Northland Road Gate Lodge, University of Ulster, Magee Campus, Northland Road, Londonderry, BT48 7JL

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Attached single-bay two-storey stone former gate lodge and pair of pedimented arches, built c.1880, with two-storey range of outbuildings to the north. Located at the southwest corner of Magee Campus facing west onto Northland Road.

Hipped natural slate roof with roll moulded lead ridges, exposed rafter tails and cast-iron guttering to overhanging eaves. Artificial slate to outbuildings with roll-moulded black clay ridge tiles and some steel rooflights. Random coursed schist walling with lime pointing, projecting schist plinth course having chamfered ashlar sandstone trim, quoins and window dressings. Segmental-headed first floor window openings formed in ashlar sandstone with flush splayed sills and boarded up windows (with graphics to ground floor).

Single-bay west elevation fronting directly onto Northland Road with paired windows to the first floor and timber oriel to the ground floor with PVC membrane roof covering and supported on four timber brackets. Oriel window concealed behind fake photographic image of a pair of windows printed on to vinyl-faced board.

South elevation has a bay window to the right (currently boarded up without roof) and single window opening above. Door opening to left, also boarded up. Beyond the pedimented arch a small section of rubble schist stone wall is all that remains of the former coach house.

East elevation abutted by single-storey lean-to accretion. Painted rendered walling to this elevation with a single-pane timber sash window to the first floor. East elevation extends to the north as two-storey front elevation to out-buildings. Square-headed window openings (boarded up), randomly placed, having red brick toothed surrounds to the north half. Two small modern roof-lights to the east facing slope of the out-building roof.

Smooth rendered north gable to out-buildings (unpainted); clipped eaves; brick header string course at eaves height; and a tripartite fixed window centred just below apex.

Random coursed schist blank wall to west elevation to out-building (former stable) with partial rendered quoins and a series of small circular vents, regularly spaced. Cast iron gutters to both sides, on rise and fall brackets.

Double-height round-headed ashlar sandstone arch to south of lodge attached by rubble schist screen wall with further arch set at a right angle and abutting the east elevation to gate lodge. Voussoired arches with dropped keystone rising from impost cornices to piers. Both arches surmounted by full pediments with early twentieth-century iron gates to the road-fronted arch only. The impost cornice extends across short screen wall abutting the south elevation to lodge with voussoired square-headed opening having matching pedestrian iron gate; the latter contains a circular monagram 'McC', highlighted in gold-coloured paint.

Materials:
Roof Natural slate (gate-lodge) / artificial slate (out-building)
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Schist / ashlar sandstone / smooth render
Windows Boarded up

Setting:
Located at the southwesternmost corner of the University of Ulster's Magee Campus fronting onto Northland Road with gravel car park to rear.

Historical information

The gate lodge and gateway on the Northland Road, a two-storey porter’s lodge and pedimented entryway, was constructed in c. 1880 as part of an extension scheme to Richmond House (now known as Aberfoyle House – HB01/22/009F).

Richmond House, a two-storey gentleman’s mansion, was constructed in the rural townland of Edenballymore in 1845. The house was constructed for David Watt of Watt & Co., a local Distillery which had been established on Abbey Street in 1834 and continued to operate from the Bogside until 1920. The Ordnance Survey Town Plan of 1848-49 depicted Richmond House’s first gate lodge as a square-shaped structure located at the entrance on the Strand Road (the gate lodge had also been constructed in c. 1845). The Annual Revisions noted that David Watt leased the site from a Mr. Millar and that the mansion and gate lodge were originally valued at £58. David Watt continued to reside at Richmond House until his death in 1876 (PRONI Wills).

Although Dean suggests that the second gate lodge on the Northland Road was constructed in c. 1870 it was not built until c. 1880 (the lodge did not appear on the 1873 Ordnance Survey map of Londonderry). Following Watt’s death, Richmond had been purchased by Bartholomew McCorkell of William McCorkell & Co., a local shipping firm based on the Strand Road that provided passage for emigrants between Ireland and America (UTD). McCorkell carried out an extension alteration to Richmond House that included the construction of two-storey extensions to the rear of the house and the erection of the second gate lodge. The Annual Revisions noted that the extensions were added in 1879 and first recorded the Northland Road lodge in 1880. The valuer set the value of the lodge and coach house at the Northland Road at £20.

Dean described the lodge and pedimented gateways at the Northland Road in the following terms: ‘Entry to the park and carriage yard via two tall pedimented ashlar archways at right angles to each other, one parallel with, and forming a screen to, the public footway. The semi-circular keystoned arches spring from cornice courses, one of which runs through the wing wall to meet the gatehouse, punctuated by a flat-arched wicket gate en-route. The generous two-storey porter’s accommodation forms a big cube below a hipped roof. Faintly Italianate in style, the front elevation alongside the footpath has a first pair of semi-circular-headed sash windows with dressed stone surround over a transomed and mullioned timber oriel supported on four brackets. A tall corbelled four-flue chimney stack in red brick rising off a side wall has been removed’ (Dean, p. 120). The c. 1873-1910 Annual Revisions Town Plan records that the gate lodge originally consisted of two buildings. The second structure was a coach house that was located to the east side of the porter’s lodge (on the other side of the pedimented arch) and possessed similar dimensions. Feld inspection of the site finds that the original cast iron gate screen is inscribed with McCorkell’s initials.

