9 QUEEN ST.

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Victorian end-terrace three-storey with attic three-bay red brick Georgian-style townhouse, built c.1847 with a three-storey projecting rear return. Rectangular on plan, principal elevation faces east, built as one of a terrace of four similar townhouses fronting on to the west side of Queen Street; the gable end to No.12 abuts Clyde Street. Pitched natural slate with black clay ridge tiles and a red brick chimney stack with clay pots rising from the south side. Cast-iron guttering on iron drive-through brackets.

Principal elevation of red brick walling laid in Flemish bond with cement pointing, set behind a low level rendered plinth wall with concrete coping; all window openings are square-headed on painted masonry sills, bays on ground floor are aligned with window bays on floors above, window bays on ground floor right of entrance doorway 1/1 timber sliding sash; elliptical arched entrance doorway, slightly recessed, has engaged fluted columns of the Doric order either side of a raised-and-fielded four panel painted timber door with dentilled entablature and a webbed Adam style fanlight above, door three steps up from pavement. 1/1 timber sliding sashes on first and second floor levels. Large slate clad central dormer with slate pitched roof and 1/1 timber sliding sash window flanked by modern rooflight either side.

North elevation is abutted by No.10 Queen Street (HB01/21/020B).

South elevation facing Clyde Street of smooth unpainted render finish with two windows to the right at first and second floor 1/2 landing levels and a single window slightly off-centre at attic level. Rear return with non symmetrical window pattern, two to first and second floors; windows to side elevation are replacement uPVC casement windows.

West elevation to the rear is of three-storeys, hand-made red brick walling laid in 'English Garden Wall' bond, smooth plain render painted finish to rear return with a slated pitched roof built at half-landing height. Square-headed window openings on unpainted masonry sills. The fenestration pattern is irregular with both timber sliding sash and largely replacement timber single-pane casement windows to the rear and return, blind window on third floor has been recently concealed with red brick.

Pitched slate roof with black clay ridge tiles and a red brick chimney stack with seven clay pots rising from the south side. Cast-iron half-round guttering on iron drive-through brackets terminating at a circular downpipe to front elevation, painted aluminium rainwater goods to side and rear.

Materials
Roof Natural slate / Artificial slate to N facing slope of return
RWG Cast-iron (E) Aluminium (S&W)
Walling Red brick (E) / Render (S&W)
Windows Timber sliding sash (E) / uPVC casement (S&W)

Setting:
Forming part of a terrace of four similar houses lining the west side of Queen Street and within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area. Front entrance path paved in concrete block pavers and ramped up to provide level access with pavement level; hardscape area to right side of door set behind smooth rendered wall. Small rear yard enclosed by rendered wall with a large two-storey rear return; side yard at Clyde Street bound by hit-n-miss timber fencing, unfinished.

Historical information

Queen Street, characterised by its mid-nineteenth century terraced houses, was originally laid out in c. 1840, with the first buildings constructed along the street by at least 1847. The laying out of Queen Street, as well as the adjoining Great James Street and Clarendon Street, was neccesitated by a remarkable period of growth in the economy and population of Londonderry that occurred in the mid-nineteenth 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).

Queen Street was the second major new street in the area (Great James Street had been laid out in c. 1833). The first edition of the Ordnance Survey maps (1830) for the townland of Edenballymore records that the Queen 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 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 1613-19.

O’Hagan’s contemporary plan of Londonderry recorded that Queen Street was originally known as Queen’s Street (the name of the street continued to switch back and forth throughout its history) and noted that at least 12 houses had been constructed along the row by 1847. The map shows that nos 1-8 Queen Street (HB01/21/024A-H) and nos 9-12 Queen Street (HB01/21/020A-D) are amongst the earliest terraced dwellings within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area, having been built by at least 1847.

No. 9 Queen Street was first recorded on O’Hagan’s 1847 plan which depicted the building with a rear return and outbuilding (now demolished and replaced with a modern return). The layout of nos 9-12 Queen Street had not changed by the second edition Ordnance Survey map in 1853 and no further buildings had been constructed along the street in the intervening period. The contemporary Griffith’s Valuation (1856) recorded that nos 9-10 Queen Street were owned by a Mr. Samuel Jackson. The valuer notes that No. 9 Queen Street was originally valued at £38 and was occupied by a Mr. Pechall Irvine in 1856. Throughout its history the occupants of the dwellings in Queen Street were of the city’s merchant and professional classes. In 1911 No. 9 Queen Street was occupied by M. Cunningham, a local grocer. The census building return described the house as a 1st class dwelling that consisted of ten inhabited rooms. The house continued to be administered by the Jackson estate until 1925 when ownership of the building passed to a Mr. John Madden who continued to own the site until the 1970s. Under the First Revaluation (1935) the value of No. 9 Queen Street was slightly increased to £39. The Second Revaluation (1956-72) further increased the value of the building to £48, and in 1965 the former private dwelling was converted into office premises for the Roman Catholic voluntary organisation, the Legion of Mary.

In 1970 the UAHS guide for Derry recorded that nos 9-12 Queen Street were ‘not as well handled’ as the similar nos 13-16 Queen Street (HB01/22/018A-D) which it deemed the most impressive Georgian-style terrace within area. In 1978 the Department of the Environment designated the mid-nineteenth century streets and terraces of Queen Street, Great James Street and Clarendon Street as 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). Nos 9-12 Queen Street were subsequently listed in 1979.

In 2013 Calley described nos 9-12 Queen Street as a ‘setback terrace of four big brick three-and-a-half-storey, three-bay houses with rendered reveals and wide round-headed doorways. Nos 9-11 have inset Doric doorcases under spiderweb fan-lights … the windows are one-over-one timber sash and demonstrate the weakness of this type on such large plain surfaces … nos 9-11 have wall-head dormers which look a little out of place on the traditional Georgan facades.’ Due to having underwent conservation work quite recently Calley singled out No. 9 Queen Street for criticism stating that ‘the wall-head dormer of No. 9 is a very recent addition … unfortunate on a Listed historic building, although perhaps it replaces a long missing one. Even more curious is that this recently renovated building has uPVC casement windows on its cement rendered Clyde Street side elevation’ contrasting startlingly with the original ‘wonderful huge mass of mottled brick’ on the side elevation of No. 12 (Calley, p. 328). The NIEA HB Records note that the dormer was indeed a replacement for the original and was added in 2002. The files also record that the building underwent extensive remedial work in 1983-84 when its rainwater goods were replaced with cast iron and its interior was treated for dry rot.

Few of the mid-nineteenth century townhouses along Queen Street continue to be 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. 9 Queen Street had been utilised as office premises since 1965.

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/5/13-14 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-1972)
8. Robert Simpson’s ‘Annals of Derry’ (1847)
9. O’Hagan’s plan of Londonderry (1847)
10. Ulster Town Directories (1843-1918)
11. Census of Ireland (1911)
12. First Survey Record – HB01/21/020 (1970)
13. NIEA HB Records – HB01/21/020A

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
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

End-of-terrace three-storey with attic three-bay red brick former townhouse, built c.1847 as one of four similar buildings, No.9 has group value with No 10, 11 & 12 Queen Street (HB01.21.020 B, C&D). Although Victorian, it adopts the scale and proportions of earlier Georgian terraces within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area. Now converted to offices and despite removal of much interior detailing as well as the wall-head dormer to the front and replacement windows to the rear and side that detract, significant fabric and original historic character remains, including the two-room plan form, timber sliding sash windows to front and a high quality entrance door case. The terrace signifies a confidence that followed Londonderry's industrial success in the mid 19th century and it is amongst the earlier buildings in this part of the city.