65 Claredon Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Victorian mid-terraced three-bay, three-storey over partial basment rendered terraced house with stucco detailing, built c.1874. Rectangular on plan with projecting return to rear. Natural slate roof with roof lights to front and rear.

Principal elevation faces north set behind a low plinth wall to front with evidence of railings now removed. Built as part of a terrace row later than the adjacent properties to the west and differing from the form of the majority of houses to Clarendon Street which is dominated by two bay brick houses.

Round arch opening to entrance doorway with moulded embellishment supported by a pair of pilasters painted in a contrasting colour. The pilasters are topped with a projecting cornice detail supported on acanthus leaf detail with a stucco grape bunch to the head of the arch formed in arched stucco architrave. The doors are paired half leaf to the opening with a plain fanlight above and the entrance is two steps above pavement level; the basement is windowless not evident on either the front or rear elevations.

Single windows above the main entrance are contrasted with a two storey canted bay to the NW of the facade. Ground floor windows to bay and first floor windows are square-headed plain openings containing 1/1 timber sliding sash windows with horns. The second floor is composed of three round headed arched windows with a single window above the main entrance door and a pair of windows above the two storey bay.

Additional stucco embellishments include moulded architraves around single square headed window to First Floor which also has a projecting hood mould cornice (missing) supported on decorative console brackets. A projecting cornice divides the Ground Floor from the First with a similar detail to the top of the canted bay. The arched windows to Second Floor windows are embellished in a similar way to the First Floor window below and a projecting string course present at cill level. Stucco Quoins are present to the N W mirroring the detailing to adjacent No. 63.

In contrast to the adjacent dwelling to the west, No. 65 has a projecting eaves supported on dentils.

Pitched natural slate roof, black clay ridge tiles to main roof and red terracotta ridge to return. Large redbrick chimney stack rising from the east side, centred on ridge with 6 clay pots. Cast Iron guttering and circular downpipes to the front.

To the east of the building is the other half of this pair of similarly designed dwellings – No. 63 Clarendon Street (HB01/21/005BB). To the west is No. 67 Clarendon Street (HB01/21/005DD).

The south elevation is three-storey with rear return, smooth rendered with door opening into rear yard. The fenestration pattern is irregular and all windows have been replaced with uPVC units. A window to the rear (S) attic takes the form of a dormer flush with the rear wall. The return of the house is formed by a short lean to section of three storeys abutted by a two storey pitched roof section both with natural slate roof. Rainwater good to rear all uPVC.

Materials:
Roof : Natural Slate
RWG : Cast Iron (N) uPVC (S)
Walling : Render, smooth, painted (N), render, smooth (S) unpainted above ground floor to rear.
Windows : Timber Sliding Sash (N) uPVC (S)

Setting:
Built as part of a pair of two Victorian townhouses No. 63-65 (HB01.22.005BB) are set in a terrace of ten which lines the south side of Clarendon Street, between Princes Street and Francis Street and located within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area. The front of the property is set behind a low rendered wall, with painted masonry coping and evidence of former railings, enclosing the basement level.

Historical information

Clarendon Street, characterised by its long terraces of Georgian-style townhouses, was laid out in the early-Victorian period with the construction of the first dwellings commencing in c. 1853. The laying out of similar terraced dwellings on Great James Street and Queen Street was necessitated by a period of growth in the economy and population of Londonderry that occurred in the mid-19th century. John Hume notes that during the period 1825-1850 ‘reconstruction of the city’s buildings [within the city walls] took place alongside the development for the first time of housing outside the walls at Bogside and Edenballymore’ (Hume, p. 147).

The first edition of the Ordnance Survey maps (1830) for the townland of Edenballymore records that the Clarendon Street area was originally rural hinterland with few significant structures; in 1830 the development of the city’s streets had extended no further than Waterloo Place, Abbey Street and William Street. In the first decades of the 19th century the only major construction north of the walls had been isolated buildings such as the Londonderry Infirmary, the Lunatic Asylum and Foyle College (HB01/22/016) with little or no domestic architecture being erected in the same period. The only building in the area that predates the early-Victorian development is Foyle Cottage (HB01/21/006), a Regency house that was constructed c. 1815 and which, according to Calley, is ‘a pleasing composition which offers a gentle rebuke to some of the exuberance of later nearby buildings … one of it’s pleasant features is that it opens a gap in the long terraces’ (Calley, p. 116).

In The Annals of Derry, a survey of the city compiled by Robert Simpson and published in 1847, Simpson recorded that ‘all the district now covered by Great James’s Street, William Street, Little James Street … and the numerous lanes in that vicinity [originally comprised] meadow ground without a house’ (Simpson, p. 213). The initial development of housing in this area began in the late-Georgian period and continued into the Victorian era; with the construction of uniform rows of neat and charming three-storey townhouses, a new affluent area was established that swiftly became the residence of the city’s merchant and professional classes. The laying out of Clarendon Street, Great James Street and Queen Street followed a geometric street pattern which was characteristic of Georgian street development; the development signified the most ambitious project of town planning carried out in Londonderry since the construction of the walled city in the 1613-19.

