69 CLARENDON ST.

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Victorian mid-terraced two-bay three-storey, with dormer-attic level red brick Georgian-style townhouse. Built c.1863. Rectangular on plan with principal elevation facing north set behind low red brick wall. Built as part of a terrace row with similar houses of this type lining the north and south side of Clarendon Street.

Principal (N) elevation is of flemish bond; with chamfered polychromatic brick detail to window and door surrounds, alternating single and paired corbel brackets to eaves, and chimney; windows are square-headed 8/8 timber sliding sash to ground floor and 6/6 timber sliding sash to first and second floors. Segmental arch opening to entrance doorway with moulded cornice supported by decorative scrolled console brackets; painted timber double-doors, each having two panels and bollection moulding, and plain fanlight above. Single pitched roof dormer set above eaves level with coupled 1/1 timber sliding sash windows flanked by timber pillasters and surmounted by a pedimented gable.

East and west elevations abutted by adjoining buildings No. 67 (HB01/21/005DD) & No. 71 (HB01/21/005FF) Clarendon Street.

South elevation, three-storey with three-storey pitched roof rear return at half-landing level, smooth rendered with door opening onto rear yard; further flat-roofed single-storey abutment to rear. The fenestration pattern is irregular with both 6/6 sliding sash windows to first and second floors and casements to ground, first and second floors. Replacement timber casements to rear pitched roof dormer, second floor to return and all windows to the single-storey return.

Pitched natural slate roof, black clay ridge tiles and large red brick chimney stack rising from the east gable, centred on ridge with 6 clay pots. uPVC guttering to front and rear elevations.

Conservation roof light to rear return.

Materials:
Roof: Natural Slate
RWG: uPVC
Walling : Brick (N) / Smooth render, unpainted (S)
Windows: Timber Sliding Sash

Setting:
Built as part of a pair of two Victorian townhouses No. 67-69 (HB01.22.005DD) are set in a terrace of ten which lines the south side of Clarendon Street, between Princes Street and Francis Street and within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area. The front of the property is set behind a low red-brick wall that rakes to align with the street and the front door is set two steps above pavement level. Two cast metal fluted gate posts, with decorative conical caps support a simple metal gate at the entrance from the street. To the rear the yard is bound by painted render walls.

Historical information

Clarendon Street, characterised by its long terraces of gentlemen’s 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.

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. 69 Clarendon Street was constructed in 1863 as part of the second phase in the laying out of Clarendon Street; the three-storey house was originally valued at £26 and was built for a Mr. Robert Alexander (who also owned the adjoining No. 67). Throughout its history the occupants of Clarendon Street were of the city’s merchant and professional classes. In 1901 No. 69 was occupied by Arthur Brooks, a clerk with H. M. Customs; the census of that year described his dwelling as a 1st class dwelling that consisted of ten rooms. In 1911 ownership of the building passed from Robert Alexander to a Lady Millar; the value of the property was subsequently reduced to £22 in that year at which it remained by the cancellation of the Annual Revisions in 1931. By the First Revaluation (1935) a Ms. Selina Gosselin had taken over ownership of the dwelling which had been increased in value to £33. The former dwelling was converted into offices for the Abbeyfield Derry Society Ltd. In 1966 and was raised in value to £60 by the end of the Second Revaluation in 1972.

In 1970 the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society recommended that Clarendon Street be incorporated into a comphrensive conservation area and 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. 69 Clarendon Street was subsequently listed in 1979.

The NIEA HB Records note that minor remedial work was carried out to No. 69 Clarendon Street during the 1980s; in 1982 the exterior brickwork was repaired and repointed, whilst in 1987 the roof was reslated in natural slate. In 2013 Calley described nos 67-73 Clarendon Street as ‘three-and-a-half-storey brick terrace houses, in scale and form these [are] essentially the same as nos 6-48;’ the most notable difference being the dormer windows on the roofs of nos 67-73. The brickwork of nos 67-69 is unique amongst the other terraces on Clarendon Street and reveals the Victorian origin of these Georgian-styled houses; Calley writes they are interesting as ‘for such severe Georgian style facades they have polychromatic brick windows and door surrounds’ (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. 69 Clarendon Street continues to be utilised as office premises.

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 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. NIEA HB Record – HB01/21/005EE

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
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 two-bay former house, built 1863 and located on the South side of Clarendon Street; the name of the architect is unknown. No.69 was built as a pair with No. 67 (HB01.22.005 DD) and it shares group value with this property. Although later, the pair adhere to the Georgian scale and form of earlier houses built in the same coloured brick towards the lower end of the street. Polychromatic brick dressing sets these two apart within the terrace of ten showing historic development of detailing. The original plan form survives to No.67 with much historic fabric, style and character largely intact throughout the interior, despite conversion to offices. Ornate gate posts at the entrance further enhance the quality of its setting. Set amongst several similar rows of neat townhouses that step down in a strong linear formation towards the River Foyle, No.69 is of special architectural interest due to the unique quality it contributes to the Clarendon Street Conservation Area.