14 QUEEN'S ST.

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Victorian mid-terrace three-storey three-bay over-basement red brick Georgian-style townhouse, built c.1856 with a three-storey projecting rear return. Rectangular on plan, principal elevation faces east, built as one of a terrace of four similar street-fronted townhouses lining the west side of Queen Street. Pitched natural slate with black clay ridge tiles and a red brick chimney stack with clay pots rising from the south side. Cast-iron guttering on iron drive-through brackets.

Principal elevation of red brick walling laid in 'Flemish' bond with cement pointing, set behind a low level rendered plinth wall with sandstone coping and cast iron railings; all window openings are square-headed flat cut brick arches on painted masonry sills, bays on ground floor are aligned with window bays on floors above, window bays on ground floor right of entrance doorway 6/6 timber sliding sash; elliptical arch headed entrance doorway, slightly recessed, has engaged fluted columns of the Doric order either side a raised-and-fielded four panel painted timber door with projecting entablature and elliptical fanlight with timber glazing bars above, door six steps up from pavement; 6/6 timber sliding sashes on first and second floor levels. Basement of smooth painted rendered walls with steps down to basement to left of door, replacement timber casement windows and modern timber door. Continuous sandstone string course at ground floor level. Large central roof-dormer with timber front, slated sides, slated pitched roof and 6/3 replacement uPVC window. Painted render flat band at eaves.

North and south sides are abutted to No. 13 and No.15 Queen Street (HB01/21/0018A/C).

West elevation to the rear is of three-storeys, hand-made red brick walling laid in 'English Garden Wall' bond with cement pointing, finish to rear return with 6/6 timber sliding sash to first floor level and replacement uPVC window to second floor level; slated pitched roof, built at half-landing height. Square-headed window openings with plaster reveals on painted masonry sills. Single 6/6 timber sliding sash window to ground floor level with replacement timber casement window to basement level.

Pitched slate roof with black clay ridge tiles and a large red brick chimney stack with ten terracotta clay pots rising from the south side. Cast-iron half-round guttering on iron drive-through brackets terminating at cast iron hopper and a circular downpipe to front elevation.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron/
Walling Render/brick
Windows Timber sliding sash / Timber casement/ uPVC

Setting:
Forming part of a terrace of four similar houses lining the west side of Queen Street fronting directly onto the pavement. Small rear yard enclosed by schist wall, and a large two-storey rear return. Set within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area.

Historical information

Queen Street, characterised by its mid-nineteenth century terraced houses, was originally laid out in c. 1840, with the first buildings constructed along the street by at least 1847. The laying out of Queen Street, as well as the adjoining Great James Street and Clarendon Street, was neccesitated by a period of growth in the economy and population of Londonderry that occurred in the mid-nineteenth century. John Hume notes that during the period 1825-1850 ‘reconstruction of the city’s buildings [within the city walls] took place alongside the development for the first time of housing outside the walls at Bogside and Edenballymore’ (Hume, p. 147).

Queen Street was the second major new street in the area (Great James Street had been laid out in c. 1833). The first edition of the Ordnance Survey maps (1830) for the townland of Edenballymore records that the Queen Street area was originally rural hinterland with few significant structures. In 1830 the development of the city’s streets had extended no further than Waterloo Place, Abbey Street and William Street. In the first decades of the 19th century the only major construction north of the walls had been isolated buildings such as the Londonderry Infirmary, the Lunatic Asylum and Foyle College (HB01/22/016) with little or no domestic architecture being erected in the same period. The only building in the area that predates the early-Victorian development is Foyle Cottage (HB01/21/006), a Regency house that was constructed c. 1815.

In The Annals of Derry, a survey of the city compiled by Robert Simpson and published in 1847, Simpson recorded that ‘all the district now covered by Great James’s Street, William Street, Little James Street … and the numerous lanes in that vicinity [originally comprised] meadow ground without a house’ (Simpson, p. 213). The initial development of housing in this area began in the late-Georgian period and continued into the Victorian era. With the construction of uniform rows of neat and charming three-storey townhouses, a new affluent area was established that swiftly became the preferred residence of the city’s merchant and professional classes. The laying out of Clarendon Street, Great James Street and Queen Street followed a geometric street pattern which was characteristic of Georgian street development; the development signified the most ambitious project of town planning carried out in Londonderry since the construction of the walled city in 1613-19.

