1 Princes Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

End-of-terrace two-storey over-basement with attic two-bay red-brick Victorian townhouse. Built c.1853-56 with a small two-storey rendered projecting rear return with a lean-to slate roof. Rectangular on plan, principal elevation faces North West, built along with adjoining no's 2-4 Princes Street, of similar street-fronted townhouses lining the South East side of Princes Street.

Pitched fibre cement roof with terracotta clay ridge tiles and two red brick chimney stacks (rebuilt) with circular buff clay pots rising from the North East and South West sides; half-round uPVC guttering to front elevation.

Principal (NW) elevation is of hand-made red brick laid in 'Flemish' bond with cement pointing; all window openings are square-headed on painted masonry sills with painted rendered reveals; openings on ground floor are not aligned with window bays on floors above; single bay on ground floor right of entrance doorway has a 6/6 timber sliding sash window (with horns); square headed door opening, slightly recessed, has engaged columns of the Doric order to either side of a raised-and-fielded four panel painted timber door with projecting dentilled cornice above and a single pane transom light over, door opens onto threshold one concrete step up from the pavement; 6/6 timber sliding sashes (with horns) on first floor level.

North East side is adjoined to neighbouring property No.2 Princes Street (HB01/21/039B).

South West gable-end is blank and finished in unpainted cement render topped by a red brick (rebuilt) chimney stack.

South East elevation to the rear is of three-storeys with attic with smooth plain rendered unpainted finish to upper floors, as is the rear return with a slated lean-to roof. Square-headed window openings on masonry sills. The fenestration pattern is irregular with replacement timber casements throughout; uPVC rainwater goods to rear elevation. Flat-roofed dormer window to right side of roof with artificial slate to cheeks and timber casement window.

Roof Artificial slate
RWG uPVC
Walling Red brick / unpainted render
Windows Timber sliding sash (NW) Timber casements (SE)

Setting:
End-of-terrace Georgian-style Victorian townhouse, forming part of a terrace of similar houses lining the South East side of Princes Street fronting directly onto the pavement. Long narrow rear yard with garden enclosed by rendered wall with a two-storey plain rendered unpainted rear return. Set within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area.

Historical information

Prince’s Street, a narrow street extending between Great James Street and Asylum Road, was developed between the 1840s and 1860s. The street was originally part of the Lower Road and was recorded on maps dating from as early as 1689. In the 18th century the Lower Road extended from the Walled City to Pennyburn Mills. The road was first recorded as ‘Lower Road’ from 1847 but was renamed ‘Prince’s Street’ in 1862 following the death of Queen Victoria’s consort, Prince Albert, on 14th December 1861 (Calley, p. 308).

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). Lower Road predated the laying out of these streets but the construction of housing in the area was slow to develop. The first edition of the Ordnance Survey maps (1830) for the townland of Edenballymore records that the 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 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).

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 during 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. 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 three-storey townhouses, a new affluent area was established that swiftly became the preferred residence of the city’s merchant and professional classes.

No. 1 Princes Street, a two-storey two-bay red-brick house, was constructed between 1853 and 1856 along with the adjoining nos 2-4 Princes Street. The three houses were not depicted on the 1848-49 Ordnance Survey Town Plan or on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1853. The terrace was constructed by 1856 when it was recorded in Griffith’s Valuation. Nos 1-4 Princes Street were leased by Edward Collum, a local butter and egg merchant with business premises on Bank Place (UTD), and were each initally valued at £12. The valuer notes that the first occupant of No. 1 Princes Street was a Mr. Charles Keele who remained at the address until c. 1865. The occupant of the house changed a number of times over the following decade until 1879 when William Henderson, a National School teacher, acquired the property. Henderson remained at No. 1 Princes Street until his death in 1890 (PRONI Wills). The terrace was recorded on the c. 1873-1910 Annual Revisions Town Plan which depicted No. 1 Princes Street along its current layout. The Census of Ireland records that Joseph Doherty, a local dentist, resided at the address by 1911. In that year the census described the building as a 2nd class dwelling that consisted of six rooms. Ownership of nos 1-4 Princes Street passed to a Mr. Joseph Brown by 1913. Brown’s family retained ownership of the terrace until the 1950s when it passed to H. H. K. Skipton, whilst the Doherty family continued to reside at No. 1 Princes Street until at least the 1970s. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57) the value of the house was increased to £15. This was further raised to £17 by the end of the Second Revaluation (1956-72).

In 1978 Princes Street was included in the Clarendon Street 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/2/B/5/16G – Griffith’s Valuation (1856)
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/32/11B-ZA – Annual Revisions (1862-1897)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/33/2C-2F – Annual Revisions (1898-1931)
7. PRONI VAL/3/C/6/10 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57))
8. PRONI VAL/4/B/5/14 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
9. Ulster Town Directories (1852-1918)
10. PRONI Wills Catalogue (19 Feb 1890)
11. 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 (including 17th and 18th century maps of Lower Road).
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-storey over-basement with attic red-brick townhouse, built c.1853-56 in Georgian Style along with the adjoining Nos 2&4 Princes Street (HB01/19/039B&C). It is one of eight houses which line the east side of Princes Street which links Clarendon Street and Great James Street on the west side of the River Foyle. No.1 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.