24 PUMP ST.

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Late-Georgian mid-terraced three-bay four-storey over basement smooth-rendered painted townhouse. Built c.1820. Rectangular on plan with a hipped slate roof, stepping down to a two-storey pitched slate roof extension to the rear. Principal elevation faces northwest set behind a low rendered boundary wall to ground floor window bays, entrance doorway accessed from pavement level. Set within a terrace row of similarly scaled buildings lining the west side of Pump Street.

NORTHWEST ELEVATION -
Principal elevation (NW) is of smooth-rendered painted finish; window openings are square-headed set within painted rendered reveals on painted masonry sills with 6/6 timber sliding sashes (with horns) on ground, first and second floors and 3/3 timber sliding sashes to third floor level. First floor has a tripartite 6/6 timber sliding sash window with 2/2 timber sliding sash margins aligned above entrance door. Basement level has two windows; to left, a multi-pane timber casement and to right, a large opening with a single pane and two small transom lights above. Square-headed opening to entrance doorway with plain architrave surround and pair of painted timber double doors and a replacement Adams style fanlight above with segmented tracery glazing bars.

SOUTHEAST ELEVATION -
Rear elevation (SE) to the rear has gable-end on upper floors abutted by a two-storey cement rendered unpainted extension to left side with casement uPVC windows and uPVC rainwater goods to the rear and return. Small courtyard with red brick boundary wall to north-east. Steel external fire escape to yard.

NORTHEAST & SOUTHWEST ELEVATIONS -
Northeast and southwest sides are adjoined to neighbouring properties No.22 and No.26 Pump Street (HB01/19/68D & F respectively).

ROOF -
Hipped slate roof has black clay ridge tiles with a large red brick chimney stack to mid-point centred on ridge with nine clay pots. Cast-iron moulded guttering on drive-through brackets to front elevation and uPVC rainwater goods to rear.

MATERIALS -
Roof : Slate
RWG: Cast-iron (NW) uPVC (SE)
Walling: Painted render
Windows: Timber Sliding Sash (NW) uPVC casement (SE)

SETTING -
Set within a terrace row on the south-east side of Pump Street, within the Cathedral Quarter Area and the Historic City Conservation Area.

Historical information

Pump Street, extending from Ferryquay Street towards St. Columb’s Cathedral, is predominantly characterised by its late-Georgian buildings but the street itself likely dates from the laying out of the walled city in the early-17th century. Both Nicholas Pynnar’s plan (1618-19) and Thomas Raven’s maps of Londonderry (1622; 1625) depicted a street in the southeast quadrant of the new city extending off from Gracious Street (Ferryquay Street) that occupied the exact current layout of Pump Street. These early maps were intended as proposals with many of the buildings depicted on them not being constructed until later. However the plans did accurately reproduce the current geometric pattern of the city, suggesting that side streets such as London Street, Castle Street and Pump Street were also laid out in the early-17th century. Pump Street was first named on Francis Nevill’s 1690 plan of the siege of Derry (but Calley states that the street was named after the town’s pump in c. 1630). The map, which is very accurate in its depiction of Londonderry’s streets and buildings (such as the Cathedral, Magazine and Market House) shows that buildings had been constructed on both sides of Pump Street by the late-17th century.

No traces of Plantation houses have been found within the city walls. The earliest building on Pump Street is the Convent of Mercy (HB01/19/067A) which was built in 1780 as the King’s Arms Hotel (OSM, p. 118). Pump Street was largely redeveloped in the late-Georgian period with many of its current buildings dating from c. 1800. Until recent decades Pump Street was predominantly domestic in character and during the 19th century many merchants operated their businesses from their homes leading one commentator to describe Pump Street as ‘a fine street [that] was the haunt of doctors, dentists, nuns, newspapers, lady tailors and others’ (Calley, p. 311). Even after the city’s merchant and professional characters began to move out of the walled city towards the new terraced streets in Edenballymore in the mid-19th century, Pump Street retained its residential character and ‘by 1856 therefore it was still a street in which the nobility and gentry resided’ (Hume, pp 9-10).

No. 24 Pump Street, a four-storey over basement three-bay building, was originally constructed prior to 1830. The Townland Valuations (1832) record that the building was occupied by a Mr. David Gilmour and was described as a class 1b building (that is a slated building of medium age that was slightly decayed, but still in good repair). The valuer recorded the dimensions of the building at 23 feet in width, 40 feet in depth and 39 feet in height. The house was individually valued at £49 and 2 shillings but due to the presence of a large warehouse to the rear of the dwelling the total rateable value of No. 24 Pump Street stood at £57 and 9 shillings in the 1830s.

