10 Clarendon Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Victorian mid-terraced two-bay three-storey with attic Georgian-style townhouse, built c.1863. Rectangular on plan with projecting two storey rear return, principal elevation faces South onto Clarendon Street set behind low rendered wall with replacement painted black decorative iron railings, with trefoil cast iron finials above sandstone coping. Built as part of a terrace row of similar brick houses No 10, along with two houses to E (Nos 6 & 8), is narrowly set back from the earlier terrace to W with No. 10 being linked internally at FF and attic level to No. 12 Clarendon Street (HB 01/22/022 D).

Pitched natural slate roof with angled black clay ridge tiles and two roof lights to S with a single dormer to the rear N. Terrace is stepped at each house following contour of the hill each with a red brick rectangular section chimney to their E, No 10 has buff clay pots and red brick chimney to E. Metal semi-circular guttering discharging to circular section downpipes shared with No 6.

Principal south elevation is of Flemish brick bond; windows are square-headed with two 6/6 timber sliding sash windows to ground floor right and two 6/6 timber sliding sash windows to first and second floors, no window horns; three-centred arched opening to entrance doorway with moulded cornice supported by columns of the Doric order either side of four-panelled painted timber door and radial fanlight above. Brass door furniture and iron boot scraper.

The East is abutted by adjoining building No. 6 Clarendon Street (HB01/22/022 B) and to the west by No. 12 Clarendon Street (HB01/22/022 D).

No access to rear yard but, where visible, north elevation consists of a three-storey facade with door opening onto rear yard having a three storey projecting return with pitched natural slate roof and angled black clay ridge tiles. Single storey smooth cement rendered extension attached to return with pitched roof to first section and flat roofed section beyond. UPVC guttering to extension, modern timber windows and concrete cills. Concrete surface to rear yard.

A rubble wall forms northern yard boundary with opening to rear access route (walling likely the remains of an outhouse as similar buildings survive at rear of neighbouring houses).

Setting:
Built as part of a row of eleven similar Georgian-style, early to mid-Victorian townhouses which line the north side of Clarendon Street. The front of the property is bounded by Clarendon Street set behind a low rendered plinth wall with replacement cast iron railings enclosing a small garden area. Enclosed yard to rear with laneway beyond providing access to the rest of the terrace.

Materials:
Roof Natural slate
RWG Metal
Walling Brick
Windows Timber Sliding Sash

Historical information

Clarendon Street, characterised by its long terraces of Georgian-style townhouses, was laid out in the early-Victorian period with the construction of the first dwellings commencing in c. 1853. The laying out of similar terraced dwellings on Great James Street and Queen Street was necessitated by a period of growth in the economy and population of Londonderry that occurred in the mid-19th 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).

The first edition of the Ordnance Survey maps (1830) for the townland of Edenballymore records that the Clarendon 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 and which, according to Calley, is ‘a pleasing composition which offers a gentle rebuke to some of the exuberance of later nearby buildings … one of it’s pleasant features is that it opens a gap in the long terraces’ (Calley, p. 116).

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 three-storey Geogrian-style 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.

The contemporary 1847 plan of Londonderry, which depicted the final layout of Clarendon Street at least a decade before it was actually completed, recorded that the street was originally known as Ponsonby Street. The street was named after the Rt. Rev. Richard Ponsonby (1772-1853), Bishop of Derry and Raphoe. However, by the 1850s the street had been renamed Clarendon Street in honour of the Fourth Earl of Clarendon, George Villiers (1800-1870), Lord Lieutentant of Ireland between 1847 and 1852. The second edition of the Ordnance Survey map records that Ponsoby Street had been renamed Clarendon Street by at least 1853. Although the 1847 plan of Londonderry depicted that Clarendon Street extended from the quay up to Francis Street, only the bottom section of Clarendon Street (between the Strand Road and Queen Street) had been laid out by 1853.

