5 Guildhall Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Mid-terrace three-storey with attic stucco-fronted building, built c.1890. Rectangular on plan, facing southeast onto Guildhall Street with a replacement façade fronting northwest onto Custom House Street. Largely rebuilt c.2000.

Pitched natural slate roof with clay ridge tiles, profiled rendered chimney stacks and cast-iron rainwater goods. Lead-lined barrel-vaulted dormer windows to the front pitches of both external elevations. Painted stucco walling with decorative painted mouldings to front elevation. Painted rendered rear elevation with reconstituted stone dressings. Replacement single-pane timber sash windows throughout.

Front elevation has three paired window openings to the upper levels framed by Giant Ionic order pilasters rising from a continuous deep moulded cornice over the ground floor. Square-headed to the second floor and round-headed to the first floor, all framed by squat Doric pilasters and architrave mouldings to the heads. Symmetrical ground floor comprises; a central round-headed door opening set within an advanced door surround and a pair of square-headed windows to either side. Replacement double-leaf timber panelled doors flanked by quarter engaged Doric piers, plain fanlight and archivolt moulding with keystone. Door opening is framed by a pair of robust piers and oversized console brackets supporting advanced entablature over.

South side elevation abutted by adjoining building.

Rear elevation fronting onto Custom House Street, built c.2000, imitates the composition of the front elevation with modern materials.

North side elevation abutted by adjoining building, the former Custom House (HB01/19/017).

Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Painted stucco
Windows Replacement timber sash

Setting:
Street-fronted and forming part of a terrace of four disparate buildings of similar date, facing southeast onto pedestrianised Guildhall Street, with a replacement façade fronting northwest onto pedestrianised Custom House Street, abutted by Custom House to the North (HB01/19/017)

Historical information

No. 8 Custom House Street, a three-and-a-half-storey three-bay building with entrances on both Custom House Street and Guildhall Street, was constructed in 1892. The building, which was originally erected as a hotel, was designed by Edward J. Toye (1857-1932). A local architect, Toye was a partner in the firm of Croom & Toye from 1885 until he established an independent practice in c. 1899. The Dictionary of Irish Architects notes that ‘his practise was ‘a busy one in which work for the Catholic Church predominated.’ Toye was responsible for the extension of St. Eugene’s Convent School (HB01/21/003), the spire of St. Eugene’s Cathedral (HB01/21/001) and new wings at St. Columb’s College (HB01/16/003). The hotel on Custom House and Guildhall Street, along with the adjoining seven-bay building (which was also built in 1892 – HB01/19/040A-B), was one of Toye’s earliest independent contracts (UAHS guide, p. 44; DIA).

Calley states that the site of the hotel was previously occupied by warehouses in the 1850s. These warehouses stored imports that arrived at the nearby quay, such as Indian corn, herring and salt (Calley, p. 222). The Ulster Hotel was opened by Mary J. Kelly in 1892 and operated from the site until the 1930s. The Annual Revisions note that the hotel was originally valued at £70 and consisted of 13 bedrooms. In 1901 the Census of Ireland described the hotel as a 1st class building that consisted of 30 rooms.

The local magistrate Denis Boyle had taken over the running of the hotel by 1918. He continued to operate the business until 1939 when the hotel was closed and the building taken over by Londonderry Corporation and converted into the city council offices, also accommodating the Director of Works Department and the City Surveyor’s office. The value of the council offices was raised to £230 in 1939 and stood at £448 by the end of the Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72).

In 1970 the UAHS guide for Londonderry described the former Ulster Hotel as ‘a three-storey rendered building of reasonable appearance’ (UAHS guide, p. 44). No. 8 Custom House Street and No. 5 Guildhall Street was listed in 1979. The NIEA HB Records note that the building had fallen vacant by 1998 (when the city council moved to its current premises on the Strand Road) but it has since been acquired by The Women’s Centre who occupied the site following an extensive refurbishment of the building that was undertaken in 1999-2000. The restoration included the reslating of the roof, the installation of cast iron rain water goods, the installation of new window frames and dormer windows and the addition of new external doors at both the Custom House and Guildhall Street entrances (NIEA HB Records).

References

Primary Sources
1. PRONI VAL/12/B/32/11X – Annual Revisions (1892-1897)
2. PRONI VAL/12/B/33/2E – Annual Revisions (1898-1931)
3. PRONI VAL/3/C/6/10 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57)
4. PRONI VAL/4/B/5/13 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
5. Ulster Town Directories (1901-1918)
6. Census of Ireland (1901; 1911)
7. First Survey Record – HB01/19/041 (1970)
8. First Survey Image – HB01/19/041 (1977)
9. NIEA HB Records – HB01/19/041

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. Rowan, A. J., ‘The Buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster’ London: Yale University Press, 2003.

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

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

Mid-terrace three-storey with attic stucco-fronted building, built 1892, facing elevations to Guildhall Street & Custom House Street. The former site of an import warehouse for nearby quay built in 1850's, the current building was designed as a hotel by Edward J Toye, remaining as such until 1939 when it became council offices. While the rear elevation has been replaced and the interior radically changed, the principal elevation is a good example of a decorative late Victorian facade and forms part of a wealth of late nineteenth-century buildings in the heart of the city.

General comments

Additional listing criteria apply - R-Age & S-Authenticity