18 CLARENCE AVENUE

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Three-storey two bay red brick terrace house, one of a terrace of 11, built c.1900, to the designs by Robert Eccles Buchanan and located on the north side of Clarence Avenue with a small front garden and a small paved yard to rear. Rectangular on plan with full-height gabled bay and three-storey rear return. Part of a terraced row of eleven similar houses of this type, lining the north side of Clarence Avenue.

Pitched artificial slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles, profiled red brick chimney-stack to the east and replacement metal rainwater goods (uPVC rainwater goods to the rear). Red brick walling laid in Flemish bond with continuous painted flush masonry lintel courses. Square-headed window openings with timber sliding sash windows throughout.

Principle (S) elevation is of Flemish brick bond; two bays wide with a two-storey canted bay to right surmounted by a rectangular gabled bay to the second floor that is cantilevered on large timber brackets with carved timber corbels to either side. Vertical half-timber panelling to gable with plain wide painted timber fascia board. Terracotta finial to apex. 1/1 timber sliding sash windows to ground and first floor with leaded coloured glazing to the upper sashes. 4/2 timber sliding sash window to second floor with paired 8/2 timber sliding sash windows to second floor projecting bay. Square-headed door opening to ground floor having an original diamond-panelled raised and fielded timber door flanked by flat-panelled pilasters and corbels supporting a lintel cornice with leaded coloured glazed fanlight over. Door opens onto concrete path and paved front area enclosed by a low red brick wall to the street.

East (side) elevation is abutted by adjoining building; No.17 Clarence Avenue(HB01/22/006H).

North (rear) elevation is abutted by a three-storey gable-ended return to the right. Exposed section to the left has a 1/1 timber sliding sash window to ground and first floors and a 2/2 timber sliding sash window directly above to second floor. Square-headed window openings with painted masonry sills and largely 2/2 timber sliding sash windows with slender ogee horns to return.

The return is abutted by a further single-storey pitched roofed addition having an artificial slate roof and red clay ridge tiles. East face comprises an original vertically-sheeted timber door to left flanked by a 1/1 timber sliding sash window to right and two door openings to far right.

West (side) elevation is abutted by adjoining building; No.19 Clarence Avenue (HB01/22/006J).

Materials:
Roof:- Artificial slate
RWG:- Replacement metal (S) uPVC (N)
Walling:- Red brick(s) smooth render, painted (N)
Windows:- Timber slidng sash

Setting
Built as one of a terrace of eleven similar houses lining the north side of Clarence Avenue on a steep gradient, within the Magee Conservation Area, set back from the pavement with a small front garden. Rear boundary wall, smooth rendered (unpainted) with precast concrete coping; sheeted timber gate within square-headed openings. The yard backs on to a shared alley with the University campus beyond.

Historical information

According to Calley, Clarence Avenue was originally laid out in 1897. The Annual Revisions note that the terrace on the southern side of the street (nos 1-17) was constructed in 1899-1900 whilst the northern terrace comprising nos 2-22 (HB01/22/006A-K) was erected in 1900. The Irish Builder states that the northern terrace was designed by Robert Eccles Buchanan, a local architect and civil engineer who was active between 1887 and the 1920s. Buchanan carried out a number of domestic contracts within the city throughout this period but was also responsible for many church alterations including the repair of St Columb’s Cathedral in 1911 (HB01/19/001; Irish Builder, p. 243; DIA).

The northern expansion of Londonderry had been initiated in the mid-19th century by the construction of Georgian-style terraces on Great James Street, Queen Street and Clarendon Street. Mullin states that Edenballymore and the Northland Road was still rural in character when the Victorian terrace of Crawford Square (HB01/22/003; 004) was constructed in the 1860s-1870s. The expansion of the city was facilitated by a period of economic growth and prosperity that endured from the 1860s until the end of the 19th century. The construction of DeBurgh Terrace (HB01/22/025) in the 1880s and the three-storey red brick houses of Clarence Avenue continued the extension of the city into the 20th century (Mullin, p. 119; Rowan, p. 371).

Calley describes Nos 2-22 Clarence Street as a ‘generously proportioned …terrace of eleven three-storey red brick houses [that possess] canted bay windows running through the ground and first floors. The second floors have oversized cantilevered box-like pedimented square bay windows resting on the bay window below and supported by robust timber brackets.’ The UAHS guide praised Buchanan’s ‘fine terrace’ as ‘excellently modelled’ (Calley, pp 109-110; UAHS guide, p. 50).

No. 18 Clarence Avenue was originally built in 1900 along with the adjoining terrace. (Additional information received from the current owner states that No.18 was built in 1904, based on information from title deeds and the will of Mr Thompson). The Annual revisions note that nos 16-20 were owned by Henry Thompson a local baker and restaurateur. (Additional information received from the current owner states that Mr Thompson was a bank manager who lived in Victoria Park in the Waterside/Prehen Road area of the city.) The first occupant of the building, which was valued at £26, was a Mrs Hamilton who resided there only briefly. The census of Ireland notes that the house passed to George Edwin Armstrong by 1911. (Additional information from the current owner states that Armstrong was Mr Thompson’s son-in-law and when Thompson died he bequeathed the ownership of No.18 to his daughter and son-in-law in 1924, not 1911.) Armstrong was employed as the Principal of Londonderry Technical School (HB01/22/015) on the Strand Road and continued to reside at No. 18 until his death in 1940 (PRONI Wills). (Information from the current owner states that Mr Romain Willman bought No.18 in 1938 and when he died in 1956, the house passed to his wife, Una Willman and her children. Una died in 1991 and the house then passed to her daughters. The house remains in the ownership of a member of the Willman family.)

The 1911 Census described No. 18 Clarence Avenue as a first class dwelling that consisted of seven rooms and possessed a shed as its sole outbuildings. By the end of the Second Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72) the value of No. 18 Clarence Avenue stood at £44.

Nos 2-22 Clarence Avenue were listed in 1979. The NIEA HB Records note that No. 18 underwent a renovation in 1984 that included the restoration of the existing sash windows and the eradication of wood rot within the timbers of the kitchen (NIEA HB Records).

References

Primary Sources
1.PRONI OS/8/8/18/2/1-7 - Ordnance Survey Town Plan of Londonderry (1908)
2. PRONI VAL/12/B/33/2A-F – Annual Revisions (1898-1931)
3. PRONI VAL/3/C/6/10 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57)
4. PRONI VAL/4/B/5/13 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
5. Irish Builder (15 Jan 1900)
6. Census of Ireland (1901; 1911)
7. Ulster Town Directories (1901-1918)
8. First Survey Record – HB01/22/006 (1970)
9. First Survey Image – HB01/22/006 (No Date)
10. NIEA HB Records – HB01/22/006I

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. Mullin, T. H., Ulster’s Historic City: Derry – Londonderry’ Coleraine: Coleraine Bookshop, 1986.

Online Resources
1. Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie/

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
V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Mid-terrace two-storey with attic, turn of the century red-brick house to designs by R. E. Buchanan on Clarence Avenue, named after the Duke of Clarence. The Late Victorian character, style and character survive, despite artificial roof slates. The leaded glass upper lights and half-timber work signify an Arts & Crafts influence, adding further quality and interest. No.18 is part of a group of eleven similar houses stepping down the hill towards the river, Nos. 2-16, 20 & 22 Clarence Avenue, (HB01/22/006 A-H & J-K inclusive), each one retaining its ornate doorcase and canted bay with alternating diagonal and straight half-timbered gables to cantilevered square bays above. Built in tandem with the college campus, this intact row of townhouses is well-articulated and it is one of the most distinctive buildings within the Magee Conservation Area.