Bedlam Market

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Symmetrical terraced multi-bay three-storey over railed basement brick former townhouse, built c.1780, with gabled three-storey rear return. L-shaped on plan, facing west lining the east side of Pump Street. Currently interconnected with No.16 (HB01/19/067B).

Pitched natural slate roof with roll-moulded black clay ridge tiles, rendered chimneystacks and moulded cast-iron guttering on iron drive-through brackets on a moulded eaves cornice with steel downpipes. Painted red brick walling laid in Flemish bond, rendered to the basement and rear elevation. Gauged brick flat-arched window openings with patent rendered reveals, painted masonry sills and replacement timber sash windows with ogee horns.

Symmetrical front elevation is seven windows wide (covered in a hanging artwork at the time of survey) with a railed basement area and a central elliptical-headed door opening. Doorcase comprises an original timber door with 6 raised-and-fielded panels flanked by engaged fluted Doric columns, side panels and responding fluted Doric pilasters, all supporting a full dentilled and modillioned entablature with spoked webbed fanlight over. Door opens onto concrete platform and four granite steps bridging the basement area. A further three-centred arched door opening to the southernmost bay with a late nineteenth-century flat-panelled timber door, plain painted surround with stepped lintel cornice and spoked fanlight with glazed hub. Door opens onto a concrete platform, flush to the pavement.

North side elevation abutted by adjoining terraced building No.8.

Rear elevation abutted by a three-storey rendered return with two gables to the south. Partially demolished with many windows boarded up. To the second floor of the inner gable is a single tripartite window having an original 6/6 timber sash window flanked by 2/2 timber sash windows and a blocked up Venetian window to the first floor.

South side elevation abutted by adjoining terraced building No.16 (HB01/19/067B).

Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Painted brick / cement render
Windows Replacement timber sash

Setting:
Located on the east side of Pump Street in the heart of the old city, the basement area is enclosed by decorative iron railings set into painted rendered plinth wall with matching pedestrian gate to the southernmost entrance and the remains of an iron lamp standard rising from the railing at the principal entrance. Concrete paved rear garden, shared with No.16.

Historical information

The former Convent of Mercy on Pump Street consists of three buildings. The three-storey seven-bay block (nos 10-14) was constructed in 1780 as a hotel. No. 16 Pump Street, a four-storey-over-basement four-bay structure (HB01/19/067B), was erected in the early-19th century whilst No. 18, a four-storey three-bay building (HB01/19/067C) was constructed in 1900. All three buildings were acquired by the Convent of Mercy between 1848 and 1927 and continued to be occupied by the religious institute until 2005. The street was first known as Pump Street in c. 1630 due to the presence of the town’s pump in the immediate vicinity. Calley states that ‘it is a fine street [which] was the haunt of doctors, dentists, nuns, newspapers, lady tailors and others.’ Nos 10-14 Pump Street is the earliest surviving building along the street (Calley, p. 311).

Nos 10-14 Pump Street was originally constructed in 1780 as the King’s Arms Hotel. The hotel, which was also known as the County Hotel, was erected by the Grand Jury. Hume states that the County Hotel was an inn ‘in which distinguished visitors such as the Grand Jury and Irish Society deputations were accustomed to stay’ (Hume, p. 10). The Ordnance Survey Memoirs (1837) record that the King’s Arms was built by private subscription as a county hotel but was later opened to the public. The memoir writer quoted an extract from Narrative of a journey to the north of Ireland (1802) which noted that ‘there was but one inn of any note in Londonderry,’ that being the King’s Arms Hotel (OSM, p. 118).

The proprietor of the King’s Arms Hotel was a Mr David Birch. The Townland Valuations set the total rateable value of the hotel at £182 16. 3s. In the 1830s, making it the most extensive building on Pump Street at that time. The King’s Arms Hotel continued to operate from the site until 1840 when the building was acquired by the Catholic Church (through Bishop Dr McLaughlin) for £1,120 and converted into a schoolhouse for St. Columb’s College (see HB01/16/003). In 1847, during the height of the famine, Bishop Edward McGinn invited the Sisters of Mercy to Derry with the intention of establishing a convent for the sisters where they could serve the needs of the poor and hungry. St. Columb’s College was moved to the ‘Brow-of-the-hill’ in 1848 at which point the Sisters of Mercy took possession of nos 10-14 Pump Street and established a girl’s convent school at the site. Originally five sisters resided at Pump Street including Mother Mary Ann Doyle who had founded the Sisters of Mercy in Co. Offaly. The Foyle Civic Trust notes that the convent on Pump Street was opened in 21st July 1848 and was ‘the first convent to be established in the north of Ireland since the Reformation’ (Foyle Civic Trust). Griffith’s Valuation (1856) set the rateable value of the convent, its school and chapel at £60. The value of the building remained at this level until 1890 when the convent acquired and expanded into the adjoining No. 16 Pump Street.

