3 BAYVIEW TERRACE

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Mid-terraced three-bay three-storey with attic rendered mid-Victorian, built in 1870 (Architect unknown). Rectangular plan form facing north. Rendered banded rustication to ground floor of front elevation, rear elevation is abutted by a three-storey rendered return adjoined to a three-storey extension spanning the length of the site 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 natural slate roof has two small dormers, one to the front and one to the rear; a two-stage rendered and brick chimney stack with terracotta clay pots rises from the west side, centred on ridge. Timber fascia and slightly overhanging timber soffit; moulded uPVC guttering discharging to uPVC circular downpipe on the north elevation.

Front elevation (North) has rendered banded rustication on ground floor with rendered plinth and smooth rendered painted finish to upper floors with a continuous painted sill course to first floor windows spanning the width of the elevation; window openings are square headed with moulded architrave surrounds having 1/1 double hung timber sliding sashes with moulded horns. Two windows bays on ground floor (aligned with upper floor bays) to the right of a recessed elliptical arched door opening, six steps up, flanked by rendered square pilasters and entablature above, plain fanlight to a timber two-panel door framed by moulded square pilasters of the Doric order and moulded entablature with acanthus leaf detail to crown moulding. Small pitched roof dormer on main slate roof, centred on front elevation has slated cheeks and a semicircular 1/1 timber sliding sash window, set within timber fascia. 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 of painted brick finish with square headed window openings having a single 1/1 timber sliding sash window on ground floor level. (Limited view of rear elevation due to a large external metal staircase abutting rear elevation all within a confined rear yard).

Three storey return has a pitched slate roof with black ridge tiles and cast-iron and uPVC rainwater goods, abutted by a metal external staircase to the west side containing a uPVC door at ground floor level opening out onto rear yard and a single timber and a single uPVC casement window to the right side of door opening. A single 6/6 timber sliding sash window on first and second floor level. South elevation of rear return is abutted by adjoining rendered unpainted outbuilding (original outbuilding demolished and rebuilt). Outbuilding extends to the rear of the site, the south elevation has uPVC casement windows, two on ground floor with metal mesh grilles and three evenly spaced to first and second floors and a small square headed opening to left of windows on ground floor with a metal sheeted door, opening leads to rear yard of No.2 Bayview Terrace (HB01/22/017B).

West side is abutted by No.2 Bayview Terrace (HB01/22/017B).

East side is abutted by No.4 Bayview Terrace (HB01/22/017D).

Setting:
Located on the south side of Asylum Road behind a rendered wall (rebuilt) with steel railings above. Part of the stone plinth wall remains to front boundary. The front main entrance is approached by a short flight of concrete steps or newly built ramp. No.3 Bayview Terrace is set within a terrace row of seven houses of similar type and style facing north situated within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area (HB01/22/017A-G).

Roof Natural Slate
RWGs Upvc
Walling Painted Render (N) Red brick (S)
Windows Timber sliding sash / Upvc

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 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 possess 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. 3 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 the landlord was Matthew McClelland, a local magistrate and builder who resided at No. 1 Bayview Terrace. As with the neighbouring streets, the townhouses on Bayview Terrace became the residences of Londonderry’s professional and merchant classes. The first occupant of No. 3 Bayview Terrace was a Mr. Richard Williamson but by 1901 it had been occupied by Samuel Fletcher, a local publican and wine merchant (UTD). The Census of Ireland notes that a Mrs. Maria Rutledge occupied No. 3 Bayview Terrace in 1911 when the census building return described it as a 1st class dwelling that consisted of 10 rooms. The First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57) records that the value of No. 3 Bayview Terrace had been increased to £45 and that the house was occupied by Dr. S. Ernest Bolton in 1940. Bolton continued to reside at the property by the end of the Second Revaluation (1956-72) at which time the value had been slightly lowered to £43. The McClelland family continued to be landlord of No. 3 Bayview Terrace until at least the 1970s.

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. 3 Bayview Terrace was subsequently listed in 1979. The NIEA HB Records note that the private dwelling was converted into a number of self-contained apartments in 1988. The conversion and resulting renovation of the building included the reconstruction of its original chimney stack and the reslating of its roof (NIEA HB Records). The building is now in use as Bayview Medical Centre.

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 – HB01/22/017C

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
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
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.3 is located between No.2 Bayview Terrace (HB01/22/017B) and No.4 Bayview Terrace (HB01/22/017D), located on the western side of the River Foyle within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area. Externally, the front elevation retains sufficient detailing, proportions and style, including a fine decorative doorcase to regard it as special. Despite alterations to the original floor plan, some historic internal detailing remains. 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.