By Griffith’s Valuation (1856) the lease continued to be owned by David Gilmour who rented out the house to other tenants. The valuer decreased the value of the property to £40 and noted that the site was occupied by a Dr. Barnwell White, a local surgeon, who operated his medical practice from the house on Pump Street until the late-1880s. The contemporary Corporation Map of Londonderry (1857) shows that the building continued to possess a large rear return at that time (this has since been replaced with a modern extension). Dr. Barnwell White continued to reside at No. 24 Pump Street until c. 1889 when Joseph Byrne, a local doctor and magistrate, took possession of the building. The 1899 Valuation map for Londonderry shows that the dwelling’s rear outbuildings had been demolished by the end of the 19th century. The contemporary 1901 census building return described No. 24 Pump Street as a 1st class dwelling that consisted of 10 rooms and possessed a stable and coal house as its sole outbuildings.

The Derry Almanac records that Dr. Byrne continued to reside at No. 24 Pump Street until c. 1909. The occupants of the house continued to change with frequency over the following four decades and in 1929 ownership of the building passed to a Ms. A. K. Simmons. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57) the house was utilised as a nursing home and was valued at £52. In 1954 the Salvation Army purchased the building outright and converted it into a hostel which operated from the site until 1968. In that year the upper floors of the building were converted into a number of self-contained apartments whilst the ground floor became offices for a local architect and a surveyors firm. By the end of the Second Revaluation (1956-72) the total rateable value of the building stood at £217.

No. 24 Pump Street was included in the Historic City Conservation Area in 1977 and was subsequently listed in 1979. The NIEA HB Records note that No. 24 Pump Street underwent a renovation in 1997 that included the restoration of its sliding sash windows and the installation of a new entrance door (NIEA HB Records). Photographs of the house (dated c. 1975) show that the building was originally red brick but had been partially rendered at that time. Calley states that the current doorcase and casement window above are recent additions having been installed in the late-20th century when the remainder of the building as rendered (Calley, p.323; Foyle Civic Trust).

References

Primary Sources
1. Pynnar’s plan of the Walled City (1618-19)
2. Thomas Raven’s plans of Londonderry (1622; 1625)
3. Franic Nevill’s plan of the Siege of Derry (1690)
4. PRONI OS/6/5/20/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1830)
5. PRONI OS/6/5/20/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1853)
6. PRONI VAL/12/E/157/1/14 – Annual Revisions Town Plan (c. 1873-1910)
7. PRONI VAL/1/B/547E – Townland Valuations (1832)
8. PRONI VAL/1/D/5/9B – Townland Valuation Town Plan (1834)
9. PRONI VAL/2/B/5/16D – Griffith’s Valuation (1856)
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/32/11A-11ZD – Annual Revisions (1860-1897)
11. PRONI VAL/12/B/33/1A-1B – Annual Revisions (1898-1929)
12. PRONI VAL/3/C/6/10 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57)
13. PRONI VAL/4/B/5/14 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
14. Ordnance Survey Memoir of Parish of Templemore (1837)
15. Ulster Town Directories (1852-1918)
16. Derry Almanac (1876-1953)
17. Census of Ireland (1901; 1911)
18. First Survey Record – HB01/19/068 (1970)
19. First Survey Image – HB01/19/068 (No Date)
20. NIEA HB Records – HB01/19/068E
21. Foyle Civic Trust – Living City Project (Pump Street – including 1899 Valuation Map of Londonderry)

Secondary Sources
1. Calley, D., ‘City of Derry: An historical gazetteer to the buildings of Londonderry’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2013 – including Londonderry Corporaton Map (1857).
2. Hume, J., ‘Derry beyond the walls: Social and economic aspects of the growth of Derry 1825-1850’ Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 2002.
3. Lacey, B., ‘Siege city: The story of Derry and Londonderry’ Belfast: The Blackstaff Press, 1990.
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. ‘Londonderry Historic City Conservation Area Booklet’ Department of the Environment, 1977.
7. ‘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
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

Late-Georgian mid-terrace three-bay four-storey over basement smooth-rendered townhouse, built c.1830. Set behind low rendered painted wall within a row of similarly scaled buildings on the south-east side of Pump Street, close to St Columb's Cathedral and churchyard. Originally having a red brick facade it was rendered in 1997 in conjunction with refurbishment works; although this has altered the appearance, it retains the rigour and simplicity of Georgian style and proportion and this quality is shared by the adjoining No 22, 26 & 28 Pump Street (HB01.19.068D,F&G), giving it group value. Inside, some historic detailing has survived. The terrace retains its residential character within the Historic City Conservation Area; No.24 is also of local interest from a social perspective, given its use a Salvation Army hostel from 1954 -1968.