2 QUEEN ST.

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Victorian mid-terrace three-storey with attic two-bay rendered townhouse, built 1847 with a two-storey projecting rear return. Rectangular on plan, principal elevation faces east, built as one of a terrace of eight similar street-fronted townhouses lining the west side of Queen Street. Pitched natural slate with terracotta clay ridge tiles and a rebuilt red brick chimney stacks with clay pots rising from the north side. Cast-iron guttering on iron drive-through brackets.

Principal elevation (east) is of smooth-rendered painted finish; all window openings are square-headed on painted masonry sills, bays on ground floor are not aligned with window bays on floors above, single window bay on ground floor left of entrance doorway is concealed with plywood sheet; elliptical arch headed entrance doorway, slightly recessed, has engaged fluted columns of the Doric order either side a raised-and-fielded four panel painted timber door with entablature and a webbed Adam's style fanlight above, door opens onto threshold directly from the pavement; 6/6 timber sliding sashes on first floor and 6/3 timber sliding sash windows on second floor level.

North and south sides are adjoined to neighbouring properties No.1 & No.3 Queens Street (HB01/21/024A & HB01/21/024C).

West elevation to the rear is of three-storeys, hand-made red brick walling laid in 'English Garden Wall' bond with cement pointing, smooth plain render painted finish to rear return with a fibre cement 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, original window on third floor now 'blind 'has been recently concealed with red brick.

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

Setting:
Forming part of a terrace of eight similar houses lining the west side of Queen Street fronting directly onto the pavement. Small rear yard enclosed by rendered wall with a two-storey rear return. Set within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area.

Materials:
Roof Natural slate (fibre cement to rear return)
RWG Cast-iron (E) uPVC (W)
Walling Painted render/brick
Windows Timber sliding sash / Timber casement

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. 2 Queen 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 was leased out to tenants by Thomas Major, a landowner who resided in Creggan. The valuer notes that No. 2 Queen Street was valued at £17 in 1856 and was occupied by a Mr. James McCorkell who the Ulster Town Directories described as a merchant who was also the local secretary and treasurer for the British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Jews (Ulster Town Directories - 1877; 1880).

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. No. 2 Queen Street continued to be occupied by the McCorkell family until 1911 when the dwelling first fell vacant for a period of at least 20 years; by the cancellation of the Annual Revisions in 1931 the house remained empty and it’s value had been decreased to £15 10s. The First Revaluation records that ownership of No. 2 passed to a Mr. James Mitchell by 1935; in that year the valuer increased the value of the house to £21. The dwelling was further increased in value to £23 by the Second Revaluation (1956-72) which noted that the occupant, a Ms. Emma Bradley, had purchased the house outright since the 1930s.

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). Nos 1-8 Queen Street was subsequently listed in 1980.

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. Although their finishes have been altered over the years they retain their big deep chimneys’ (Calley, p. 326).

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. The NIEA HB Records note that in 1984 No. 2 Queen Street was converted from a private dwelling into a number of residential flats. As a result conversion work was undertaken which required the reslating of the roof, and the replacement of the glazing with suitable Georgian-style sash windows. A new replica entrance door was added in 1985 (NIEA HB Records). Despite this remedial work, at the time of the Second Survey No. 2 Queen Street lay vacant with its ground floor window boarded up; the building was added to the NIEA Built Heritage at Risk Register in 2012.

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 Ordnanec 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 – HB01/21/024B

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.

Online Resources
1. NIEA Built Heritage at Risk Register - http://www.doeni.gov.uk/niea/other-index/content-databases/content-databases-barni.htm

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

Victorian three-storey with attic mid-terrace former townhouse, built in 1847 and located on the west side of Queen Street which runs between Great James Street and Clarendon Street on the west side of the River Foyle. No.2 is one of a terrace of eight similar houses with which this building has group value. Its north and south sides are abutted by Nos 1 & 3 Queens Street (HB01/21/024A & C). Externally, much historic detailing remains such as the fine doorcase with its Adam-style fanlight. The setting of the Clarendon Street Conservation Area is significantly enhanced by the historic authenticity of this former house within the terrace.