11 CLARENDON ST.

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Mid-Victorian mid-terrace two-bay three-storey with attic rendered townhouse, built c.1861. Rectangular on plan with modern projecting rear return. Principal elevation faces north set behind a low level painted rendered boundary wall surmounted by replacement metal railings. No's 11, 13 and 15 Clarendon Street are treated as a single composition set within a terrace of predominately brick faced townhouses.

Pitched slate roof, black clay ridge tiles to main roof and large brick chimney stack rising from the east and west gables, both centred on ridge with nine terracotta pots. Cast-iron downpipe with hopper and uPVC guttering to front elevation.

Principal front (north) elevation is painted render with deeply ruled ground floor and smooth upper floors with corner quoins. All windows are square-headed 1/1 timber sliding sash unless otherwise noted.
Three-centred-arch opening to entrance doorway with recessed cornice supported by scrolled console brackets on pilasters either side of a painted timber four-panelled door with plain fanlight above.
Single tripartite (1/1,1/1,1/1) timber sliding sash window to left of door surmounted by a hood mould supported by scrolled console brackets. Two windows to first and second floors (those to upper floors are not aligned with ground floor openings). First floor windows have a continuous sill course and moulded surrounds.

East and west elevations abutted by adjoining buildings No.9 & 13 Clarendon Street (HB01/21/005C & HB01/21/005E respectively).

South (rear) elevation is rendered three-storey with attic abutted by a rendered rear return. Small courtyard to rear with a large modern extension extending fully to rear access passageway leading to Edward Street. The fenestration pattern is irregular. Rear elevation was not fully visible at time of survey.

Setting:
No's 11, 13 and 15 Clarendon Street are treated as a single composition set within a terrace of predominately brick faced townhouses. Located within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area, the front of the property faces north and is bounded by Clarendon Street set behind a low level painted rendered boundary wall surmounted by replacement metal railings. Entrance door is approached by two modern steps at the boundary with a modern ramp to the left.

Materials:
Roof Natural Slate
RWG Cast Iron/uPVC
Walling Rendered
Windows Timber

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 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 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 preferred 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 years 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 Lieutenant of Ireland between 1847 and 1852. The second edition 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. 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. Griffith’s Valuation recorded that only nine dwellings had been constructed along the entire length of the street by 1856. In that year additional leases were advertised for building ground on the northern side of Clarendon Street (Mullin, p. 117).

Nos 5-15 Clarendon Street were constructed in 1861 as part of the second phase in the laying out of Clarendon Street. Nos 11-15 were constructed for William Stirling, a painter and glazier who operated his business from Pump Street (Ulster Town Directories). Throughout its history the occupants of Clarendon Street were of the city’s merchant and professional classes. In 1861 No. 11 Clarendon Street was originally valued at £32 and was occupied by a Mr. Stewart Christie. In 1901 the house had passed to James Colhoun, a timber merchant and builder who operated from offices on the Strand Road. The 1901 census building return described Colhoun’s residence as a 2nd class dwelling that consisted of eight rooms and possessed a stable and coach house as its sole outbuildings. Upon the death of William Stirling in 1869, ownership of nos 11-15 Clarendon Street passed through his Will to Hugh Stevenson. Stevenson’s family continued to own No. 13 Clarendon Street by the 1970s. In 1935 the house was valued at £45, but by the 1950s the former dwelling had been partially converted into a private medical surgery for a Dr. J. Duff. The total value of the building stood at £50 by the end of the Second Revaluation (1956-72).

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. 11 Clarendon Street was subsequently listed in 1979. The NIEA HB Records note that No. 11 Clarendon Street underwent a renovation in 1989 that involved the reslating of its roof, the insertion of new sash windows and the installation of the current railings to the front of the building. In 1992 the building suffered light damage as a result of a bomb that exploded at the bottom of Clarendon Street. The blast shattered the glazing and damaged the original sliding frames and glazing bars. In 2010 the original three-storey rear return was demolished and replaced with the current two-storey extension (NIEA HB Records).

In 2013 Calley described nos 11-15 Clarendon Street as ‘terrace houses, fully rendered, although the chimney between Nos 11 and Nos 13 is brick. Ground floors are rusticated with tripartite windows [with] stepped quoins at the two outer edges treating the three houses as a single composition’ (Calley, p. 117). 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 dentists, solicitors and accountancy firms in the late-20th century. No. 11 Clarendon Street was converted into offices from at least the 1950s and is currently used as office premises by a number of local companies including a chiropody clinic.

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/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 Northern Ireland (1935)
7. PRONI VAL/4/B/5/13 – Second General Revaluation of 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. PRONI Wills Catalogue (26 Aug 1869)
13. First Survey Record – HB01/21/005 (1970)
14. First Survey Image – HB01/21/005 (No Date)
15. NIEA HB Record – HB01/21/005D

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: Coleraine 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

X. Local Interest
R. Age
S. Authenticity

Evaluation

A Victorian mid-terrace two-bay three-storey with attic rendered townhouse, built in 1861 along with Nos. 5-9 and 13-15 Clarendon Street (HB01/21/005 A-C & E-F). It has group value with Nos. 5-9 and 13-73 (excluding No.53) which were built over a twenty-one year period and line the south side of the street. No's 11, 13 and 15 Clarendon Street are distinctive in character being rendered and treated as a single composition set within a terrace of predominately brick faced townhouses. The conversion to office use has resulted in some modernisation of the interior. Despite this, its original character and much of its detailing survives. Located within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area, the well preserved setting adds to its interest. The terrace represents the mid 19th century development of the city of Derry and the house is a noteworthy example of the type of property built during this period of growth in the economy and population of the city.

General comments

Additional listing criteria apply - R-Age & S-Authenticity