The development of Clarendon Street progressed slowly throughout the 1850s. Mullin records that development of the remainder of the street did not recommence until the mid-1850s. In 1851 Skipton & Miller had advertised building ground on Clarendon Street, Queen Street and Patrick Street to be let in perpetuity. Griffith’s Valuation recorded that only nine dwellings had been constructed along the entire length of the street by 1856. In that year additional leases were advertised for building ground on the northern side of Clarendon Street (Mullin, p. 117).

No. 10 Clarendon Street was one of the final buildings to be constructed along the north terrace of Clarendon Street. No. 10 was erected along with nos 6-8 and 22-26 Clarendon Street in 1863 and completed the continuous terrace of 11 houses that now runs between Queen Street and Princes Street. Nos 6-10 Clarendon Street were constructed for John Allen, a wine merchant and property owner who held business premises on Linenhall Street (Ulster Town Directories). The house was originally valued at £25 and was occupied by a Mr. John Kyle in 1863. Throughout its history the occupants of Clarendon Street were of the city’s merchant and professional classes. In 1901 No. 10 Clarendon Street was occupied by Thomas Sweeny, agent of a local steamship firm. The census of that year described Sweeny’s house as a 1st class dwelling that consisted of ten main rooms. No. 10 Clarendon Street continued to be owned by the Allen family until at least 1931. By the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1935) the entire row of nos 6-26 Clarendon Street had been purchased by a Ms. Jennie Steen. The valuer noted that the value of No. 10 had been increased to £36 by the 1930s. Between 1935 and 1956 nos 10 and 12 Clarendon Street were combined into a single property (valued at £128) which was occupied by the Young Women’s Christian Association (Y.W.C.A.) by the 1950s. The Derry Housing Association acquired nos 10-12 Clarendon Street in 1970 and converted the former Y.W.C.A. Hall into a number of residential flats, the total value of which stood at £85 and 10 shillings by the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956-72).

In 1978 the Department of the Environment designated Clarendon Street (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. 10 Clarendon Street was subsequently listed in 1979. The NIEA HB Records note that repair work to No. 10 was undertaken in 1992 when the brickwork of the house was repointed, its roof was reslated and the original windows and entrance door were restored (NIEA HB Records).

In 2013 Calley described nos 6-48 Clarendon Street as a ‘delightfully long red brick terrace of the mid-19th century … the buildings are nearly all the same, being three-and-a-half-storey, two-bay with most ground floors rather inelegantly squeezing in a doorway with two reduced scale window bays … depressed arched recessed timber-framed doorways have simple segmented fanlights and thin Doric columns supporting entablatures’ (Calley, p. 114). Few of the mid-Victorian townhouses along Clarendon Street are now 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. No. 10 Clarendon Street was utilised as office premises at the time of the Second Survey and is linked to the adjoining No. 12 at FF and attic levels.

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 Ordnanec 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 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
8. Robert Simpson’s ‘Annals of Derry’ (1847)
9. O’Hagan’s plan of Londonderry (1847)
10. Census of Ireland (1901 / 1911)
11. Ulster Town Directories (1843-1918)
12. First Survey Record – HB01/22/022 (No Date)
13. First Survey Image – HB01/22/022 (No Date)
14. NIEA HB Records – HB01/22/022C

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. Mullin, T. H., Ulster’s Historic City: Derry – Londonderry’ Coleraine: Coleriane Bookshop, 1986.
5. Rowan, A. J., ‘The Buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster’ London: Yale University Press, 2003.
6. ‘Londonderry Clarendon Street Conservation Area Booklet’ Department of the Environment, 1978.
7. ‘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
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-terrace two-bay three-storey with attic red brick Georgian-style townhouse, built in 1863 along with Nos. 6,8 and 22-26 Clarendon Street (HB01/22/022A,B,I,J &JJ). It has group value with Nos. 6, 8 & 12-48 (HB01/22/022A,B,D-U) which were built over an eight year period and line the north side of the street. Despite the loss of some original plan form, a significant proportion of original joinery survives internally and the exterior retains much historic character with a Georgian style doorway with moulded cornice, Doric columns and radial fanlight. Located within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area, the well preserved setting adds to its interest. The terrace represents the mid 19th century development of the city of Derry and the house is a noteworthy example of the type of property built during this period of growth in the economy and population of the city.