39 CLARENDON ST.

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A mid-terrace two-bay three-storey with attic red brick Georgian-style townhouse, built in 1862 along with Nos. 29-37 & 41-51 Clarendon Street (HB01/21/005M-Q & S-X). Rectangular on plan with projecting rear return. Principal elevation faces north onto Clarendon Street set behind low rendered wall surmounted by painted black replacement metal railings with painted silver finials set in a sandstone coping. Built as part of a row of similar houses of this type which line the south side of Clarendon Street.

Pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles and single dormer to the front and rear. Large brick chimney stack rising from the east side, centred on ridge with seven clay pots. Cast-iron guttering and circular downpipes to the front and rear.

Principal front (north) elevation is of Flemish brick bond with rendered plinth. Three-centred-arch opening to entrance doorway with moulded surround to right; recessed moulded cornice supported by columns of the Doric order to either side of a painted timber four-panelled door surmounted by an Adam-style fanlight. 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.
Single 8/8 timber sliding sash window to left of door with two windows to first and second floors (those to upper floors are not aligned with ground floor openings). Narrow pitched roof dormer centred on elevation with a 6/3 timber sliding sash window.
Modern signage plaque to left of door with modern signage at first floor level comprising individually formed silver letters stating 'HASSON & Co. SOLICITORS.'

East and west elevations abutted by adjoining buildings No. 37 & No. 41 Clarendon Street (HB01/21/005Q & HB01/21/005S respectively).

South (rear) elevation is brick three-storey with attic. Small pitched-roof three-storey brick return to left abutted by a modern profiled metal mono-pitched-roof single-storey rendered extension with casement windows and uPVC rainwater goods of no interest. The single-storey extension abuts a white-washed two-storey pitched-roof mews building which runs parallel to the main building.
Right bay of main block comprises an 8/8 timber sliding sash window to ground floor with a single 6/6 timber sliding sash window to first and second floors aligned over the right reveal of the ground floor window; pitched roof dormer containing a casement window above.
Left bay is abutted by rear return; exposed section has a 6/3 timber sliding sash window.

Small three-storey rear return south gable is abutted by the single storey-storey mono-pitched-roof extension to ground floor; exposed section has a 6/6 timber sliding sash window to first and second floors (that to first floor has a metal security grill). East face comprises a modern vertically sheeted timber door with a blind square-headed overlight to ground floor with a single diminutive 2/2 timber sliding sash window to first and second floors aligned over right reveal of door. West face not visible at time of survey.

Two-storey mews building to rear of site is rendered with pitched fibre cement slate roof and clipped eaves.
North face is abutted to right by the single-storey mono-pitched-roof extension, central casement window and door opening to far left; single casement window to first floor left of centre.
East face is abutted by the mews building of no. 37 Clarendon Street; exposed section is blank.
West face is fully abutted by the mews building of no. 41 Clarendon Street.
South face not viewed at time of survey.

Setting:
Built as part of a row of twelve 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 black painted replacement metal railings. Small enclosed yard to rear bounded by a two-storey mews building to the south.

Materials:
Roof Natural Slate
RWG Cast Iron (N & S)
Walling Flemish Bond - Brick
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 29-51 Clarendon Street were constructed in 1862 as part of the second phase in the laying out of Clarendon Street. No. 39 (and the adjoining No. 37) was constructed for John Anderson, a grocer and baker who held business premises on William Street (Ulster Town Directories). The house was originally valued at £29 in 1862. Throughout its history the occupants of Clarendon Street were of the city’s merchant and professional classes. In 1901 No. 39 Clarendon Street was occupied by Dr. Herbert W. Cunningham, one of the city’s medical officers who operated from City of Derry Dispensary on William Street. The census building return of that year described his house as a 1st class dwelling that consisted of ten rooms. In 1895 ownership of No. 39 Clarendon Street had passed to James Corscaden, a grain merchant who held business premises on Shipquay Place but the First Revaluation records that No. 39 had been acquired by a Mr. J. B. Smyth by 1935 when the value of the building was increased to £38. The building continued to be utilised as a private dwelling by the Second Revaluation (1956-72) which noted that ownership of No. 39 Clarendon Street had passed to a Mr. F. Gallagher and that the value of the house had been decreased to £35.

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. 39 Clarendon Street was listed in 1979. The NIEA HB Records note that nos 39-41 Clarendon Street were combined into a single office premises in 1987. The subsequent renovation of the pair included the reslating of their roofs, the repointing of their brickwork and the erection of new railings and boundary walls (NIEA HB Records).

In 2013 Calley described nos 29-39 Clarendon Street as ‘terrace houses with Doric doorway columns’ (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. During the Second Survey No. 39 Clarendon Street was utilised as office premises for a local solicitor’s firm.

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

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

S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
X. Local Interest
R. Age

Evaluation

A mid-terrace two-bay three-storey with attic red brick Georgian-style townhouse, built in 1862 along with Nos. 29-37 and 41-51 Clarendon Street (HB01/21/005M-Q & S-X). It has group value with Nos. 5-37 and 41-73 (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 and the internal linking of the property with No. 41 has resulted in some modernisation of the interior. 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 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.