25 CLARENDON ST.

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A mid-terrace two-bay three-storey with attic over basement red brick Georgian-style townhouse, built in 1862-63 along with No. 27 Clarendon Street (HB01/21/005L). Rectangular on plan with projecting rear return. Principal elevation faces north onto Clarendon Street set behind low rendered wall surmounted by replacement black painted metal railings. Front entrance is five steps up with bottom step projecting out beyond boundary wall onto pavement. Built as part of a row of similar houses of this type which line the south side of Clarendon Street.

Pitched natural slate roof, black clay ridge tiles and large red brick chimney stack rising from the east gable, centred on ridge with nine terracotta pots. Cast-iron guttering supported on iron brackets to front elevation and cast-iron guttering and downpipes with hopper to rear elevation.

Principal front (north) elevation is of Flemish brick bond with painted stone and brick dressings to basement level terminating at a string course at ground floor level. Three-centred-arch opening to entrance doorway to right with moulded cornice supported by columns of the Doric order to either side of a painted timber four-panelled door surmounted by a single pane overlight. All window openings are square-headed with painted cement rendered reveals and painted sills. All windows are 6/6 timber sliding sash unless otherwise stated.
Two diminished windows to left of door with two windows to first and second floors (those to upper floors are not aligned with ground floor openings). Two windows to basement level directly below ground floor windows (not fully visible).

East and west elevations abutted by adjoining buildings No.23 & No. 27 Clarendon Street (HB01/21/005J & HB01/21/005L respectively).

South (rear) elevation is cement rendered three-storey with attic over basement. Cement rendered pitched roof three-storey over basement rear return (shared with No.27) to left.
Right bay of main block comprises an opening to basement level (not fully visible) with a single 1/1 timber sliding sash window to ground, first and second floor levels (that to second floor is not aligned with the windows below). Pitched roof rendered dormer above with a single top hung casement window.
Left bay is abutted by rear return; exposed section has a 3/3 timber sliding sash window.

Rear return south gable comprises a single top hung casement window to basement level to right and a single 1/1 timber sliding sash window to ground floor, first and second floor.
East face not visible at time of survey.
West face is abutted by rear return of No. 27 Clarendon Street.

Setting:
Built as part of a row of twelve early to mid-Victorian townhouses which line the south side of Clarendon Street. Located within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area, the front of the property faces north and is set behind a low rendered wall surmounted by replacement black painted metal railings. Front entrance is five steps up with bottom step projecting out beyond boundary wall onto pavement. Enclosed yard to rear.
Two-storey pitched corrugated fibre cement roofed stone mews building with brick dressings to rear of site. North elevation has a vertically sheeted timber door to left of centre with a segmental-arched coach arch to right that has been altered and the opening is now square-headed; first floor has two square-headed timber louvered openings. East and west elevations are fully abutted by the mews buildings of Nos. 23 & 27 Clarendon Street respectively. South elevation has a segmental-arched coach arch to left that has been altered and the opening is now square-headed and contains a pair of modern vertically sheeted timber doors; a vertically sheeted timber door to right of centre and a blocked up opening to right; first floor has a timber louvered opening to first floor left centred above coach arch and a vertically sheeted timber opening directly above door below.

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

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 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 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; 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).

Nos 25-27 Clarendon Street were constructed in 1853-56 and, along with nos 12-20, are the earliest of the Georgian-style dwellings constructed on the street. Nos 25-27 were not depicted on the second edition Ordnance Survey map in 1853, however they were included in Griffith’s Valuation of 1856. In that year the valuer recorded that No. 25 Clarendon Street was valued at £40 and had been constructed for Forrest Reid, a local solicitor who held business offices on Richmond Street (Ulster Town Directories). Throughout its history the occupants of Clarendon Street were of the city’s merchant and professional classes. In 1901 No. 25 was occupied by a Mr. Herbert Smith; the census building return in that year described the house as a 1st class dwelling that consisted of ten rooms and possessed a stable as its sole out offices. Forrest Reid continued to own No. 25 Clarendon Street (and many of the adjoining buildings) until his death in 1888 at which point his holdings were administered by the executors of his will (PRONI Wills). The renowned architect William Henry Dunlevy McCormick (known as Liam McCormick) was born at 25 Clarendon Street on 24 October 1916. ('North by Northwest' Gandon Editions 2008 by Shane O’Toole and Paul Larmour). The First Revaluation records that by 1935 ownership of No. 25 had passed to Dr. Ronald W. Cunningham (also the owner of No. 27); in that year the value of the dwelling was increased to £43 at which it remained by the end of the Second Revaluation (1956-72).

In 1970 the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society recommended that Clarendon Street be incorporated into a compressive 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. 25 Clarendon Street was subsequently listed in 1979.

In 2013 Calley described nos 23-27 Clarendon Street as three ‘terrace houses differing from their neighbours in that they have stone steps over basement wells leading to the doors, giving them the most elegant approaches of any houses on the street’ (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 dentist, solicitors and accountancy firms in the late-20th century; No. 25 Clarendon Street is currently utilised as an orthodontists surgery and still possesses its original rear two-storey outbuilding.

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 (24 Feb 1888)
13. NIEA HB Records – HB01/21/005K
14.North by Northwest' - Gandon Editions - Shane O’Toole and Paul Larmour 2008

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
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
R. Age
S. Authenticity
U. Historic Associations

Evaluation

A mid-terrace two-bay three-storey with attic over basement red brick Georgian-style townhouse, built c.1853-56 along with No. 27 Clarendon Street (HB01/21/005L). It has group value with Nos. 5-23 and 27-73 (excluding No.53) which were built over a twenty-one year period and line the south side of the street. 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, the survival of its rear mews building and the railings and plinth wall to the front adds to its interest. It also has historic importance as the birthplace of the preeminent architect William Henry Dunlevy McCormick (known as Liam McCormick) who was born at the property on 24th October 1916. 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 & U-Historical Associations