73 CLARENDON ST.

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Victorian mid-terraced two-bay three-storey, with dormer-attic level redbrick Georgian-style townhouse. Built c.1861. Rectangular on plan with projecting return to rear. Principal elevation faces north set behind a low painted concrete block wall built on what appears to be original plinth wall. Built as part of a terrace row with similar houses of this type lining the north and south side of Clarendon Street.

North elevation is of flemish bond brick; windows are square-headed 6/6 timber sliding sash to ground, first and second floors, with a 6/3 timber sliding sash window to the projecting pitched roofed attic dormer. Segmental arch opening to entrance doorway with moulded cornice supported by a pair of columns and plain fanlight above with painted timber door. Single roof dormer set above eaves level, painted to front, vertical slate to sides and slated pitched roof with 6/3 timber sliding sash window.

West elevation faces Francis Street which runs perpendicular to Clarendon Street. This elevation is unpainted render to both the main gable of the house as well as the return; the latter advances slightly forward of gable end to main house. All windows are timber sliding sashes. Gable end is asymmmetrical with two windows to right side; 6/3 to attic level and 6/6 to the first floor. Return has two windows each to ground and first floor levels; 6/3 to first and 6/6 to ground floor. A small rectangular vent is below window cill level to the far right.

The east side of the building is abutted by the adjoining building No. 71 Clarendon Street (HB01/21/005FF).

South elevation, three-storey with pitched roof rear return to right at half-landing level, smooth rendered (painted to E face) with door opening into rear yard. The fenestration pattern is irregular with both 6/6 sliding sash windows to ground, first and second floors and replacement timber casement windows to the return. The return of the property is abutted by No 61 Francis Street, a two storey with attic terrace with roofline similar to the return.

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

Materials:
Roof: Natural Slate
RWG: Cast iron (N) / uPVC (S)
Walling : Brick (N) / Smooth Render, unpainted (W) / Rendered brick S), smooth render, painted to rear return
Windows: Timber Sliding Sash (N & W) / mix of Timber Casments and Sliding Sash (S)

Setting:
Built as part of a pair of two Victorian townhouses No. 71-73 (HB01.22.005GG) are at the end in a terrace of ten which lines the south side of Clarendon Street with building return onto Francis Street, within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area. To the rear the yard is bound by a combination of painted render and brick walls.

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.

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, but 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. 73 was constructed in 1861 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. James McCluskey (who also built the adjoining No. 71). Throughout its history the occupants of Clarendon Street were of the city’s merchant and professional classes; in 1861 the first occupant was Matthew Philson, the headmaster and resident superintendent of Gwyn’s Charitable Institution (Ulster Town Directories). In 1911 No. 73 Clarendon Street was occupied by Alexander Campbell, a local grain merchant; the census of that year described O’Kane’s house as a 1st class dwelling that consisted of seven inhabited rooms. In 1929 ownership of the house (as well as the adjoining No. 71 Clarendon Street) had passed to the Gosselin family but by the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1935) a Ms. Margaret Watson had acquired the house. The value of No. 73 Clarendon Street stood at £37 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. 73 Clarendon Street was subsequently listed in 1979. The NIEA HB Records note that a renovation of No. 73 was undertaken in 1984 which included the reslating of its roof, the reconstruction of its dormer window and the replacement of its original chimney (NIEA HB Records).

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 (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. 73 Clarendon Street was converted into office accomodation in 1991 (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 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. First Survey Image – HB01/21/005 (1978)
14. NIEA HB Records – HB01/21/005GG

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

Georgian-style end-terraced two-bay three-storey, with dormer-attic, red brick townhouse located on the south side of Clarendon Street at its junction with Francis Street, built 1861; the name of the architect is unknown. No.73, now used as offices, was built as a pair with No. 71 (HB01.22.005 FF) 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. Despite some casment windows to the rear, the original style and character survives, together with the original plan form and much historic fabric inside. Set amongst several similar rows of neat townhouses that step down in a strong linear formation towards the River Foyle, No.73 of special architectural interest due to the unique quality it contributes to the Clarendon Street Conservation Area.