Harbour Commissioners Office

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Classical Italianate Harbour office of coursed rock-faced sandstone, with ashlar cornices and window architrave dressings. Square headed windows, and projecting salient dentilled cornice with parapet above, alternating between solid wall and balustrade and hipped roof. Built 1882.

Front elevation faces North onto Harbour Square, two-storey, seven bays asymmetrical with a narrow central pediment beside a square clock tower which forms the fifth bay, with an aediculed doorway of Doric order at ground level. Projecting central bay has three-light window to first floor and aediculed window to ground floor. Sandstone string course between ground floor and first floor, and sill course to ground floor windows.

South elevation to the rear abuts No. 8 Custom House Street (HB01.19.041) with a rendered finish overlooking rear courtyard.

West elevation faces onto Custom House Street with projecting central bay and a small first floor balcony under a roofline pediment. Paired windows on ground and first floors and single to either side of central bay on ground and first floor.

East elevation faces onto Guildhall Street, four bays with a pedimented square headed doorway to the North end and pedimented round headed gated entry into the courtyard to the South end. Two windows with entablature above on ground floor and four windows with architrave dressings on first floor.

Single redbrick chimneystack to rear of East elevation with clay pots.

All elevations have been repointed with cement mortar. Stonework to the tower has been repointed with lime mortar.
The original pitched slate roof has been replaced.

Setting:
Set within a prominent group of three blocks on Queens Quay with street frontage overlooking Harbour Square and the River Foyle to the north east, bounded by the Guildhall to the East and Custom House to the West.

Materials:
Roof: Natural Slate with concrete ridge tiles.
Rainwater goods: Cast Iron
Walling; Sandstone
Windows: Timber casements with top opening lights
Door: Timber panelled.

Historical information

The Harbour Commissioners Office, a two-storey seven-bay Classical building located in Harbour Square, was constructed in 1882 and replaced an earlier harbour office that had stood nearby on Ship Quay. In the 1830s Londonderry was the fifth largest port in Ireland with exports valued at over £1 million; at that time Londonderry Corporation held direct control over the city’s port. The Londonderry Port and Harbour Commissioners were established in 1854 ‘to address the challenges facing a port seeking to maintain and expand its trading connections.’ By 1861 the Harbour Commissioners had spent approximately £150,000 on improving Londonderry’s harbour facilities (including dredging the Foyle and deepening the ‘Flats’ area of the river at a cost of £30,000). Griffith’s Valuation (1856) notes that the original Harbour Office was located along Ship Quay and was a modest building valued at £25; by the 1870s the offices of the Londonderry Port and Harbour Commissioners had moved to the site now occupied by the Bank of Ireland (see HB01/21/025) on the Strand Road (Londonderry Port and Harbour Commissioners History; UTD).

The two-storey Harbour Commissioners Office on Harbour Square was designed by John Kennedy, a local architect who was active in the city between c. 1873 and c. 1893. Kennedy designed the Harbour Office in a classical Italianate style; the Natural Stone Database records that he employed locally-quarried Barony Glen Sandstone from Dungiven in the masonry of the building (DIA; NDS). The Harbour Commissioners Office was constructed to the rear of the Northern Bank at Shipquay Place (HB01/19/039), the adjoining nos 4-6 Custom House Street and nos 1-3 Guildhall Street (HB01/19/040A+B). The builder contracted to undertake the construction of the office building was the local firm of M. McClelland who had business premises on Strand Road (UTD). When completed, the Harbour Commissioners Office was valued at £180 in the Annual Revisions. The valuer noted that the building was owned outright by the Londonderry Port and Harbour Commissioner and that the value of the building remained at £180 by 1931.

The UAHS guide for Londonderry described the Harbour Commissioners Office as ‘two-storey buildings of severe architectural character and of renaissance style … on the first floor there is an impressive boardroom.’ Rowan complimented the ‘nice design’ of the office noting that the ‘trim Italianate block of boulder-faced sandstone [is] not quite symmetrical, with a narrow central pediment beside a square clock tower which forms the fifth bay’ (UAHS guide, p. 38; Rowan, p. 390). The Harbour Commissioners Office was listed in 1979 and subsequently underwent an extensive repair and renovation project in 1980-81 (NIEA HB Records).

The building continued to house the offices of the Harbour Commissioners until Londonderry’s port moved to Lisahally in 1993, allowing the quayside to undergo redevelopment. The former Harbour Commissioners Office was reopened in 1995 as the Harbour Museum, detailing Londonderry’s maritime heritage from St. Columba through to the city’s naval role during the Second World War. The building is also currently utilised as the headquarters of the Heritage and Museum Service of Derry City Council (Derry City Council website).

References

Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/5/20/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1853)
2. PRONI VAL/12/E/157/1/10 – Annual Revisions Town Plan (c. 1873)
3. PRONI VAL/2/B/5/16F – Griffith’s Valuation (1856)
4. PRONI VAL/12/B/32/11P-11ZD – Annual Revisions (1879-1897)
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/33/2A-2F – Annual Revisions (1898-1931)
6. Ulster Town Directories (1852-1943)
7. First Survey Record – HB01/19/042 (1970)
8. First Survey Image – HB01/19/042 (No Date)
9. NIEA HB Records – HB01/19/042

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/
2. Natural Stone Database - http://www.stonedatabase.com//stone_types.cfm?stc=45
3. Londonderry Port and Harbour Commissioners website - http://www.londonderryport.com
4. Derry City Council website - http://www.derrycity.gov.uk/museums/Harbour-Museum

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

A prominent two-storey, seven bays asymmetric Classical Italianate Harbour office building of coursed rock-faced sandstone, built in 1882 to designs of local architect John Kennedy. Set within a prominent group of three blocks on Queens Quay with street frontage creating a composition overlooking Harbour Square and the River Foyle, bounded by the Guildhall to the East and Custom House to the West. The building replaces an earlier Harbour Office that stood on nearby Ship Quay, and is of interest in its reflection of a port seeking to expand its trading connections in the early Victorian era. The ornamentation and detail are of very good quality and contribute to its robust, if austere character. It remains a well proportioned building of high quality and is of significant local interest.

General comments

Additional listing criteria apply - R-Age, S-Authenticity & T-Historic Importance