1 Queen Street, Londonderry, BT48 7EG

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Three-storey, two-bay, early-Victorian end terrace house sited perpendicular to the street. Principal elevation facing east onto Queen Street with south elevation facing onto Great James Street. Two-storey return to rear with small yard enclosed by boundary wall with gate access to Great James Street.

Pitched slate roof with clay ridge tiles and large redbrick chimney-stack with seven terracotta pots to south gable end; cast-iron half-round guttering supported on cast-iron rise-and-fall brackets projecting from eaves.

Walls are smooth-rendered painted with deep-set square-headed window bays.

East elevation - Front entrance doorcase with painted four-panelled timber door with brass ironmongery, flanked by fluted doric columns supporting dentilled entablature and three-centred arched fanlight.

North elevation abutted by adjoining building No. 2 (HB01/21/024B).

Windows are 6/6 painted timber sliding sash to ground and first floors with wrought-iron railing at ground floor and 6/3 painted timber sliding sash windows to second floor.

South elevation consisting of single first floor 6/6 painted timber sliding sash window and two small casement windows to attic level.

West elevation of irregular fenestration with a mix of 6/6, 6/3 and 3/3 painted timber sliding sash windows.

Setting:
At the junction of Great James Street and Queen Street, facing east, with flank yard wall facing south onto Great James Street.

Materials:
Roof Natural Slate
RWG Cast Iron
Walling Painted render
Windows Timber Sliding Sash

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 the ‘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 north 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 the 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. 1 Queen Street, located at the corner of Queen Street and Great James Street, was first recorded on O’Hagan’s 1847 plan which depicted the building with a rear outbuilding (now demolished); the layout of nos 1-8 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 1-8 Queen Street were leased out to tenants by Thomas Major, a landowner who resided in Creggan. The valuer notes that No. 1 Queen Street was valued at £17 in 1856 and was occupied by a Ms. Sarah Denham who the Ulster Town Directories recorded as a member of the gentry (perhaps a relative of the Rev. James Denham of Londonderry Third Presbyterian Church).

Despite Thomas Major’s death in 1858, nos 2-8 Queen Street continued to be administered by his estate at the cancellation of the Annual Revisions in 1931; however, in 1923 ownership of No. 1 Queen Street reverted back to The Honorable The Irish Society when a Mr. James Mitchell took possession of the house. By the end of the Annual Revisions the value of No. 1 Queen Street had increased to £19 and the building continued to be utilised as a private dwelling. The value of the dwelling was increased to £21 under the First Revaluation (1935); this was further increased to £23 by the Second Revaluation (1956-72) which noted that No. 1 Queen Street remained in the ownership of James Mitchell by the 1970s.

In 1970 the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society recommended that Queen Street (and the adjoining streets) be incorporated into a comphrensive conservation area; in 1978 the Department of the Environment designated the mid-nineteenth century streets and terraces 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). The group of terraces, nos 1-8 Queen Street was subsequently listed in 1980.

The NIEA HB Records note that No. 1 Queen Street was renovated in 1984 when its rainwater goods were substituted with suitable cast iron replacements, its roof was reslated and general interior repairs were made. The former dwelling was converted into offices in 1994 with conversion work undrtaken as a result (NIEA HB Records). Few of the mid-Victorian townhouses along Queen 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. 1 Queen Street is currently utilised as a dentist’s clinic.

In 2013 Calley described nos 1-8 Queen Street as ‘the earliest buildings [along Queen Street] … they are smooth-rendered three-storey, two-bay with deep set square-headed window bays and round-headed doorways. The second-storey bays are of diminished scale. The timber-framed doorways have Doric columns supporting dentilled entablatures and simple spider-web fanlights. Most retain their glazing bars [No. 1 possesses Georgian-style sash windows]. Although their finishes have been altered over the years they retain their big deep chimneys’ (Calley, p. 326).

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. First Survey Record – HB01/21/024 (No Date)
12. NIEA HB Records – HB01/21/024A

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

Three-storey, two-bay, early-Victorian end terrace house, built c. 1847. Retains much of its original historic fabric and character with minor internal alterations. It is a good example of the Georgian style terrace, robust in its simplicity, with a small rear return, significant also as part of the 1825-1850 development of Londonderry beyond the City Walls. No.1 is one of a terrace of eight similar houses (HB01/21/024 B - H) with which this building has group value.