18 Great James Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Three-storey two-bay Georgian-style mottled brown brick terraced house of 1847-53 with two-storey rear return. Built as part of a terrace of three similarly scaled townhouses to the N side of Great James Street, one of the earliest to be built in terms of domestic architecture within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area.

Front elevation faces south onto Great James Street of Flemish bond brick course and a recessed entrance in an elliptical-arched opening, flanked by doric columns supporting dentilled entablature under simple fanlight with four-panelled painted timber door. Windows are square headed with rendered reveals and 6/6 timber sliding sash to ground and first floors and 6/3 timber sliding sash to second floor level. Natural pitched slate roof with two metal conservation rooflights to S slope, black clay ridge with large brick chimney-stack rising from both east and west-ends of No.18, centred on ridge with 7 clay pots; header-course brick corbel to eaves.

East and West elevations abuts No.16 (HB01/21/035A) and No.20 Great James Street (HB01/21/035C).

To the rear the two-storey rear-return extends to the boundary line. The facade is of smooth render, unpainted and with a single 6/6 timber sliding sash window to the ground and first floor and a 6/3 timber sliding sash window to the second floor.

Setting:
Mid terrace building to the North side of Great James Street, towards its east end junction with Strand Road and within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area.

Materials:
Roof: Natural Slate with black clay ridge tiles
Rainwater goods: Cast Iron (S) uPVC (N)
Walling; Brick (S) Smooth render, unpainted (N)
Windows: Timber Sliding Sash

Historical information

Great James Street was originally laid out in c. 1833, with the first buildings constructed along the street by at least 1835-37; the earliest building on the street, Londonderry Third Presbyterian Church (HB01/21/009), was erected during those years. The laying out of Great James Street, as well as the adjoining Queen 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).

Great James Street was the first major new street in the area (Queen Street was laid out in c. 1847 and Clarendon Street in c. 1853). The first edition of the Ordnance Survey maps (1830) for the townland of Edenballymore records that the Great James 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 Clarendon Street Conservation 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.

No. 18 Great James Street was constructed between 1847 and 1853. O’Hagan’s contemporary plan of Londonderry records that Great James Street had been partially developed by 1847, however the map did not depict any buildings on the current site at that time; however, by the second edition Ordnance Survey map (1853) a small terrace of buildings had been built on the north side of the street. The terrace originally comprised four identical Georgian-style buildings, nos 16-22 Great James Street, each of which possessed a rear return and a single outbuilding; No. 22 was rebuilt in 1903 and is now significantly different to the adjoining terrace.

Griffith’s Valuation (1856) records that nos 16-22 Great James Street were constructed for Andrew Thompson, a local surgeon who operated a apothecary on the Strand Road (Ulster Town Directory); No. 18 was originally valued at £27 in 1856. Andrew Thompson continued to own the terrace on Great James Street until his death in c. 1870 when his widow Margaret Thompson took over possession of row. Throughout its history the occupants of the Clarendon Street area were of the city’s merchant and professional classes; from 1867-1888 No. 18 Clarendon Street was occupied by James A. Minninece, a local clockmaker with business premises on Shipquay Street. By 1911 the formerly private dwelling had been divided into accomodation for two occupants; in that year the census building return described the building as a 1st class dwelling that consisted of ten rooms (two rooms were used as a separate apartment in 1911) and possesed no outbuildings (suggesting that the outbuilding depicted on the 1853 map had been demolished by that time). Margaret Thompson continued to own No. 18 Great James Street until 1913 when a Mrs. Camworth took possession of the property. By 1931 the value of the building stood at £24 but was increased to £34 under the First Revaluation (1935); the value of the dwelling was further increased to £36 under 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 16-18 Great James Street were subsequently listed in 1979.

The NIEA HB Records state that the former dwelling was converted into office premises in 1990. The neccesary renovation of the building included replacement of the roof with natural slates, the repointing of the exterior brickwork, the installation of new timber sliding sash windows, and the addition of a new entrance door.

In 2013 Calley described nos 16-20 Great James Street as a ‘fine small terrace of three mottled brown brick houses now mostly in commercial use. They are three-storey, three-bay with rendered reveals.’ No. 20 Great James Street was not listed along with the adjoining terrace due to the rendering of the ground floor and the incorporation of uPVC glazing (Calley, p. 220). Few of the Georgian-style townhouses along Great James 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. 18 Great James Street continues to be utilised as office premises.

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 (1956-72)
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 (1901; 1911)
12. NIEA HB Records – HB01/21/005II

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

R. Age
S. Authenticity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Three-storey three-bay brown brick Georgian-style townhouse with later two-storey rear return, built as part of a terrace of three to the north side of Great James Street within the period 1847-53 (early Victorian). Though partly altered inside and having inappropriate signage fixed to the main elevation, much of the exterior character, style and historic fabric have been retained. Together with No.16 Great James Street (HB01/21/0035A) with which it shares group value, No. 18 is an important example of early domestic architecture witin the Clarendon Conservation Area and it is also historically significant as part of the city's expansion northwards beyond the city walls.

General comments

This record was re-numbered previously recorded as HB01/21/005II.