42 Great James Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Victorian end-of-terrace two-bay three-storey smooth rendered Georgian-style house. Constructed between 1853-56. Rectangular on plan with a pitched slate roof and tall chimney stack rising to east. Principal elevation faces south and it is accessed directly from street level, one step up. Built as part of a terrace row with Nos 44 & 46 Great James Street (HB01/21/035J&K), lining the north side of Great James Street.

Principal elevation (south) is of smooth painted rendered walls with smooth plaster band quoins to right; window openings are square-headed on painted masonry sills, continuous painted sill to first floor level, with 6/6 timber sliding sashes to ground, first and second floors, bays on ground floor are aligned with window bays on floors above. Elliptical arch headed entrance doorway, slightly recessed, has engaged fluted columns of the Ionic order either side a raised-and-fielded four panel painted timber door with dentilled entablature and segmental fanlight above with timber glazing bars, door one step up from the pavement; Cast iron half round guttering on rise and fall brackets terminating at swan neck cast iron circular downpipe to right, with red brick chimney stack to east side with 7 clay pots. Rendered painted wall with concrete capping to right with roller garage door to the right hand side also adjoining No. 40.

North elevation to the rear is of two-storeys, smooth render unpainted, built off half landing level to main house, and a slated pitched roof. Square-headed window openings on unpainted masonry sills. The fenestration pattern is irregular with replacement timber casement windows to the rear and rear return. Large red brick chimney stack to north elevation of return with three terracotta clay pots. Small single storey lean-to shed to rear return with slate roof and cast iron rooflight. Large garden beyond with schist and red brick boundary wall to west, masonry wall to east, and timber sheeted gates to rear.

East elevation of red brick walling laid in 'English Garden Wall' bond with cement pointing with no fenestration. Wall and vehicular access to this side.

West side is adjoined to neighbouring property No.44 Great James Street (HB01/21/035J).

Pitched slate roof with clay ridge tiles and red brick chimney stack with six clay pots rising from the east side. Cast iron half round 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 Render
Windows Timber Sliding Sash/ Timber Casement

Setting:
Set within a varied terrace row of houses lining the north side of Great James Street. Large rear garden enclosed by rendered wall with timber gates to north boundary. Set 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. 42 Great James Street, a three-storey two-bay Georgian-style dwelling, was constructed between 1853 and 1856. The building was not depicted on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1853 but the building had been completed by 1856 when it was recorded in Griffith’s Valuation (along with the adjoining nos 44-46). In that year the valuer noted that the house was leased by Edward Collum, a butter and egg merchant with business premises on Bank Place, to a Mr. Christopher Graham. The house was initially valued at £30 and continued to be occupied by Graham until c. 1864 when it passed to new occupants. No. 42 Great James Street was recorded on the c. 1873-1910 Annual Revision map of Derry which depicted it along its current layout, possessing a two-storey return and an outbuilding to its rear. Ownership of the building passed to a Ms. Mary McMonagle in 1881 and over the following century the occupants of No. 42 Great James Street changed with great frequency. By the 1911 census the building was occupied by Thomas Black, a local grocer. In that year the census building return described the house as a 2nd class building that consisted of nine rooms and possessed a stable as its sole outbuilding. Under the First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland (1936-57) the value of the house was lowered to £29. Ownership of No. 42 Great James Street passed to a Mr. Thomas Johnston in 1947. The dwelling was partially converted into a haridressing salon in 1959 and by the end of the Second Revaluation (1956-72) the value of the building had risen to £51.

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). No. 42 Great James Street has been converted into office premises and is no longer utilised as a dwelling. During the Second Survey the building was occupied by a local solicitor’s firm.

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. 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.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Victorian end-of-terrace two-bay three-storey smooth rendered Georgian-style house, constructed between 1853-56. It was built as one of a terraced row of houses with Nos 44 & 46 Great James Street (HB01/21/035J&K) which line the north side of Great James Street, parallel to Clarendon Street and on the west side of the River Foyle. No.42 is not one of the best examples of its type and therefore does not meet the statutory test as a building of special architectural or historic interest. Despite this, it is a significant feature in the Clarendon Street Conservation Area, this being is a more appropriate level of protection.