20 LOWER MAGAZINE ST.

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Early-Victorian end-of-terrace three-storey two-bay red brick townhouse with attic level. The front elevation is slightly recessed from the adjoining building, no.19. Built c.1840. Rectangular on plan with chamfered corner to gable at northern end. Principal elevation faces west onto Lower Magazine Street directly overlooking the City Walls and set within the Historic Walled City. Slate to main pitched roof, large red brick chimneystack rises from gable end with replacement brick to chimney. Cast-iron guttering and circular downpipe to the front and rear elevations.

Principal (W) elevation is of Flemish brick bond on a rubble stone basement, projecting sandstone string course between basement and floor above. All windows openings are square-headed on stone sills with 6/6 timber sliding sashes set within painted reveals; blank window with red brick in-fill to semi-basement and blind recessed brick panels to attic level. Two bays on first and second floors, single window bay on ground floor with modern steel bars, left of an elliptical arched entrance doorway, slightly off-centre, three-steps up from sloping pavement. Panelled timber entrance door (painted) flanked by fluted Ionic columns supporting moulded dentilled cornice and frieze with large Adam's style fanlight above having arrow-headed glazing bars.

Gable (N) elevation is three-storeys over rubble stone basement with attic level, topped by a large red brick chimneystack; red brick to match front elevation laid in Flemish brick bond. Sandstone string-course between basement and floor level above; single square-headed window at right side on ground, first and second floors in graduated fenestration; and two small semi-circular arched windows to attic level. All windows are 6/6 timber sliding sashes; painted iron bars to ground floor window. Gable wall has rendered outline of a smaller gable to its left side (presumed to be the remnant of and earlier demolished building), terminating in a stepped buttress, also rendered, to right of centre.

South side is adjoined to neighbouring property No.19 Magazine Street (HB01/19/037B).

East elevation is two bays wide with left side bay slightly advanced, three-storeys over basement of smooth-rendered painted finish with fibre cement tile cladding to attic level. Modern timber flush door (painted) from basement level with concrete steps from basement well leading to rear courtyard; all windows are replacement 6/6 painted timber sliding sashes.

Materials:
Roof Slate
RWG Cast Iron
Walling Flemish brick bond (W & N) / Render (E) with artificial slate to attic level
Windows Timber Sliding Sash

Setting:
Located on the east side of Lower Magazine Street, directly overlooking the City Walls and now forming an end of terrace to a row of adjoining houses of varying type on a steep incline. Situated within one of the few areas of medieval significance in the Historic City Conservation Areas, on the site of the former 16th century Gaelic Tower House, the 'Magazine', which gave the street the name. No. 20 shares a rear yard with the adjoining nos. 19 & 18 and also with some of the Craft Village units.

Historical information

No. 20 Lower Magazine Street, a three-storey two-bay red brick dwelling abutting the adjoining No. 19 Lower Magazine Street, was originally constructed in c. 1840. An early-Victorian structure, No. 20 Lower Magazine Street is located in one of the few areas of medieval significance within the city walls. The building stands on the site of the 16th century Gaelic Tower House, the ‘Magazine,’ which gave the street its name.

The medieval settlement of Doire was mainly characterised by its ecclesiastical buildings. In the 1500s the major structures were the Dominican Abbey (near to modern William Street), the Dubh Regles Augustinian Church (located on approximately the site of the current St. Augustine’s Church) and the Tempul Mór Cathedral (located near to the site of Long Tower Church). In the 16th century there was a pilgrimage route to the Tempul Mór that ran from the river uphill towards the medieval cathedral. Ó Baoill and Lacey suggest that the route may have survived at the Lower and Upper Magazine Streets. Whereas the rest of the city walls and streets follow a strict geometric pattern, Lower Magazine Street curves and twists. Ó Baoill states that ‘the pilgrimage appears to have started from the bottom of modern Magazine Street [and] probably ran uphill close to or along the line which Magazine Street runs today’ (Ó Baoill; Lacey, p. 41).

The only major non-religious structure in medieval Doire was the O’Doherty Tower. Bryson states that the Tower House was built by the Gaelic Lord of Inishowen Ó Dochartaigh for Ó Domhnaill (O’Donnell) in c. 1530. Following the Nine Year’s War and the destruction of most of Doire’s medieval churches, the O’Doherty Tower was requisitioned and refortified by Sir Henry Docwra who then set about establishing the town of Derry. In 1614 Docwra described the fortification in the following terms: ‘at that end where the old Castle stood … I presently resolved to raise a fort to keep our store of munitions and victuals in.’ The former tower house became a Magazine (or storehouse) used to stockpile powder and ammunition. The Magazine was enclosed within the city walls, which were constructed 1613-19, and stood on the future site of No.18-20 Lower Magazine Street until its demolition in c. 1840. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs (1837) states that the Magazine was repaired in c. 1790 and continued to be utilised as for the storage of military ordnance until the 1830s when the government relinquished the land and moved all arms and ammunition to the Barracks on Foyle Street (Ordnance Survey Memoirs, p. 118; Ó Baoill).

