Derby Bar

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Three-storey three-bay Art Nouveau style public house sited on corner of Great James Street and Lower Road. Built c.1894. Principal elevations facing north and east. South and west elevations abut dwellings.

North and east elevations contain classical motifs with a canted corner containing entrance doorway with curved oriel window above to the first floor. Date above oriel window is 1894.

Gabled and hipped slate roof with clay ridge tiles and painted render two stage chimney-stacks with four pots to south and eight pots to west; cast-iron rain water goods.

Walls are painted brick and stucco with shouldered square-headed three-light window with stucco swan-neck pediment, flanked by coupled decorative pilasters. Round-headed single light window to south end of east elevation. First floor windows have 15/2 painted timber sliding sash with square-headed keystone flanked by plain pilasters, with stucco sill course course and salient cornice above. Second floor windows are 1/1 painted timber sliding sash.

Entrance doorcase with painted three-panelled timber double doors with square-headed keystone arch supporting oriel window corbel.

Setting:
Prominent on the rising corner junction of Great James Street and Lower Road, with canted corner entrance facing north east.

Materials:
walls: painted brick and stucco
windows: fixed, casement and sliding sash (timber)
RWG: cast iron
roof: slate

Historical information

No. 63A Great James Street, a three-storey Edwardian Freestyle public house, was established in 1894 according to a date inscribed on the corner of the building. The Annual Revisions first recorded No. 63A Great James Street in 1901 and noted that the building was originally divided into two sections, the public house (which consisted of the three bays on Lower Road and the first two bays on the Great James Street side) and an attached private dwelling (the adjoining two bays on Great James Street); the public house was occupied by Patrick Magill and valued at £30, whilst the adjoining dwelling was valued at £12 and leased out to tenants by Magill. The Magill family continued to be associated with No 63A Great James Street until at least the 1970s. The First Revaluation set the value of the public house at £65 in 1935, however this was increased to £160 under the Second Revaluation (1956-72) which recorded that Mary Magill had come into ownership of the building since the 1930s.

In 1992 the Foyle Civic Trust Review published the architect’s original sketch of No. 63A Great James Street; this sketch shows that very little structural alteration has been made to the façade of the building since c. 1894, although it does show that a dormer window on the Lower Road side has been demolished (or was never built). No. 63A Great James Street was designed by Daniel Conroy (c. 1866-1912), a local architect. The public house is not recorded as one of Conroy’s designs in the Dictionary of Irish Architects which notes that Conroy predominantly designed commercial premises and ‘was active as an architect in Derry from c. 1895;’ if No. 63A was built in 1894 this would make the public house one of Conroy’s earliest contracts. The DIA also notes that soon after its completion, No. 63A Great James Street underwent general alterations and improvements by James Patrick McGrath (1875-1948); the online source and Calley suggest that McGrath may have been responsible for the current appearance of the public house, however Conroy’s original sketch is evidence against this (Foyle Civic Trust review; DIA).

No. 63A Great James Street was listed in 1987. The public house, which is known as the Derby Bar, was described by Calley as a ‘quietly exuberant Art Nouveau, mixed with classical motifs, public house of painted brick and stucco’ which took advantage of its corner position ‘with a canted corner containing a doorway and a pepperpot oriel window above on the first floor. The other first floor windows have small paned upper lights over long narrow lower lights [but] the exuberance appears to have run out on the second floor which has plain square-headed one-over-one timber sash windows’ (Calley, p. 219). No. 63A Great James Street has continued to be utilised as a public house for over a century. The building is a local and early example of the Art Nouveau movement, an aesthetic style that emerged internationally in the late-Victorian and Edwardian periods that was inspired by organic forms and flowing lines. Due to the employment of natural and curving lines, Conroy’s public house stands in stylistic contrast to the uniformity and symmetry of the Georgian-style terraces of the Clarendon Street Conservation Area, although it does respect the height and proportion of the surrounding buildings.

References

Primary Sources
1. PRONI VAL/12/B/33/2A-2F – Annual Revisions (1898-1931)
2. PRONI VAL/3/B/6/4 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland (1935)
3. PRONI VAL/4/B/5/15 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland (1956-72)
4. Ulster Town Directories (1901-1918)
5. First Survey Record – HB01/19/029 (No Date)
6. First Survey Image – HB01/19/029 (No Date)
7. NIEA Pink Files – HB01/21/029

Secondary Sources
1. ‘The Foyle Civic Trust Review’ Lononderry: The Foyle Civic Trust, 1992.
2. Calley, D., ‘City of Derry: An historical gazetteer to the buildings of Londonderry’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2013.
3. ‘Londonderry Clarendon Street Conservation Area Booklet’ Department of the Environment, 1978.
4. ‘Design Guide for Clarendon Street Conservation Area’ Department of the Environment, 2012.

Online Resources
1. Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
Z. Rarity
R. Age
S. Authenticity

Evaluation

Three-storey, three-bay, stucco and painted brick Edwardian freestyle public house prominently sited on the rising corner of Great James Street and Lower Road, built c.1894. Some uncertainty regarding architect responsible for current appearance, with Daniel Conroy credited for initial design, and JP McGrath responsible for alterations at a later date. The interior has been largely altered with little trace of original historic, however, good quality external detailing remains to mark the building as a valuable and rare example of Edwardian Freestyle.