8 Queen Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Victorian end-of-terrace three-storey with attic two-bay smooth-rendered painted townhouse, built 1847. 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 large rendered painted chimney stack with seven clay pots rising from the north side. uPVC guttering on timber fascia board to front elevation.

Principal elevation (east) is of smooth-rendered painted finish on a low rendered painted plinth; 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 with low metal railing, right of entrance doorway; 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, dentilled cornice and a webbed Adam's style fanlight above, door opens onto threshold directly from the pavement; 6/6 timber sliding sash windows on ground and first floors, 6/3 timber sliding sash on second floor level.

South side is adjoined to neighbouring property No.7 Queens Street (HB01/21/024G).

North elevation, gable end is smooth-rendered painted finish with a small casement window to attic level and a large rendered chimney stack with seven clay pots. North elevation is abutted by a two-storey concrete 'Water Minerals' structure with date stone '1900'.

West elevation to the rear is of three-storeys abutted by two-storey cement rendered unpainted flat roof rear extension. The fenestration pattern is irregular with largely replacement uPVC casement windows to the rear and rear extension. Cement rendered unpainted dormer to slated pitched roof has a casement window.

Pitched slate roof with terracotta clay ridge tiles and a large rendered chimney stack with seven clay pots rising from the north side. uPVC rainwater goods throughout.

Roof Natural slate
RWG uPVC
Walling Painted render
Windows Timber sliding sash and Timber/uPVC casements.

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. Set within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area.

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. 8 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 were leased out to tenants by Thomas Major, a landowner who resided in Creggan. The valuer notes that nos 7 and 8 Queen Street were valued at £21 each in 1856 (nos 7 and 8 Queen Street possessed additional out offices resulting in higher values than the rest of the terrace). At that time No. 8 was occupied by a Mr. Moses Swan, a grocer who held business premises on Bishop Street (Ulster Town Directories).

Despite Thomas Major’s death in 1858, nos 2-8 Queen Street continued to be administered by his estate until the 1930s. The 1911 Census records that No. 8 Queen Street was occupied by a Mrs. McConnell. The census building return described her home as a second class dwelling that consisted of seven main rooms. By the end of the Annual Revisions the value of No. 8 Queen Street had been been decreased to £16 but ownership of No. 8 had passed to a Mr. James Mitchell by the First Revaluation (1935) and as a result the value of the house was raised to £24. The valuer recorded that neither owner nor value changed throughout the Second Revaluation (1956-72).

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 the former dwelling had been converted into office premises by 1990 and in the following year the building was renovated when its chimney was rebuilt, the roof reslated, its rainwater goods reslated and new sash windows and entrance door installed.

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 – HB01/21/024 (No Date)
13. NIEA HB Records – HB01/21/024H

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
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 end-of-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.8 is one of a terrace of eight similar houses with which this building has group value. Its south side is abutted by No 7 Queen Street (HB01/21/024G). Externally, some 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.