plan and facing North West onto Bishop Street Without, Nazareth House is adjoined by a modern red chapel to the left side (built 1962 to designs by Corr and McCormick) and later three-storey red-brick building to the right (of little interest). Lumen Christi College (HB01.16.003 A-D inclusive) sits directly opposite and Nazareth School, a three-storey sandstone gabled building with double-pile roof and multiple chimneys, also designed by Toye in 1902, is connected by a single storey glazed link to the SE. Together with the modern chapel these buildings enhance the setting significantly. The external fire-escape stairs, and three-storey extension adversely affect the overall character of the building and have a negative impact upon its setting when considered from the school playground at the rear. However, despite uPVC windows, the front has retained much of its character, style and proportions including rich and elaborate detailing to the entrance and the stone boundary walls and octagonal pillars add a dignified quality to the public facade. Historically, it has social value as a care home associated with the Sisters of Nazareth.