15 DE BURGH TERRACE

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Late-Victorian mid-terraced two-bay two-storey with dormer attic red brick Georgian-style townhouse, built c.1889. Rectangular on plan with projecting rear return. Principal elevation faces South onto long sloping garden. Built as part of a terraced row of similar houses. Slated pitched roof with wall-head dormer to front. Red brick Boundary wall to S with concrete coping and modern metal gate and railings. Concrete winder steps to raised garden.

Principal elevation is of Flemish bond brick with painted rendered plinth. Canted bay to ground floor with square-headed painted 2/2 sliding sash windows having horizontally divided panes and ogee horns. Segmental arched opening to entrance doorway with moulded cornice supported by scrolled console brackets with acanthus leaf detail on pilasters; painted timber two panel double-leaf doors and plain fanlight above. First floor windows are segmental-headed painted 2/2 sliding sash, coupled windows above bay with single light above doorcase. Second floor dormer situated above bay with pair of round-headed painted 1/1 sliding sash windows. Continuous projecting sill course to first floor. Decorative barge board to dormer; bracketed eaves to main roof.

East and West sides abutted by adjoining buildings No.14 De Burgh Terrace (HB01/22/025N) and No.16 De Burgh Terrace (HB01/22/025P).

North elevation is rendered and painted with two-storey rear return with 2/2 timber sliding sash windows. Small wall-head dormer to attic with 2/2 timber sliding sash window to East side. White uPVC conservatory extends from N elevation to edge of original return.

Pitched slate roof with clay ridge tiles to main roof and dormer to the front. Large brick chimney stack rising from the East side, centred on ridge with six clay pots. Cast-iron guttering and circular downpipe to front, uPVC to rear.

Access to rear yard is from a shared lane. The N boundary to No.15 is defined by a random schist stone wall, with upright stone copings, that form an arched opening for a sheeted timber gate in the middle, painted blue with red brick to reveals. Part of this wall is encompassed within a single storey red-brick monopitched outhouse, with boxed timber fascia and verge, slate roof and uPVC guttering.

Setting:
Located immediately North-West of the town centre and on the western side of the River Foyle, De Burgh Terrace is accessed from Academy Road, which runs between Rosemount Avenue to the North-West and Northland Road to the South-East. Brooke Park is located to the South-West of the terrace. The row of seventeen houses has long front gardens and small rear yards, the latter being accessed from a rear alleyway which which runs the length of the terrace.

Materials:
Roof : Natural Slate
RWG : Cast Iron (S), uPVC (N)
Walling: Red Brick, Flemish Bond (S), render (N)
Windows: Timber Sliding Sash

Historical information

The c.1873 valuation town plan of Londonderry records that De Burgh Terrace was originally laid out in the 1870s. The map notes that the street was unnamed and possessed no buildings at that time. The first houses were not constructed until 1889.

With the establishment of the Georgian-style terraces along Great James Street, Queen Street and Clarendon Street in the 1830s-1860s, the city continued its northern expansion with the construction of a number of additional terraces designed for Londonderry’s professional and merchant classes who were spreading out from the Walled City. The northern expansion of the city was blocked by the walls of the Lunatic Asylum and so new terraces, such as Crawford Square (HB01/22/003; 004) and De Burgh Terrace, were erected to the north-west of the previous development, on picturesque hill sites overlooking the Foyle (Mullin, p. 119). Calley states that the development of large terraces around a central garden or square ‘can be seen as the city’s delayed response to Dublin’s garden squares [which] created, near to the city centre, a green oasis for its wealthy residents’ (Calley, p. 128; 420).

Following the laying out of Crawford Square in the 1860s-1870s, Nos 1-17 De Burgh Terrace, a row of uniform two-and-a-half-storey two-bay late-Victorian houses, was developed by Ulick James Daly. A civil servant and gentleman who resided at Eccles Street in Dublin, Daly originally submitted plans for 18 houses on De Burgh Terrace in 1888 but only 17 were ever built. The terrace was constructed in stages between 1889 and 1894 with nos 1-8 De Burgh Terrace being the first to be completed. The majority of the buildings erected along the row were leased by the Daly family following their completion (Calley, pp 153).

The Annual Revisions note that nos 15-17 De Burgh Terrace were constructed in 1894 and were valued at £15 each (£1 more than the majority of the adjoining terrace as nos 15-17 possessed additional room). The houses on De Burgh Terrace were designed as residences for the city’s professional and merchant classes. The first occupant of No. 15 was Arthur Ellis, the manager of a local shirt and collar factory. The 1911 Census Building Return described No. 15 De Burgh Terrace as a 1st class dwelling that consisted of 11 rooms. The Daly family continued to own the house until at least the end of the Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72). The value of the house had risen to £30 by 1972.

Nos 1-17 De Burgh Terrace were listed in 1979. De Burgh Terrace had not been included in the Clarendon Street Conservation Area in 1978 but in 2006 the area was extended (primarily in order to incorporate the terrace). As a Result De Burgh Terrace has been designated ‘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). Calley, writing in 2013, described De Burgh Terrace as ‘quite simply delightful … what makes these particularly fine are the long sloping raised gardens to the front of the houses, which are generally very well maintained with some fine trees’ (Calley, pp 153-154). The NIEA HB Records note that No. 15 De Burgh Terrace has underwent a number of renovations since its listing. By 1989 the building had its roof reslated and its exterior brickwork repointed (NIEA HB Records).

References

Primary Sources
1. PRONI VAL/12/E/157/1/7 – Annual Revisions Town Plan c. 1873
2. PRONI VAL/12/B/32/11T-ZD – Annual Revisions (1885-1897)
3. PRONI VAL/12/B/33/2A-2F – Annual Revisions (1898-1931)
4. PRONI VAL/3/C/6/10 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1926-57)
5. PRONI VAL/4/B/5/13 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
6. Census of Ireland (1901; 1911)
7. Ulster Town Directories (1880-1918)
8. First Survey Record – HB01/22/025 (1970)
9. First Survey Image – HB01/22/025 (No Date)
10. NIEA HB Records – HB01/22/0025O

Secondary Sources
1. Calley, D., ‘City of Derry: An historical gazetteer to the buildings of Londonderry’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2013.
2. Mullin, T. H., Ulster’s Historic City: Derry – Londonderry’ Coleraine: Coleriane Bookshop, 1986.
3. ‘Londonderry Clarendon Street Conservation Area Booklet’ Department of the Environment, 1978.
4. ‘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 Late-Victorian mid-terraced house, set on the North side of De Burgh Terrace within an elevated row of 17 similar houses, fronting onto long sloping raised gardens. Despite the single storey modern conservatory to the rear, the exterior has largely retained its character, style and proportion making it a fine example of its period. No.15, together with the adjoining listed buildings in de Burgh Terrace (HB01.22.025 A-N and P-Q inclusive), has group value and is among the most important buildings within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area. The local schist walling at the rear and original red brick walling and steps from the street frontage further enrich the setting of this house.