2 BAYVIEW TERRACE

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Mid-terraced three-bay three-storey with attic rendered mid-Victorian house, built in 1870 (Architect unknown). Rectangular plan form facing north with rendered banded rustication to ground floor of front elevation with a three-storey rendered return to the rear. Part of a terrace of seven buildings of similar type and style lining the south side of Asylum Road (HB01/22/017A-G).

Pitched slate roof has two small dormers, one to the front one to the rear with a two-stage rendered chimney stack with terracotta clay pots. The dormer to the front is flanked by two small rooflights. Timber fascia and slightly overhanging timber soffit; moulded uPVC guttering discharging to circular uPVC downpipe on the north elevation.

The front elevation (North) has rendered banded rustication on the ground floor with a rendered plinth and a continuous painted sill course to first floor windows spanning the width of the elevation; window openings are square headed with moulded architrave surrounds and uPVC casement windows. Two windows are aligned with upper floor bays to the right of a recessed elliptical arched door opening on ground floor, five steps up, flanked by rendered square pilasters and entablature above painted in contrasting colour, plain fanlight to a pair of timber single panel doors framed by moulded square pilasters of the Doric order and moulded entablature above. Small pitched roof dormer on main slate roof, centred on front elevation has slated cheeks and a semicircular uPVC casement window, set within u-PVC horizontal boarding to front. There are three window openings to each of the first and second floors, centred above the front door and ground floor windows.

Rear elevation (South) is smooth-rendered unpainted finish with square headed window openings having uPVC casement windows throughout; rear elevation is abutted to the west side by a metal external staircase, accessed from rear yard. The east side of the rear elevation is abutted by a three storey return; (full access to rear yard not possible at time of survey); south elevation of rear return is blank and is of rough-cast render.

West side is abutted by No.1 Bayview Terrace (HB01/22/017A).

East side is abutted by No.3 Bayview Terrace (HB01/22/017C).

Setting:
Located on the south side of Asylum Road behind a stone wall with steel railings above, the front main entrance is approached by a short flight of stone steps, set within a terrace row of seven houses of similar type (HB01/22/017A-G) and style facing north situated within Clarendon Street Conservation Area.

Materials:
Roof Natural Slate
RWGs uPVC
Walling Render
Windows uPVC casements

Historical information

Bayview Terrace, a row of seven three-and-a-half-storey mid-Victorian townhouses located at the lower end of Asylum Road, was laid out in 1870. The terrace was first recorded in the Annual Revisions in 1870 and was first depicted on the c. 1873 Annual Revisions Plan of Londonderry. Asylum Road which runs between the Strand and Northland Roads dates from before 1830 and so predates the streets of the Clarendon Street Conservation Area which were laid out between c. 1837 and the 1860s. The Road formed the southern border of the Londonderry District Lunatic Asylum which was built in 1825-29. The asylum was demolished in the 1960s but the perimeter wall of locally-quarried Derry Schist continues to stand opposite Bayview Terrace noting the original boundary of the institution.

The second edition Ordnance Survey map records that no buildings had been constructed along Asylum Road by 1853. Nos 1-13 Asylum Road, located at the top of the hill, were the first houses to be erected in c. 1860. The development of this row was contemporary with the laying out of the Georgian-style terraces along Queen Street and Clarendon Street. The three-and-a-half-storey buildings were similar in style and scale to the houses of the adjoining streets, the majority of which had been erected between 1847 and the 1860s.

Nos 1-7 Bayview Terrace were constructed a decade after the completion of nos 1-13 Asylum Road and display a more Victorian character than their Georgian-style neighbours. The terrace possesses a number of ornate features such as door frames that have Doric columns and entablatures. Nos 1, 4 and 7 Bayview Terrace possess bay windows with entablatures bearing fretwork frieze decorations. The terrace was named Bayview due to its location close the banks of the Foyle which afforded the houses a scenic view over Rosses Bay. The reclamation of land and the construction of buildings on the eastern side of the Strand Road has deprived the row of its former view (Calley, pp 21-22). The architect of the buildings is not known although the Annual Revisions note that the terrace was built on land owned by Harvey Nicholson, a local magistrate and Justice of the Peace (Ulster Town Directories).

No. 2 Bayview Terrace, along with the adjoining nos 1-7, was constructed in 1870. The Annual Revisions notes that the house was originally valued at £45 and was first occupied by a Mrs Rogan. The landlord of the terrace was Matthew McClelland, a local magistrate and builder (who resided at No. 1 Bayview Terrace) and who leased the entire terrace from Harvey Nicholson. McClelland’s family continued to be landlord to the majority of the row until the 1970s. As with the neighbouring streets, the townhouses on Bayview Terrace became the residences of Londonderry’s professional and merchant classes. In 1911 the property was occupied by William H. Mee, a local flour merchant, magistrate and Justice of the Peace. In that year the census building return described No. 2 Bayview Terrace as a 1st class dwelling that consisted of ten rooms. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57) the value of No. 2 Bayview Terrace was slightly lowered to £42. By the 1930s the house was occupied by a Mr. Robert Johnston, although a Mrs. Mary Lynch took possession of the house in 1947. Ownership of the building also passed to a Mr. Edward Tinney shortly before 1936. The valuer notes that the private dwelling was converted into a Nursing Home by at least 1956. In that year the value of the building was increased to £96 at which it remained by the end of the Second Revaluation (1956-72).

In 1978 the Department of the Environment designated Bayview Terrace (and the surrounding streets) 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. 2 Bayview Terrace was subsequently listed in 1979. The NIEA HB Records note that the former Nursing Home was converted into a number of self-contained apartments in 1996 (NIEA HB Records).

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/157/1/8 – Annual Revisions Town Plan (c. 1873-1910)
4. PRONI VAL/2/B/5/16G – Griffith’s Valuation (1856)
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/32/11DA-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 Northern Ireland (1936-57)
8. PRONI VAL/4/B/5/13 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland (1956-72)
9. Census of Ireland (1901 / 1911)
10. Ulster Town Directories (1861-1918)
11. First Survey Record – HB01/22/017 (1970)
12. First Survey Image – HB01/22/017 (No Date)
13. NIEA HB Records – HB01/22/017B

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. Rowan, A. J., ‘The Buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster’ London: Yale University Press, 2003.
4. ‘Londonderry Clarendon Street Conservation Area Booklet’ Department of the Environment, 1978.
5. ‘Design Guide for Clarendon Street Conservation Area’ Department of the Environment, 2012.

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

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

Evaluation

A Mid-Victorian mid-terraced three-bay three-storey with attic rendered house built in 1870, one of a terrace of seven buildings of similar type and style lining the south side of Asylum Road (Nos 1-7 Bayview Terrace - HB01/22/017A-G). No. 2 is located between No.1 Bayview Terrace (HB01/22/017A) and No.3 Bayview Terrace (HB01/22/017C), located on the western side of the River Foyle within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area. Although the windows are modern replacements and an external fire escape stair has been added to the rear, sufficient detailing to the exterior remains including the timber panelled front door beneath a decorative entablature to regard it as special. It is a good example of a substantial terraced house that became one of the residences of Londonderry’s professional and merchant classes. The house has group value along with the rest of the houses in the terrace.