36 Great James Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Mid-Victorian, mid-terraced two-bay three-storey over-basement smooth rendered Georgian-style house. Built 1871-72. Rectangular on plan with a pitched slate roof and tall chimney stack rising to east, rebuilt in modern red brick . Principal elevation faces south, accessed directly from street level, one step up. Built as part of a terrace grouping with No's 38 & 40 Great James Street (HB01/21/035 G&H) among similar houses of this type on the north side of Great James Street.

Principal elevation (south) is of smooth painted rendered walls; window openings are square-headed on painted masonry sills, continuous painted sill to first floor level, with 2/2 timber sliding sashes to ground, first and second floors, bays on ground floor are aligned with window bays on floors above, replacement 2/2 uPVC casement window to basement level. Entrance doorcase with timber panelled pilasters on plinth blocks with plaster console brackets with acanthus leaf detail to either side of recessed two-panel raised and fielded timber double doors with moulded timber cornice below plain elliptical glazed fanlight. Replacement uPVC ogee gutter on rise and fall brackets terminating at swan neck cast iron circular downpipe to right, with red brick chimney stack to east side with 6 clay pots (with 1 pot missing).

North elevation to the rear is of three-storeys, smooth cement rendered unpainted, smooth plain render painted finish to rear return with a lean-to slated pitched roof with modern velux roof lights. Square-headed window openings on unpainted masonry sills. The fenestration pattern is irregular with both timber sliding sash and largely replacement timber and uPVC casement windows to the rear and return. Large modern single storey extension to rear return with slated monopitch roof containing four velux rooflights, uPVC rain water goods and uPVC windows and doors.

Changes since Second Survey: Single storey conservatory with pitched roof has been constructed to the rear of the existing single-storey extension. PVC glazed roof and rendered blockwork gable walls to each side with metal coping to verges rise above garden walls at each side.

East and west sides are adjoined to neighbouring properties No.34 and No.38 Great James Street (HB01/21/035E & HB01/21/035G).

Pitched slate roof with clay ridge tiles and a rebuilt red brick chimney stack with six clay pots rising from the east side, modern velux to front. uPVC ogee guttering on rise and fall brackets terminating at a cast iron circular downpipe to front elevation, uPVC rainwater goods to rear.

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

Setting:
Set within a terraced row of houses lining the north side of Great James Street, a steep hill which runs between St. Eugene’s Cathedral (HB01/21/001) at the west side and Strand Road on the east. Large rear garden enclosed by red brick and schist wall with pedestrian timber gate to north boundary. Building is located within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area.

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-style 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 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.

No. 36 Great James Street, a three-storey two-bay Georgian-style dwelling, was constructed in 1871-72 along with the adjoining nos 38-40. The buildings were first recorded in the Annual Revisions which noted that the row were leased by George Skipton (a local landowner of Beechill House who owned many of the plots on the north side of Great James Street). In the 1870s the building, which was valued at £25, was occupied by William Dickson, a local saddler and harness maker. Research carried out by the current owners states that Dickson possessed business premises on Waterloo Street and promised George Skipton that he would construct ‘a good and substantial dwelling house … and to expend thereon the sum of three hundred pounds at the least’ (The Saddler’s House). The completed No. 36 Great James Street was depicted on the c. 1873-1910 Annual Revisions Town Plan which depicted the building along its current layout possessing its three-storey rear return. In 1901 the census building return described No. 36 Great James Street as a 1st class dwelling that consisted of ten rooms. Dickson’s family continued to reside at the address until 1947 and in the 1930s his son, John A. Dickson, purchased the building outright at a cost of £400. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57) the value of the house was increased to £34. In 1955 the Dicksons rented the house to a Ms. Alice Roulston who resided there until at least the 1970s. By the end of the Second Revaluation (1956-72) the value of No. 36 Great James Street stood at £35.

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). In that year the former dwelling was acquired by the current owners who carried out an extensive renovation of the property, retaining much of the original interior fabric. The explosion of a bomb outside the house in 1984 damaged the roof and windows of the building. In c. 1990 No. 36 Great James Street was converted into a Bed & Breakfast known as ‘The Saddler’s House’ (named for William Dickson). The modern kitchen and dining room extension to the rear of the building was added in 2008 (The Saddler’s House).

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/12/E/157/1/7 – Annual Revisions Town Plan (c. 1873-1910)
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/C/6/10 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57))
7. PRONI VAL/4/B/5/13 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
8. Ulster Town Directories (1843-1918)
9. PRONI Wills Catalogue (21 Apr 1910)
10. Census of Ireland (1901; 1911)

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: Coleraine 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. The Saddler’s House website – http://www.thesaddlershouse.com/Pages/history%20saddlers.html

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
T. Historic Importance
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Mid-Victorian three-storey with basement mid-terraced painted render dwelling built 1871-72, situated on the north side of Great James Street, a steep hill which runs between St. Eugene’s Cathedral (HB01/21/001) at the west side and Strand Road on the east. No. 36 was built at the same time as its neighbours, No’s 38 & 40 (HB01/21/035 G&H). Internally much of the original plan form remains with the exception of the installation of modern ensuite bathrooms. Externally No.36 retains much historic fabric and detailing such as the fine entrance doorcase with its acanthus leaf plaster console brackets. Despite modern extensions to the rear, historic character remains. This house has group value with its neighbours and the rest of the dwellings built in this era along Great James Street and together they are important buildings within Clarendon Street Conservation Area.