26 Clarendon Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Mid-Victorian end-of-terrace two-bay three-storey with attic red brick over rendered plinth Georgian-style townhouse, built in 1863. Rectangular on plan with projecting return to rear . Located at the junction of Clarendon Street/Princes Street, the principal elevation faces south onto Clarendon Street set behind low cement rendered wall; concrete ramp to door level. Built as part of a terrace row of similar houses of this type lining the north side of Clarendon Street.

Pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles to main roof and return. Slender red brick chimney stack rising from the west side, centred on ridge with terracotta pots. Cast iron half-round guttering on rise and fall brackets to front elevation; uPVC rainwater goods to rear.

Principal front (south) elevation is of Flemish bond brick. All windows are 6/6 timber sliding sash with square-headed openings set within painted cement rendered reveals and painted sills. Three-centred arched opening with moulded surround to entrance doorway with moulded cornice supported by columns of the Doric order either side of four-panelled painted timber door having an Adam-style fanlight above. Two diminished windows to left of door with two windows to first and second floors (those to upper floors are not aligned with ground floor openings).

The west (gable) elevation is blank, cement rendered topped by a single large red brick chimney stack. A high cement rendered boundary wall extends to the rear of the property with a timber sheeted door to rear yard, accessed from Princes Street.

The east side of the building is abutted by the adjoining building, No. 24 Clarendon Street (HB01/22/022J).

North elevation is red brick three-storey with attic dormer to right and three-storey pitched roof return built at half landing height to left (left half forms the return of No. 24). The return is further abutted by a single storey hipped roof extension with cement rendered walls, fibre cement slate roof, replacement casement windows and uPVC rain water goods.

Right bay of main block comprises a single replacement uPVC casement window to ground floor with a single 6/6 timber sliding sash window to first and second floors surmounted by a replacement uPVC casement window within a pitched roof attic dormer.
Rear return to left is surmounted by a single replacement uPVC casement window.

North face of rear return is abutted by a single storey extension; single 6/6 timber sliding sash window to first and second floors.
West face comprises door to far left to ground floor with a single diminutive 2/2 timber sliding sash window to first floor and a single diminutive casement window to second floor. East face is abutted by the return of No. 24 (HB01/22/022J).

Setting:
Situated at the junction of Clarendon Street/Princes Street and 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 low cement rendered wall. Enclosed yard to rear. To the north end of the site is a single storey brick outbuilding with pitched fibre cement slate roof, also accessible from a laneway to the north.

Materials:
Roof Natural Slate
RWG Cast Iron (S) uPVC (N)
Walling Brick
Windows Timber

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 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 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 neat 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 the years 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 Lieutenant of Ireland between 1847 and 1852. The second edition of the Ordnance Survey map records that Ponsonby 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. 26 Clarendon Street was one of the final buildings to be constructed along the north terrace of Clarendon Street. No. 26 was erected in 1863, along with nos 6-10 and 22-24 Clarendon Street, and completed the continuous terrace of 11 houses that now runs between Queen Street and Princes Street. No. 26 Clarendon Street was constructed for John Allen, a wine merchant and property owner who held business properties in Linenhall Street (Ulster Town Directories). The house was originally valued at £28 and was occupied by a Mr. Allen Black in 1863. Throughout its history the occupants of Clarendon Street were of the city’s merchant and professional classes. In 1901 No. 26 Clarendon Street was occupied by a Ms. Jane B. Jackson. The census of that year described Jackson’s house as a 1st class dwelling that consisted of ten main rooms. No. 26 Clarendon Street continued to be owned by the Allen family until at least 1931. By 1935 the entire row of nos 6-26 Clarendon Street had been purchased by a Ms. Jennie Steen. The First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1935) records that the value of the building was increased to £40 as a result. Steen continued to be recorded as owner by the Second Revaluation (1956-72) which noted that the building was still utilised as a private dwelling and was valued at £35.

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. 26 Clarendon Street was subsequently listed in 1979. The NIEA HB Records note that in 1983 the brickwork to the front elevation was repointed, whilst in 1990 the former dwelling was converted into offices (NIEA HB Record).

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 dentists, 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 – 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 – HB01/22/022JJ

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: Coleraine 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
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A mid-terrace two-bay three-storey with attic red brick Georgian-style townhouse, built in 1863 along with Nos. 6-10 and 22-24 Clarendon Street (HB01/22/022A,B,C,I & J). It has group value with Nos. 6-24 & 28-48 which were built over an eight year period and line the north side of the street. Its original character and much of its detailing survives. 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.

General comments

Additional listing criteria apply - R-Age & S-Authenticity