Malley states that Bartholomew McCorkell resided at Richmond until his death in 1887. The house remained with the McCorkell family and in 1895 passed to Bartholomew’s daughter Elizabeth McCorkell who had married Robert Corscaden of Boomhall. The 1911 census described Richmond as a 1st class dwelling that consisted of 30 rooms and possessed two stables and a store amongst its outbuildings (located at the coach house on the Northland Road). Upon Robert Corscaden’s death in 1904 Richmond passed to his widow Elizabeth who continued to reside there until her own death in 1922. In that year her nephew Herbert Collum, a Lieutenant-Colonel, took possession of Richmond. Malley states that upon Collum’s death in 1929 Richmond was sold to Sir. Basil McFarland, a local magistrate and baronet, who resided in the neighbouring mansion.

McFarland’s dwelling on the Strand Road (located to the north-west side of Richmond) was a two-storey sandstone square-shaped dwelling that had been erected between 1856 and 1860 to designs by Londonderry’s County Surveyor Stewart Gordon (d. 1860). The property was originally known as ‘Aberfoyle’ but, upon acquiring Richmond in 1929, McFarland changed the name of Richmond to Aberfoyle (the original Aberfoyle House was renamed ‘Talbot House’). The newly named Aberfoyle House was occupied by Sir. Basil McFarland during the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57) which set the total rateable value of the house and its two gate lodges at £175. This was lowered to £160 by the end of the Second Revaluation (1956-72).

In 1970 the UAHS guide for Derry described Aberfoyle House as ‘a two-storey large residence standing in its own grounds, which makes a handsome contribution to the Strand Road area’ (UAHS guide, p. 50). Sir. Basil McFarland continued to reside at Aberfoyle House until his death in 1986. The former gentleman’s mansion was sold to Derry City Council in 1990 and was listed in the same year. The building was acquired by the University of Ulster in 1998 and converted into modern classroom and seminar facilities for Magee’s Faculty of Social Sciences.

In 1970 the UAHS guide for Londonderry complimented the gate lodge on the Northland Road for providing ‘neat townscape detail.’ The gate lodge had fallen vacant by the 1990s and lay in a state of disrepair in 2005 when it was included in Buildings at Risk which noted that ‘the lodge is now boarded up, the gates closed and padlocked and the fine pedimented archway is being slowly covered by rampant greenery.’ The coach house located to the east side of the porter’s lodge had been demolished by the late-20th century and during the Second Survey the site to the east of the lodge has been utilised as a university car park (UAHS, p. 50; BARNI, p. 81). Aberfoyle House and its former gate lodges were included in the Magee Conservation Area in 2006.

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/157/1/1 – Annual Revisions Town Plan (c. 1873-1910)
4. PRONI VAL/2/B/5/16A – Griffith’s Valuation (1857)
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/32/11B-ZA – Annual Revisions (1862-1897)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/33/2A-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 (22 Apr 1876; 6 Jan 1887; 21 Dec 1904; 28 Dec 1922)
11. Census of Ireland (1901; 1911)
12. First Survey Record – HB01/22/007 (1970)
13. NIEA HB Records – HB01/22/007 (Missing)

Secondary Sources
1. ‘Buildings at Risk Northern Ireland: Vol. 7’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2005.
2. Calley, D., ‘City of Derry: An historical gazetteer to the buildings of Londonderry’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2013.
3. Dean, J. A. K., ‘The gate lodges of Ulster: A gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1994.
4. 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.
5. Lacey, B., ‘Siege city: The story of Derry and Londonderry’ Belfast: The Black Staff Press, 1990.
6. Malley, A., ‘The history of Aberfoyle House’ in ‘The Foyle Civic Trust: Issue 8’ Derry: Foyle Civic Trust, 2001.
7. Rowan, A. J., ‘The Buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster’ London: Yale University Press, 2003.
8. ‘A design guide for the Magee Conservation Area’ Belfast: Department of the Environment, 2010.

Online Resources
1. Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie
2. Digital Atlas of Derry – http://www.ria.ie/digitalatlasderry (including the Ordnance Survey Town Plans: 1848-49 and 1873)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

S. Authenticity
R. Age
T. Historic Importance
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Attached single-bay two-storey stone former gate lodge and pair of pedimented arches, built c.1880, with two-storey range of out-buildings (former stables) to the north. Now encompassed within the grounds of University of Ulster at its SW entrance on Northland Road, it originally served as one of two gate-lodges to Aberfoyle House (HB01.22.009F), and also comprised a coach house (demolished). Constructed for Bartholomew McCorkell, who shipped emigrants between Ireland and America, in conjunction with substantial extensions to the 1845 house. Despite the scale and proportion of windows added to the the stable block, the arrangement of the impressive arched structures in relation to the orderly symmetry and simple detailing of the gate lodge provides for an interesting spatial composition.
It forms part of a wealth of nineteenth-century structures dispersed throughout the campus (HB01/22/009A-H inclusive) that contribute significant character to the Magee Conservation Area.

General comments

This building was previously part of the Aberfoyle House listing (HB01.22.007) and has now been re-numbered as HB01.22.009 I.