46 Great James Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Victorian mid-terrace two-bay three-storey smooth rendered Georgian-style house. Constructed between 1853 and 1856. Rectangular on plan with a pitched slate roof and tall chimney stack rising to east. Principal elevation faces south and is accessed directly from street level, one step up. Built as part of a terrace row with Nos 42 & 44 Great James Street (HB01/21/035I&J), lining the north side of Great James Street.

Principal elevation (south) is of red brick in 'Flemish' bond with cement strap pointing with smooth painted plaster plinth band; window openings are square-headed cut brick arch on painted masonry sills, with 6/6 timber sliding sashes to ground, first and diminished second floor windows, bays on ground floor are not aligned with window bays on floors above. Elliptical arch headed entrance doorway, slightly recessed, with flat pilasters on plinth blocks either side a replacement six-panel painted timber door with dentilled entablature and plain fanlight above, door one step up from the pavement with small cast iron bootscraper to right and original encaustic tiling to step tread; cast iron half round guttering on cast iron drive through brackets terminating into cast iron hopper and circular downpipe to right, with rebuilt red brick chimney stack to east side with 6 terracotta clay pots.

North elevation not seen at time of survey.

East and west sides are adjoined to neighbouring properties No.44 (HB01/21/035J) and No.48 Great James Street.

Pitched slate roof with clay ridge tiles and red brick chimney stack with six terracotta clay pots rising from the east side. Cast iron half round gutter on cast iron drive through brackets terminating at a cast iron hopper and circular downpipe to front elevation.

Materials:
Roof Natural Slate
RWG Cast Iron
Walling Render
Windows Timber Sliding Sash

Setting:
Set within a varied terrace row of houses lining the north side of Great James Street. 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 necessitated 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. 46 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 42-44). 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. George B. McKee. The house was initially valued at £23 and continued to be occupied by McKee until c. 1864 when it passed to a Mr. Daniel Gillespie. No. 46 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. In 1881 ownership of the building briefly passed to a Ms. Mary McMonagle and in 1896 a Mr. Joseph Browne purchased the house outright. The occupants of the building changed with great frequency over the following decades. In 1911 the census of Ireland recorded that the building was occupied by Thomas Ferguson, a local coach builder, and described it as a 2nd class dwelling that consisted of 8 rooms. Under the First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland (1936-57) the value of No. 46 Great James Street was increased to £24. The Browne family continued to own the building until c. 1956 when ownership passed to a Mr. C. Nicholson. By the end of the Second Revaluation (1956-72) the value of the building stood at £28.

In 1978 the Department of the Environment designated the mid-nineteenth century streets and terraces of Great James Street, Queen Street and Clarendon Street 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).

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 mid-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 42 & 44 Great James Street (HB01/21/035I&J) which line the north side of Great James Street, parallel to Clarendon Street and on the west side of the River Foyle. No.46 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.