O’Hagan’s contemporary plan of Londonderry recorded that Queen Street was originally known as Queen’s Street (the name of the street continued to switch back and forth throughout its history) and noted that at least 12 houses had been constructed along the row by 1847. The map shows that nos 1-8 Queen Street (HB01/21/024A-H) and nos 9-12 Queen Street (HB01/21/020A-D) are amongst the earliest terraced dwellings within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area, having been built by at least 1847. The second edition Ordnance Survey map (1853) did not depict the later terrace nos 13-16 Queen Street (HB01/22/018A-D), however the construction of the row commenced almost immediately thereafter.

No. 14 Queen Street was constructed between 1853 and 1856 as the building was first recorded on Griffith’s Valuation in the latter year. The adjoining No. 13 had also been erected at that time, although nos 15 and 16 Queen Street were not built until a decade later. Griffith’s Valuation notes that No. 14 Queen Street was built on land owned by Henry Ridley (manager of the Londonderry Gas Works) and was originally valued at £48 in 1856. The first occupant of No. 14 Queen Street was John Hunter, a local wool merchant (Ulster Town Directories). Throughout its history the occupants of the dwellings in Queen Street were of the city’s merchant and professional classes. In 1911 No. 14 Queen Street was occupied by Alexander Craig, a mechanical engineer. In that year the census building return described Craig’s home as a first class dwelling consisting of 12 rooms and possessing a stable or coach house as its sole out office. The First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland records that No. 14 Queen Street was owned by a Mr. Joseph Stevenson in 1935 (also owner of No. 13). In that year value of the house was increased to £49, however it was subsequently decreased to £42 by the end of the Second Revaluation (1956-72).

In 1970 the UAHS guide for Derry described nos 13-16 Queen Street as ‘a fine dignified Georgian terrace of four three-storey houses with attics … each entrance approached by a flight of steps spanning a basement area … the whole is finished with a neat trim railing’ (UAHS, p. 51). In 1978 the Department of the Environment designated the mid-nineteenth century streets and terraces of Queen Street, Great James Street and Clarednon Street as 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). Nos 13-16 Queen Street were subsequently listed in 1979.

Nos 13-16 Queen Street is one of the finest Georgian-style terraces within the Clarendon Street Conservation area. In 2013 Calley stated that the terrace ‘of four setback houses vies with nos 20-23 Crawford Square (HB01/22/004A-D) and nos 56-60 Northland Road as the finest in the city. They are a little later than nos 9-12 and are somewhat grander versions of them. Each is three-and-a-half-storey over basement, three-bay of dark brick. The wide doorways are reached up stone steps which span over basement wells edged with period fleur-de-lys topped railings. They have good timber panel doors … nos 13-14 have Tuscan columns whilst the others have Ionic columns [and] each have a single gabled dormer’ (Calley, p. 329). The NIEA HB Records note that renovation work was undertaken by 1998 when the roof was reslated, the rainwater goods replaced, the chimney brickwork repointed and the glazing and entrance door replaced (NIEA Pink Files).

Few of the mid-nineteenth century townhouses along Queen Street continue to be occupied as residential dwellings. The majority of the three-storey buildings were converted into offices for local dentist, solicitors and accountancy firms in the late-20th century.

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/2/B/5/16G – Griffith’s Valuation (1856)
4. PRONI VAL/12/B/32/11B-ZA – Annual Revisions (1862-1897)
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/33/2C-2F – Annual Revisions (1898-1931)
6. PRONI VAL/3/B/6/4 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1935)
7. PRONI VAL/4/B/5/13-14 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-1972)
8. Robert Simpson’s ‘Annals of Derry’ (1847)
9. O’Hagan’s plan of Londonderry (1847)
10. Ulster Town Directories (1843-1918)
11. Census of Ireland (1911)
12. First Survey Record – HB01/21/018 (1970)
13. NIEA HB Records – HB01/21/018B

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. Hume, J., ‘Derry beyond the walls: Social and economic aspects of the growth of Derry 1825-1850’ Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 2002.
4. Rowan, A. J., ‘The Buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster’ London: Yale University Press, 2003.
5. ‘Londonderry Clarendon Street Conservation Area Booklet’ Department of the Environment, 1978.
6. ‘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

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

Evaluation

Mid-terrace three-storey three-bay with attic over-basement Georgian-style red brick former townhouse, built c.1856, one of a terrace of four houses of similar type lining the west side of Queen Street with which this building has group value. The front facade of No 14 faces east onto Queen Street, behind painted decorative cast iron railings. Much exterior historic detailing has been retained including a fine doorcase with a projecting entablature and elliptical fanlight. This former house is abutted to the north and south sides by Nos 13 & 15 Queen Street (HB01/21/018A & C). The setting of the Clarendon Street Conservation Area is significantly enhanced by the historic authenticity of this former house within the terrace, which can be considered one of the finest Georgian-style terraces within the Clarendon Street Conservation area.