5 ST. COLUMB'S COURT

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Late-Victorian mid-terraced two-bay two-and-a-half-storey Arts and Crafts-style red brick house with a three-storey rough-cast rendered rear return built at half landing height. Built 1899. Rectangular on plan with principal elevation facing South West onto St. Columb's Court. Built as part of a terrace row of houses of similar type.

Pitched natural slate with black clay ridge tiles to main roof and rear return, two large shared (rebuilt) red brick chimney stacks centred on ridge, rising from the south-east and north-west sides, each with six circular terracotta clay pots. Modern velux roof light to rear elevation. Cast-iron rainwater goods to front elevation with PVC to rear return.

Front elevation (South West) is of English Garden Wall brick bond; windows are square-headed with a single 2/2 timber sliding sash on the ground floor to the right of the doorway, two of the same on first floor level; second floor has a pedimented gable (shared with No.4) with one 2/2 timber sliding sash (pair to gable), pediment has half-timber treatment with rough-cast render and plain wide painted timber fascia board finish and carved timber corbel brackets to timber soffit. Square-headed opening to entrance doorway, one step up, with plain architrave surround to a raised-and-fielded four panel timber door with plain flat topped fanlight above. A small flat headed arch close to the ground level below the ground floor window suggests previous access to a basement level and has been partially infilled with concrete.

North West side is abutted by adjoining property No.4 St. Columb's Court (HB01/19/007D).

North East elevation to the rear is three-storey, rough-cast rendered painted finish abutted by a three-storey rear return built at half-landing height, single timber casement window to second floor level. Beyond the three-storey return is a flat-roofed single-storey extension. Full access to rear was not possible at time of survey.

South East side is abutted by adjoining property No.6 St. Columb's Court (HB01/19/007F).

Materials:
Roof Natural Slate
RWG Cast Iron (SW) & PVC
Walling Brick (SW) Rendered (NE)
Windows Timber sliding sashes (SW) Timber casement (NE)

Setting:
Located within a terrace in St. Columb's Court just off the South East side of Bishop Street Within, with St. Columb's Cathedral (HB01/19/001) directly to the south-east, principal elevation faces South West onto St. Columb's Court overlooking The Courthouse (HB01/19/002), set within the Cathedral Quarter inside the City Walls, 40m above the River Foyle.

Historical information

Nos 2-6 St. Columb’s Court, a terrace of five two-and-a-half-storey red brick buildings located between St. Columb’s Cathedral (HB01/19/001) and Bishop Street Within, was constructed in 1899. The terrace replaced a smaller terrace of three dwellings and an outbuilding that had stood on the same site since at least the early-19th century. A 1780 map of Londonderry depicted the southern side of Bishop Street as an uninterrupted row of buildings between London Street and Bishop’s Gate but the construction of No. 1 St. Columb’s Court (HB01/19/005) in 1768 suggests that the court dates from at least the mid-18th century. St. Columb’s Court was first depicted on Porter’s 1799 map whilst the original terrace of three buildings was first recorded in the Townland Valuations in 1832. Calley states that the buildings on and surrounding St. Columb’s Court ‘encapsulates the city’s four centuries of history in four structures - the 17th century Cathedral, the 18th century Irish Society Offices, the 19th century Court House (HB01/19/002) and the ‘nearly Art and Crafts’ terrace (Calley, p. 353).

The four original buildings along St. Columb’s Court were utilised as private dwellings, although the c. 1873-1910 Annual Revisions Town Plan notes that the structure next to the Irish Society Offices was utilised as the Town Clerk’s offices, whilst another was used as the Church of Ireland Working Man’s Club. The original terrace was demolished in 1899 and replaced by the current red brick terrace which was erected to designs by Joseph Ballantine. A local architect and builder, Ballantine was active in the late-19th century and possessed business premises on the Strand Road (UTD; DIA).