Following the acquisition of the adjoining No. 16 Pump Street, the total rateable value of the Convent of Mercy was increased to £100 in 1890. The formerly separate buildings were depicted as a single structure in the 1899 Valuation map of Derry and it appears that the coach arch (formerly located at the southernmost bay of Nos 10 14) was blocked up at this time and replaced with the current entrance door. The original two-bay stepped entrance to the former Sentinel offices (which occupied the southernmost two bays of No. 16) was also removed by 1899 and replaced with the current windows. Despite the expansion of the convent into the adjoining building, the Sisters of Mercy continued to extend their property throughout the late-19th and early-20th centuries. In 1887 the stables and outbuildings to the rear of the convent were demolished and St. Mary’s Convent School was constructed to the rear of the original building, fronting onto Artillery Street. The school was further expanding with the construction of St. Joseph’s School on Artillery Street in 1911 (for full history of schools see HB01/19/064).

The 1911 Census described the Convent of Mercy on Pump Street as a 1st class property that consisted of 40 rooms and accommodated 47 Sisters, servants and pupils in that year. The Convent of Mercy underwent a further extension in 1927 when it acquired the adjoining No. 18 Pump Street, a four-storey three-bay building which had been reconstructed (or remodelled) in 1901 from two smaller properties. The total rateable value of the Convent of Mercy at nos 10-18 Pump Street was raised to £440 under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1935). The convent school continued to operate from the premises on Pump Street until 1929 when new premises were acquired at Thornhill House. The school was transferred to Thornhill in 1932 whilst Nos 10-18 Pump Street were retained by the Sisters of Mercy as a convent. The value of the convent was slightly increased to £528 by the end of the Second Revaluation (1956-72).

The Convent of Mercy became part of the Historic City Conservation Area in 1977 and was listed category B in 1979. The NIEA HB Records note that the Inner City Trust acquired the building in 1993 and subsequently carried out renovations. The three-storey annex to the rear of the convent was demolished in 1994 whilst alterations were undertaken in 1995 in order to provide additional accommodation space for the order. The total cost of the renovation was estimated at £1.7 million. The Sisters of Mercy finally vacated the convent on Pump Street in 2005 after which point No. 18 Pump Street was utilised as a parochial house for Long Tower Parish. The Derry Journal records that the former hotel and convent was converted into commercial premises for Bedlam, a vintage and antique curiosity shop, which occupied the premises in 2011 (NIEA HB Records; Derry Journal).

References

Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/5/20/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1830)
2. PRONI OS/6/5/20/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1853)
3. PRONI VAL/12/E/157/1/14 – Annual Revisions Town Plan (c. 1873)
4. PRONI VAL/1/B/547E – Townland Valuations (1832)
5. PRONI VAL/2/B/5/16D – Griffith’s Valuation (1856)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/32/11A-11ZD – Annual Revisions (1860-1897)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/33/1A-1B – Annual Revisions (1898-1929)
8. PRONI VAL/3/C/6/10 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57)
9. PRONI VAL/4/B/5/14 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
10. Ordnance Survey Memoir of Parish of Templemore (1837)
11. Ulster Town Directories (1852-1918)
12. Census of Ireland (1911)
13. First Survey Record – HB01/19/067 (1970)
14. First Survey Image – HB01/19/067 (No Date)
15. NIEA HB Records – HB01/19/067
16. Foyle Civic Trust – Living City Project (Pump Street – including 1899 Town Plan of Londonderry)
17. Derry Journal (13 Nov 2011)

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.Hume, J., ‘Derry beyond the walls: Social and economic aspects of the growth of Derry 1825-1850’ Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 2002.
4.Rowan, A. J., ‘The Buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster’ London: Yale University Press, 2003.
5.'Londonderry Historic City Conservation Area Booklet’ Department of the Environment, 1977.
6.'A Design Guide for the Historic City Conservation Area’ Department of the Environment, 2012.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Symmetrical terraced multi-bay three-storey over railed basement brick former townhouse, built c.1780, with gabled three-storey rear return. A substantial former townhouse, built as a hotel, prior to being used as a school and convent from 1840 until 2005, this Georgian building retains much of its external detailing, although there has been some internal alteration. It has significant group value and interest with 16 & 18 Pump Street (HB01/19/067B & C), previously all under ownership of the Convent of Mercy. Set behind a low plinth wall and railings either side of steps to the entrance of No.10-12 and a decorative gate screen at the entrance at No.14 that add to the overall composition and further enhance the quality of its setting. This building is the earliest surviving building on Pump Street and one of the grandest Georgian townhouses in Derry city.