12 Magazine Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Victorian mid-terrace three-storey two-bay red brick building with rendered dressings and traditional shop front to ground floor, built c.1894. Rectangular on plan with pitched roof rear return and small rear catslide roofed extension. Principal elevation faces north-west onto Magazine Street overlooking the City Walls set within the northern quadrant of the Historic City Conservation Area.

Pitched natural slate to main roof and rear return with black clay ridge tiles and a large red brick chimney stack with terracotta clay pots to north-east and south-west side elevations, centred on ridge, large red brick chimney stack to north side of gable end of rear return. Cast-iron rainwater goods throughout. All windows are 1/1 timber sliding sash (reduced top sash) with horns unless otherwise noted.

Principal (north-west) elevation is of red brick laid in 'English garden wall bond' on upper floors with rendered dressings. Traditional shop front comprises a pair of painted four-panel timber doors surmounted by an overlight with a pair of flush external timber shutters and flanked on each side by a bipartite 16 pane (8/8) timber window on a low masonry stall riser. Windows and overlight are surmounted by a narrow band of timber fretwork comprising alternating crosses and vertical double lines. Fascia signage above with a painted pilaster to left topped by a small rendered pediment and a pedimented entrance doorway to right comprising a square-headed opening with a four-panel painted timber door and a large leaded stained glass overlight, flanked by pilasters with small scrolled corbel brackets and frieze above. The pediment of the doorway imposes onto moulded sill-course to first floor windows.
First floor has a Venetian style tripartite window to left bay (central opening slightly more generous in width) comprising rendered surrounds with scrolled corbel brackets to pilasters between each opening supporting frieze and cornice above with pediment to central opening. First floor right bay has a window opening directly over pedimented doorway with a smaller scale frieze, cornice and pediment.
Second floor window openings are positioned directly over first floor openings and have a continuous cill course. Tripartite window to left bay (central opening slightly more generous in width) with rendered piers between openings. Single 1/1 timber sliding sash window with horns to right bay.
First and second floors are encompassed by plain pilasters to far left and right and salient cornice and frieze to eaves level.

North-east gable is abutted at first and second floor levels by neighbouring property No. 13 Magazine Street. Ground floor level comprises an archway giving access to the Craft Village behind. The exposed section of gable wall on ground floor level is blank.

South-west gable is abutted by neighbouring property No. 11 Magazine Street & 12 Castle Street; exposed section of wall at high level to rear is blank.

Rear (south-east) elevation is of three-storeys and is completely abutted by a rendered three-storey pitched roof return to right and a catslide roofed extension to the left. The fenestration pattern is irregular with 6/6 and 1/1 timber sliding sash windows on unpainted masonry sills and a modern secondary shop front in a traditional style to the north-east face of the rear return. A large red brick chimney to gable-end of the return has brick cornice and buff clay pots.

Setting:
Located on the east side of Magazine Street on an elevated site, stepping up the hill and set within the City Walls between Magazine Gate and Castle Gate entries. Entry to left of property provides access to a pseudo Dickensian-style Craft Village within a rear courtyard. Principal elevation faces north-west onto Lower Magazine Street overlooking the City Walls set within the northern quadrant of the Historic City Conservation Area.

Materials:
Roof Natural Slate
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Brick/Render
Windows Timber

Historical information

No. 12 Magazine Street, a three-storey two-bay red brick building, was constructed in c. 1894. The valuer noted that the site was owned by Messers Andrews and Deane. The original building on the site was depicted on the Townland Valuation Map (c. 1834) but the 1899 Valuation Plan shows that this building was demolished and replaced with a new structure that matches the plan of the current building by the end of the 19th century. A proposed plan of the new building also appeared on the Annual Revisions Town Plan of Londonderry (c. 1873-1910) suggesting a build date between 1873 and 1899. It is most likely that the current building dates from c. 1894. The Annual Revisions note that the site of the current building was originally occupied by a Mr John McConnell who utilised it as a fowl store in the late-19th century. By the turn of the 20th century the site was used as a forge and workshop by S. & T. Nelis. The conversion (or reconstruction) of the store into a forge and workshop occurred by 1894 (when the change was noted in the Annual Revisions) and resulted in the value of the building changing to £12.

The Derry Almanac records that the new building was occupied by Thomas McElhinney, an engineer, millwright and smith who specialised in making churns but also advertised ‘all sorts of machinery made and repaired’ (Derry Almanac 1895). Thomas McElhinney vacated the property by 1907 when it was occupied by H. K. Rodgers, a local saddler. In that year the Annual Revisions described No. 12 Lower Magazine Street as a shop and increased the value of the building to £34. By the 1920s No. 12 Lower Magazine Street, as well as the adjoining shed at No. 13, was occupied by R. Neely & Co., ‘Motor cab and carriage hirers’ who continued to occupy the site until the 1970s. The upper floors of the building were utilised as office space from the Edwardian period onwards. The First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57) records that the building was valued at £99 and was also occupied by the City of Derry and Foyle Unionist Association (between 1938 and 1949) and Thomas White & Co. Insurance and Estate agents (between 1949 and 1968). The value of the building was further increased to £195 by the end of the Second Revaluation (1956-72). Photographs of the building (taken between the 1930s and 1970s shows that the façade of the building has not been significantly altered since at least the early-20th century (Foyle Civic Trust).

No. 12 Magazine Street was included in the Historic City Conservation Area in 1977. The rear of the building is now included in the Craft Village which was opened in 1992 by Irish President Mary Robinson. Since 2003 the building has been occupied as retail premises for Foyle Books (Foyle Civic Trust).

References

Primary Sources
1. PRONI VAL/12/E/157/1/11 – Annual Revisions Valuation Map (c. 1873-1910)
2. PRONI VAL/1/D/5/9A-D – Townland Valuation Town Plan (1834)
3. PRONI VAL/12/B/32/11A-11ZD – Annual Revisions (1860-1897)
4. PRONI VAL/12/B/33/2D-2E– Annual Revisions (1898-1931)
5. PRONI VAL/3/C/6/10 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1935)
6. PRONI VAL/4/B/5/14 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
7. Ulster Town Directories (1880-1943)
8. Derry Almanac (1895-1949)
9. Foyle Civic Trust: Living City Project (Magazine Street) – including Valuation Map (1899)

Secondary Sources
1. Calley, D., ‘City of Derry: An historical gazetteer to the buildings of Londonderry’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2013.
2. ‘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
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

Victorian mid-terrace three-storey two-bay red brick building with rendered dressings and traditional shop front to ground floor, built c.1894. Rectangular on plan with pitched roof rear return and small rear catslide roofed extension. Principal elevation faces north-west onto Magazine Street overlooking the City Walls set within the northern quadrant of the Historic City Conservation Area. Externally the facade has retained much of its character exhibiting both Victorian and Edwardian detailing. This building has a history of changing use, originally constructed as a forge and workshop it is now used as retail premises for a book shop. It represents the ongoing commercial development of the City.