The contemporary 1847 plan of Londonderry, which depicted the proposed layout of Clarendon Street at least a decade before it was actually completed, recorded that the street was originally known as Ponsonby Street. The street was named after the Rt. Rev. Richard Ponsonby (1772-1853), Bishop of Derry and Raphoe, however by the 1850s the street had been renamed Clarendon Street in honour of the Fourth Earl of Clarendon, George Villiers (1800-1870), Lord Lieutentant of Ireland between 1847 and 1852. The second edtion of the Ordnance Survey map records that Ponsonby Street had been renamed Clarendon Street by at least 1853. Although the 1847 plan of Londonderry depicted that Clarendon Street extended from the quay up to Francis Street, only the bottom section of Clarendon Street (between the Strand Road and Queen Street) had been laid out by 1853.

The development of Clarendon Street progressed slowly throughout the 1850s; by 1856 Griffith’s Valuation recorded that only nine dwellings had been constructed along the entire length of the street. Mullin records that development of the remainder of the street did not recommence until the mid-1850s. In 1851 Skipton & Miller had advertised building ground on Clarendon Street, Queen Street and Patrick Street to be let in perpetuity; this was followed by a second drive in 1856 when additional leases were advertised for building ground on the northern side of Clarendon Street (Mullin, p. 117).

No. 65 Clarendon Street, along with the adjoining No 63, was constructed in 1874, approximately a decade after the majority of the Georgian-style dwellings on the street had been completed. Although the first buildings along Clarendon Street had been erected in the early-Victorian period, the street possesses a strong Georgian character but the incorporation of bay windows and decorative corbels into the façade of nos 63-65, indicates a tentative shift away from this conservatism towards a more contemporary Victorian design (also seen on Bayview Terrace – HB01/22/017A-G). Nos 63-65 Clarendon Street were constructed for Alexander McElwee, a local magistrate and timber merchant who held business premises on the Strand Road (Ulster Town Directories); No. 65 Clarendon Street was originally valued at £30. Throughout its history the occupants of Clarendon Street were of the city’s merchant and professional classes. In 1901 No. 65 was occupied by Thompson Buchanan Adams, a local accountant; the census of that year described Adam’s dwelling as a 1st class dwelling that consisted of ten rooms. Alexander McElwee continued to own No. 65 Clarendon Street until 1910 when a Mr. Simpson purchased the property; by the cancellaton of the Annual Revisions in 1931 the value of No. 65 had slightly decreased to £28. The ownership of the building changed once more by 1935 when a Mr. Leslie Christie was recorded as lessor in the First Revaluation. In that year No. 65 was revalued at £42, but by the end of the Second Revaluation (1956-1972), Leslie’s property had been decreased in value to £34.

In 1978 the Department of the Environment designated Clarendon Street (and the surrounding streets) a Conservation Area ‘being an area of special architectural or historic interest, the character of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance’ (Londonderry Clarendon Street Conservation Area Booklet). No. 65 Clarendon Street was subsequently listed in 1979. The NIEA HB Records note that the house underwent a renovation in 1993 which included the replacement of its roof and the demolition and reconstruction of the chimney it shared with No. 67 (NIEA HB Records).

In 2013 Calley described nos 63-65 Clarendon Street as ‘rendered late-19th century terrace houses with canted bays running through ground and first floors, with paired bracketed heavy cornice and heavy mouldings’ (Calley, p. 114). Few of the mid-Victorian townhouses along Clarendon Street are now occupied as residential dwellings; the majority of the three-storey buildings were converted into offices for local dentist, solicitors and accountancy firms in the late-20th century. No. 65 Clarendon Street was converted into office premises by at least 2000. The inappropriate uPVC glazing to the rear of the building was installed in that year (NIEA HB Records).

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 Ordnanec Survey Map (1853)
3. PRONI VAL/2/B/5/16G – Griffith’s Valuation (1856)
4. PRONI VAL/12/B/32/11B-ZA – Annual Revisions (1862-1897)
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/33/2C-2F – Annual Revisions (1898-1931)
6. PRONI VAL/3/B/6/4 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1935)
7. PRONI VAL/4/B/5/13 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
8. Robert Simpson’s ‘Annals of Derry’ (1847)
9. O’Hagan’s plan of Londonderry (1847)
10. Census of Ireland (1901 / 1911)
11. Ulster Town Directories (1843-1918)
12. First Survey Record – HB01/21/005 (1970)
13. First Survey Image – HB01/21/005 (1978)
14. NIEA HB Records – HB01/21/005

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. Mullin, T. H., Ulster’s Historic City: Derry – Londonderry’ Coleraine: Coleriane Bookshop, 1986.
5. Rowan, A. J., ‘The Buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster’ London: Yale University Press, 2003.
6. ‘Londonderry Clarendon Street Conservation Area Booklet’ Department of the Environment, 1978.
7. ‘Design Guide for Clarendon Street Conservation Area’ Department of the Environment, 2012.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

S. Authenticity
X. Local Interest
R. Age

Evaluation

Mid-terrace three storey (over basement) three-bay former house, built 1874 and located on the South side of Clarendon Street; the name of the architect is unknown. No.65, now used as offices, was built together with No. 63 (HB01.22.005 BB) and it shares group value with this property. Although later, it reflects the rhythm and proportion of the terraces built earlier towards the lower end of the street, which are more Georgian in style and predominantly brick, with a few details such as the canted bay, round-arched windows with stucco embellishment, deep mouldings and decorative corbels that make it distinctly Victorian. The original plan form has been retained with historic fabric, style and character largely intact throughout the interior, although some alterations and replacement windows to rear detract. The intact pair of No 63 & No.65, set amongst several similar rows of neat townhouses that step down in a strong linear formation towards the River Foyle, is of special architectural interest due to the unique quality it contributes to the Clarendon Street Conservation Area.