12 Queen Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Victorian end-of-terrace three-storey with attic three-bay red brick Georgian-style townhouse, built c.1847 with a three-storey projecting rear return built off half landing level, in turn abutted by a number of lower returns with the rear yard enclosed by a two-storey gabled block that runs parallel to the main building. Rectangular on plan with principal elevation faces east, built as one of a terrace of four similar townhouses fronting on to the west side of Queen Street. Pitched natural slate with black clay ridge tiles and a red brick chimney stack having seven clay pots rising from the south side. Projecting eaves supports cast iron painted half round guttering, on rise and fall brackets, discharging to cast iron hopper and circular downpipe to front, grey pvc rainwater goods to side and rear.

Principal elevation of painted red brick walling laid in Flemish bond, and concealed by brick-coloured paint set behind a low level rendered plinth wall with profiled stone coping (all painted). All window openings are square-headed on painted masonry sills, with bays on ground floor are aligned with those on floors above. Windows on ground floor replaced with timber casement windows with top-hung night vents. Elliptical arched entrance doorway, slightly recessed, with projecting door surround, has engaged fluted columns of the Ionic order either side a raised-and-fielded four panel painted timber door with dentilled entablature and plain fanlight above. Door opens on to three steps above the pavement level. Timber sliding sash windows on first and second floor levels have 1/1 panes. Central dormer with slated duo-pitched roof, lead cheeks and replacement timber sliding sash window having 1/1 panes.

Gable end (N) elevation is blank, of variegated red brick walling laid in Flemish bond with clipped eaves.

South elevation is abutted by No. 11 Queen Street (HB01/21/020C).

Rear (W) elevation is of three storeys with attic and two bays wide, with gabled return to right side. Smooth unpainted render finish to main building and rear return, with a slated pitched roof built at half-landing height and small slate-clad roof dormer offset to left side. Rear return drops from three to two storey and is then abutted by a single-storey monopitched addition. Square-headed window openings on unpainted masonry sills throughout. Original 1/1 timber sliding sash window to first floor with vertical metal bars and 6/6 timber sliding sash windows to second floor at left side of main building and a further 8/4 timber sliding sash above the return on right side. Ground floor opening to main building has been blocked up, rendered over and the outline of a former lean-to, now removed, is marked by change in render and terracotta tiled floor exposed within the corner of the yard. A single-storey flat roofed concrete block structure with vertically boarded timber door and overlight abuts the ground floor where the window is missing. West elevation to both three and two storey gabled returns are blank, with all openings within north face; three storey return, one bay wide, has timber sliding sashes to first and second floor level, having 6/1 and 6/6 panes respectively; two storey return, two bays wide, has a 6/6 sliding sash windows to the right side at first floor level and a similar timber casement window to the left side, timber casement window and modern flush door at ground floor opening on to the yard. Single storey monopitched addition is fully modernised and of little interest.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast Iron (E) PVC (N & W)
Walling Red Brick (N) / painted brick (E) / render (N& W)
Windows Timber sliding sash / timber casement

Setting:
Forming part of a terrace of four similar houses lining the west side of Queen Street with front entrance accessed via three concrete steps above pavement level and painted smooth rendered wall (ruled and lined to resemble ashlar stone) enclosing small yard to right of door. Set within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area. Rear enclosed by a variegated red brick wall terminating in a two-storey rendered gabled building. Alleyway to right of front elevation, secured by modern double metal gates, painted black, also access to the rear of No.29-51 Clarendon Street.

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 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. 12 Queen Street was first recorded on O’Hagan’s 1847 plan which depicted the building possessing 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 (1853) and no further buildings were constructed along the street in the intervening period. The contemporary Griffith’s Valuation (1856) recorded that No. 12 Queen Street was owned by Bartholemew McCorkell who was Mayor of Londonderry in 1861 and head of the McCorkell Shipping Line which offered transatlantic crossings between 1778 and 1897 (Ulster Street Directories). The valuer notes that No. 12 Queen Street was originally valued at £45 and was leased by McCorkell to a Mr. James Donnellan 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. 12 was occupied by John Thompson, a local painter. The census building return described his home as a 1st class dwelling that consisted of nine rooms. The house continued to be owned by the McCorkell family until the 1930s. The First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland records that ownership of No. 12 had passed to a Mr. J. B. Smith by 1935; in that year the value of the building was increased to £54. A Mr. S. S. Thompson took over ownership by the Second Revaluation (1956-72) which decreased the value of the house to £44.

In 1970 the UAHS guide for Derry noted 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 Clarednon 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.

A number of additions to the terrace have undermined its original Georgian character. 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.’ Calley singles out No. 12 Queen Street as the best example of the four, or at least the most dinstinctive, noting that ‘the door surround on No. 12 projects forming a shallow porch with Ionic columns … has ground floor casement windows which is even odder [than its neighbours windows] … has a more traditional roof dormer.’ In contrast to the side elevation of No. 9 Queen Street, which has been rerendered in cement, the side elevation to No. 12 possesses its original ‘wonderful huge mass of mottled brick’ (Calley, p. 328). The Pink Files record that No. 12 Queen Street underwent a number of alterations in 1988 when its chimney was repaired, its roof reslated and its exterior brickwork repointed (NIEA HB Records).

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. 12 Queen Street is currently occupied by 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 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 – HB01/21/020D

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
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.12 has group value with No 9, 10 & 11 Queen Street (HB01.21.020 A-C inclusive). Although Victorian, it adopts the scale and proportions of earlier Georgian terraces within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area; the building signifies a confidence in the city that followed industrial success in the mid 19th century. The survival of most of the original external fabric including boundary walls (to front and side)and two storey outbuilding to rear that encloses the plot is matched by a fine and largely intact interior. The internal joinery and plasterwork and original 6/6 sash windows to the rear are of particular interest. The painted front facade and modern casement windows to the ground floor detract, but overall the building remains a very good example of its type. Rectangular on plan, with three and two-storey rendered returns and separate outbuilding at the far end of the plot, the plan form is largely intact even though the building is currently sub-divided into four individual office premises, one on each floor. The walling to the front, complete with profiled stone coping, and side further enhances the quality of its setting.