5 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 rear and two storey outbuilding accessed from rear return. Part of a terrace of seven buildings of similar type and style (HB01/22/017A-G) lining the south side of Asylum Road.

Pitched natural slate roof has two small dormers, one to the front one to the rear with a two-stage rendered and brick chimney stack with terracotta clay pots rising from the east side, centred on ridge. Timber fascia and slightly overhanging timber soffit; half-round cast-iron guttering discharging to circular cast-iron downpipe on the north elevation.

The front (North) elevation has rendered banded rustication on ground floor on a rendered plinth, with 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 aligned with upper floor bays to the right of a recessed elliptical arched door opening, five steps up, flanked by rendered square pilasters and entablature above, plain fanlight to a pair of timber single round topped 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 1/1 timber sliding sash window.

Rear (South) elevation is of red brick and rendered finish with square headed window openings having a 6/3 timber sliding sash window on third floor level and to wall dormer on attic level to left hand side.
Three storey return to the right hand side has a pitched slate roof with black ridge tiles and Upvc rainwater goods, east elevation has a 6/6 timber sliding sash window to the left side on first and second floor level.

To the rear of the site is a stone outbuilding which forms part of the stepped row of outbuildings associated with the houses of Bayview Terrace. The south elevation of the outbuilding is built in stone rubble with red brick detailing; ground floor contains a large altered opening with a timber lintel, two square headed openings on first floor level consisting of a vertical timber sheeted door to the right hand side and a boarded up window to the left. The east and west elevations of the outbuilding are abutted by the outbuildings of the neighbouring properties. The north elevation was not visible at the time of survey. Slated pitched roof and Upvc rainwater goods to outbuilding.

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

East side is abutted by No.6 Bayview Terrace (HB01/22/017F).

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

Materials:
Roof Natural Slate
RWGs Cast Iron
Walling Painted Render (N) Red brick (S)
Windows Timber Sliding Sash

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 1873 Ordnance Survey map 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 in 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. 5 Bayview Terrace, along with the adjoining nos 1-7, was constructed in 1870. The Annual Revisions note 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. 5 Bayview Terrace was James Harvey, a local wine merchant with business premises on Magazine Street. By 1911 the house had passed to Hugh C. O’Doherty, a local solicitor with offices on Shipquay Street. In that year the census building return described O’Doherty’s property as a 1st class dwelling that consisted of 10 rooms. The First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57) records that William Hamilton Weir, a local merchant, occupied No. 5 Bayview Terrace in the 1930s. Weir’s family continued to reside at the property until 1966 when a Mr Samuel K. Mitchell took possession. The McClelland family remained the landlord of No. 5 Bayview Terrace by at least the 1970s and by the end of the Second Revaluation (1956-72) the value of the house stood at £48.

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. 5 Bayview Terrace was subsequently listed in 1979. The NIEA HB Records note that No. 5 Bayview Terrace had been converted into a number of self contained flats by the 1980s although in 1984 the 1st and 2nd floors of the building were changed to office accommodation. In 1990-91 the building underwent an extensive renovation that included the replacement of the roof covering using natural slate, the reconstruction of its dormer windows and the overhaul of its sash windows (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)
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 – HB01/22/017E

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
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

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.5 is located between No.4 Bayview Terrace (HB01/22/017D) and No.6 Bayview Terrace (HB01/22/017F), located on the western side of the River Foyle within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area. Externally, the front facade retains sufficient detailing to regard it as special, including a pair of timber panelled doors framed by moulded square pilasters of the Doric order and moulded entablature above. 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.