No. 5 St. Columb’s Court was originally valued at £12 by the Annual Revisions. The 1901 Census recorded that the first occupant of the new house was Joseph Chambers, a printer and letter presser with business premises on Newmarket Street. The census building return of that year described No. 5 St. Columb’s Court as a 2nd class dwelling that consisted of nine rooms. By 1911 the property had passed to James Wedlock, an inspector with the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (N.S.P.C.C.). In 1929 the house passed to the McGuinness family who continued to reside there until the 1950s. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57) the value of No. 5 St. Columb’s Court was increased to £18 and 10 shillings. In 1952 a Mr. James Orr Boal took possession of the house residing there until at least the 1970s when the value of No. 5 St. Columb’s Court was further raised to £23 under the Second Revaluation (1956-72).

In 1970 the UAHS guide for Londonderry described St. Columb’s Court as ‘a terrace of plain red-brick three-storey houses of reasonable appearance designed as a unit, with symmetrical gables over two [sic] of the houses.’ Nos 2-6 St. Columb’s Court were included in the Historic City Conservation Area in 1977 and were subsequently listed in 1979. The NIEA HB Records note that No. 5 St. Columb’s Court was renovated in 1980 as the dwelling was ‘in a poor state of repair generally and [was] a sub-standard in relation to cooking and bathing facilities.’ Minor repairs were made to nos 2-6 in 1989 following a bomb explosion on Bishop Street. In 1991 the entire terrace underwent an extensive renovation that included the reslating of its roof in natural slate, the replacement of all sliding sash windows and the replacement of all entrance doors (NIEA HB Records). A condition Survey plan of St. Columb’s Court, undertaken by Mullarkey Pedersen Architects in 2010, records that No. 5 St. Columb’s Court continued to be utilised as a private dwelling at the time of the Second Survey.

References

Primary Sources
1. Volunteer’s Map of Londonderry (1780)
2. Porter’s Map of Londonderry (1799)
3. PRONI OS/6/5/20/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1830)
4. PRONI OS/6/5/20/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1853)
5. PRONI VAL/12/E/157/1/14 – Annual Revisions Map (c. 1873-1910)
6. PRONI VAL/1/B/547A-F – Townland Valuations (1831)
7. PRONI VAL/1/D/5/9B – Townland Valuation Town Plan (1834)
8. PRONI VAL/2/B/5/16C – Griffith’s Valuation (1856)
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/32/11A-11ZD – Annual Revisions (1860-1897)
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/33/1A-1B – Annual Revisions (1897-1929)
11. PRONI VAL/3/B/6/10 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1935)
12. PRONI VAL/4/B/5/14 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
13. Ulster Town Directories (1843-1943)
14. Census of Ireland (1901; 1911)
15. First Survey Record – HB01/19/007 (1970)
16. First Survey Image – HB01/19/007 (No Date)
17. NIEA Pink Files – HB01/19/007
18. The Foyle Civic Trust: Living City Project (St. Columb’s Court)
19. Mullarkey Pedersen Architects Condition Survey (2010)

Secondary Sources
1. Calley, D., ‘City of Derry: An historical gazetteer to the buildings of Londonderry’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2013.
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. ‘A design guide for the Historic City Conservation Area Londonderry’ Belfast: Department of the Environment, 2012.

Online Resources
1. Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie/

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

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

Evaluation

A late-Victorian two-and-a-half-storey redbrick mid-terraced house built 1899 to the designs of Joseph Ballantine. Located within St. Columb's Court set on the South East side of Bishop Street Within, in the Cathedral Quarter of the Walled City with St. Columb's Cathedral situated directly to the South East. The Cathedral is accessed from steps that sit directly to the front of No.6 St. Columb's Court . No. 5 shares a half-timbered pedimented gable on second floor level with No.4. Although fairly plain in appearance, it has group value with its neighbours. Detailing to the exterior remains and is consistent for its time and style. The architectural and historical interest of the terrace is greatly enhanced by the setting of the Cathedral, the Deanery and the Irish Society Offices which are all within close proximity.