The Magazine was last depicted on the 1834 Townland Valuation map (1834) which depicted the building as a rectangular-shaped structure. The contemporary Townland Valuations noted that the Magazine measured 52.9ft in width, 27ft in length and 25ft in height. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs record that the Magazine and its land was owned by a Mr. Robert Young in 1837. Young had the building demolished between 1837 and 1840 when No.18-20 Lower Magazine Street were constructed. The terrace was one of the last major domestic developments to be carried out within the historic city walls. From the 1830s onwards the development of housing was carried out predominantly outside the walls. Grand Georgian-style terraces on Great James Street, Queen Street and Clarendon Street were constructed in Edenballymore during this period and became the preferred residences of the city’s professional and merchant classes.

The first occupant of No. 20 Lower Magazine Street was a Ms. Anne Thompson who was described as a member of the nobility or gentry. The Will of Anne Baldrick (Thompson’s niece) records that Anne Thompson acquired the lease for the house on 1st May 1840. Griffith’s Valuation (1856) records that the house, which was valued at £28, was leased to Thompson by the Young family. Victorian maps of Lower Magazine Street (dated 1857 and 1899 – reproduced by Calley and Foyle Civic Trust respectively) depicted the building as a narrow rectangular-shaped building that possessed a small rear return. The building, which now forms the end terrace, was originally abutted on its north-east side by a two-storey red brick dwelling (the outline of the demolished building can still be seen on the gable of No. 20).

Upon Anne Thompson’s death in c. 1873, her niece Anne Baldrick (also described as a member of nobility or gentry) occupied the building. Baldrick resided there until her own death in 1885 (PRONI Wills) and by 1911 the house was occupied by Dr. James Russell Magee, a local surgeon and physician. In that year the census building return described No. 20 Lower Magazine Street as a 1st class dwelling that consisted of 11 rooms. Dr. Magee died in 1935 and under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57) the value of the dwelling was slightly lowered to £27. In 1947 No. 20 Lower Magazine Street was acquired by F. C. Shannon (of Shannon Shirt & Collar Finishing Co.) who utilised the building as a store until the 1970s. The value of the dwelling was increased to £30 by the end of the Second Revaluation (1956-72).

No. 20 Lower Magazine Street was incorporated into the Historic City Conservation Area in 1977 and was subsequently listed in 1979. The NIEA HB Records note that no 18-20 Lower Magazine Street had been acquired by the Derry Housing Association by 1980. In 1981 No.19-20 were converted into 12 self-contained apartments with the erection of modern dormer windows to the rear of the buildings. In 1984 the pair underwent an extensive renovation that included the re-slating of their roofs, the addition of cast iron rain water goods, the repointing of the exterior brickwork, the installation of new entrance doors and the renewing of all sliding sash window frames (NIEA HB Records).

References

Primary Sources
1. Thomas Raven’s plans of Londonderry (1622; 1625)
2. Porter’s plan 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/157/1/11 – Annual Revisions Valuation Map (c. 1873-1910)
6. PRONI VAL/1/D/5/9A-D – Townland Valuation Town Plan (1834)
7. PRONI VAL/1/B/547A-F – Townland Valuations (1831)
8. PRONI VAL/2/B/5/16D – Griffith’s Valuation (1856)
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/32/11A-11ZD – Annual Revisions (1860-1897)
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/33/2D-2E– Annual Revisions (1898-1931)
11. PRONI VAL/3/C/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. Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Londonderry (1837)
14. Ulster Town Directories (1852-1943)
15. PRONI Wills Catalogue (29 Dec 1885; 29 Nov 1935)
16. First Survey Record – HB01/19/037 (1970)
17. NIEA HB Records – HB01/19/037C
18. Foyle Civic Trust: Living City Project (Lower Magazine Street – including 1899 Valuation Map)

Secondary Sources
1. Calley, D., ‘City of Derry: An historical gazetteer to the buildings of Londonderry’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2013 – including 1857 Londonderry Corporation 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. Lacey, B., A lost Columban turas in Derry in ‘Donegal Annual 49’ Donegal: County Donegal Historical Society, 1997.
4. Ó Baoill, R., ‘Island city: The archaeology of Derry – Londonderry’ Belfast: Northern Ireland Environment Agency, 2013.
5. Rowan, A. J., ‘The Buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster’ London: Yale University Press, 2003.
6. ‘A design guide for the Historic City Conservation Area Londonderry’ Belfast: Department of the Environment, 2012.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

End-of-terrace two-bay three-storey over basement red brick townhouse with attic level, built c.1840. Located on Lower Magazine Street, the building has group value with nos.18 & 19 (HB01.19.037A & B), and together they form a pleasant, elegantly proportioned terrace, of similar scale and distinctive fenestration, overlooking the City Walls and within the Historic City Conservation Area A 16th century Gaelic Tower House once stood on the same site and the curved street layout which gives the terrace its distinctive character is reputed to follow a 16th century pilgrimage route that ran from the river uphill towards the medieval cathedral. Although early Victorian, the building reflects the style of Georgian terraces elsewhere in the city, in particular the elliptical arched doorway with Ionic columns and Adams style fanlight - all matching no.20 next door - and the fenestration and disposition of the windows to the gable. Now used as offices and connected internally to no.19, the interior is substantially altered; however, it remains a very good example of its type. Set back slightly from its neighbours, the entrance is accessed by three sandstone steps with curved tread ends that add further character to its setting.