27 CLARENDON ST.

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

An end-of-terrace two-bay three-storey with attic over basement red brick Georgian-style townhouse, built in 1862-63 along with No. 25 Clarendon Street (HB01/21/005K). Rectangular on plan with projecting rear return. Principal elevation faces north onto Clarendon Street set behind low rendered wall surmounted by 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 slate roof with black clay ridge tiles and a single dormer to front and rear. Large brick chimney stack rising from the West side, centred on ridge with ten clay pots. Cast-iron guttering and circular downpipes to front and rear.

Principal front (north) elevation is of Flemish brick bond with rendered basement level terminating at a string course at ground floor level. Three-centred-arch opening to entrance doorway to left 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 replacement uPVC casements unless otherwise stated.
Two diminished windows to right 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. Narrow pitched roof dormer to right.

East elevation is abutted by adjoining building No.25 Clarendon Street (HB01/21/005K).

West (gable) elevation is blank. Cement rendered wall surmounted by a large red brick chimney.

South (rear) elevation is brick (cement rendered basement level) three-storey with attic over basement. Brick (cement rendered basement level) pitched roof three-storey over basement rear return (shared with No.25) to right abutted by a modern single-storey extension which is in turn further abutted by a modern two-storey block of no interest.
Left bay of main block comprises a door opening to basement level (not fully visible) with a single uPVC casement window to ground, first and second floor levels (that to second floor is not aligned with the windows below). Pitched roof uPVC clad dormer above with a single uPVC casement window.
Right bay is abutted by rear return; exposed section has a 3/3 timber sliding sash window.

Rear return south gable is abutted by a modern single-storey extension; exposed section has a single uPVC casement window to first and second floor.
East face is abutted by rear return of No. 25 Clarendon Street.
West face has a uPVC door to basement level and a uPVC casement window to second floor left.

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 at the junction of Clarendon Street/Queen Street, the front of the property faces north and is set behind a low rendered wall surmounted by black painted metal railings. Front entrance is five steps up with bottom step projecting out beyond boundary wall onto pavement. Small enclosed yard to rear bounded by a stone wall along Queen Street and modern single and two-storey extensions to the east and south.

Materials:
Roof Natural Slate
RWG Cast Iron (N & S) / uPVC (S)
Walling Brick
Windows uPVC (N & S) One single timber sliding sash (S)

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 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 25-27 Clarendon Street were constructed in 1853-56 and, along with nos 12-20, are the earliest of the Georgian-style dwellings constructed along the street. Nos 25-27 were not depicted on the second edition Ordnance Survey map in 1853 but they were included in Griffith’s Valuation of 1856. In that year the valuer recorded that No. 27 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. 27 was occupied by Dr. George McCaul, a local magistrate and surgeon. In that year the census building return described his house as a 1st class dwelling that consisted of ten rooms and possessed a stable and coach house in the mews building to its rear. Forrest Reid continued to own No. 27 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). In 1931 Dr. Ronald W. Cunningham purchased No. 27 outright and occupied the building as his own private dwelling. The First Revaluation increased the value of the dwelling to £45 in 1935. No. 27 Clarendon Street had been converted into a medical surgery by the 1950s but the building was reverted to use as a private dwelling in 1961. By the end of the revaluation the value of No. 27 stood at £46.

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. 27 Clarendon Street was subsequently listed in 1979. The NIEA HB Records note that the building underwent an extensive renovation in 1987 that included the reslating of the roof in welsh slate, the repointing of the brickwork and chimney, and installation of new cast iron rain water goods. To the rear of the building the current one-and-a-half-storey stone building, which replaced the former stable and coach house, was constructed in 1990 to provide additional office space. The 2012 Design Guide for the Clarendon Street Conservation Area states that the extension took advantage of a gap site between the terraces and ‘could be considered as a traditional approach to design within the development reflecting the mass and character of the stable buildings traditionally located to the rear of such Georgian dwellings’ (NIEA HB Records; Clarendon Street Design Guide, p. 5).

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. No. 27 is like so many similar brick buildings in the city in that its side elevation is rendered’ (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. 27 Clarendon Street is currently utilised as office premises for a local estate agency whilst the former stable and coach house to its rear is utilised as a health and beauty salon.

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. First Survey Record – HB01/21/005 (1970)
14. First Survey Image – HB01/21/005 (No Date)
15. NIEA HB Record – HB01/21/005L

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

An end-of-terrace two-bay three-storey with attic over basement red brick Georgian-style townhouse, built c.1853-56 along with No. 25 Clarendon Street (HB01/21/005K). It has group value with Nos. 5-25 and 29-73 (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 minor modernisation of the interior and a modern extension to the rear. There has also been the insertion of inappropriate casement windows throughout. Despite this, much of its internal detailing survives and the house forms an integral part of the terrace as a whole. Located within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area, the well preserved setting and the metal railings and plinth wall to the front 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