Bridge House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two storey five bay house over basement. Ashlar sandstone on main south east facade to Clooney Road. Rough cut sandstone to other facades with brick extensions and whinstone to basement. Natural slate roof with brick chimneys (four pots) on each gable.

Building is situated at the south west end of Ballykelly Bridge (HB02/10/003), its south west elevation forms the corner of Station Road and Clooney Road.

The main facade to Clooney Road has four sixteen pane sash windows flanking a central recessed entrance door with rectangular fanlight. A second door between the two windows to the south west has been blocked up and rendered in sand cement, coursed to match the ashlar. Above is a projecting rectangular string course and five twelve pane sash windows aligning with the openings below. The space between the windows flanking the former door is slightly larger than between other windows on the elevation.

The south west facade is three bays wide with windows aligning on each floor. The two bays to the front have blank window recesses filled in cut stone as the rest of the building. Interestingly, the recesses have been detailed to replicate the shadows of a sashed window. The stone is set back from the facade to align with the timber window. The upper half of the stonework projects slightly in front of the lower half to replicate the horizontal joint of the sash. To the rear bay the sash window on each floor contains four panes. Aligning with the front and rear bays is a narrow attic casement four panes wide. The gable parapet has a stone barge and a carved kneeler stone projects at the eaves.

To the rear of the main building a six structural bay return projects along Station Road. It is stone faced though the first two bays are surmounted by a first floor extension rendered to the road but exposed as brick to the courtyard behind. This extension has a brick chimney on the gable. A string course at the junction between render and stone aligns with the eaves level of the rest of the return but does not continue under the eaves. The end of the return has a hipped roof. There are two double sash windows to Station Road, one over a blocked up and rendered arched and opening which is under head height at the present level of the road.

At the rear of the return ground level drops a storey to expose the basement (though a block wall continues on Station Road). Two casement windows align on the end wall. To the north east side a door to a flat in the return is flanked by two small windows. Above are two further casement windows not aligning with concrete cills. One has been reduced from a door size opening. A blocked up arch aligning with that to the road can be seen but it is partially obscured by a flat roofed brick extension to the main building.

The rear of the main building has surviving sashed windows of different sizes. There are two flat roofed dormers in the roof, a lean-to extension sits into the corner of house and return on top of the larger basement extension.

The north east gable of the house facing the bridge has attic windows, barge stones, chimney and kneeler as described for the south west. The arrangement of openings below are less ordered. At first floor two double pane sashes are positioned closer to the corners than the attic windows. At ground floor one two pane sash is almost on the centre line. Another to the rear aligns with the window above. To the basement a single door with relieving arch is off-centre. The whinstone of the basement matches that of the bridge. The wall of the bridge curves around to join the gable of the building.

( See post-survey note to Interior Description below.)

Historical information

Constructed by James Turnbull in 1829 to designs by Richard Suitor cost nearly £2,000. Building paid for by the Fishmongers Company as a dispensary and house for a resident surgeon and was part of their general improvements to their estate and to Ballykelly in particular, during the nineteenth century. A second dispensary was built at the other end of their estate at Mulderg in Banagher Ward but in a more rural style (see HB01/01/036). The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1835-40 noted a fine garden between the house and river but considered the building ‘too thick and clumsy’. The blocked up door on the facade was the entrance to the dispensary and it was surmounted by a reconstituted stone sculpture of the arms of the Fishmongers Company over the work ‘dispensary’. This is now located in the entrance hall of the Drummond Hotel (HB02/10/010). The carving was by James George Bubb (1782-1853) of London, a distinguished sculptor of the period. The building operated as a dispensary until well into the present century. It was occupied by a Mrs Cochrane when first listed in the 1970s. In 1987 Mr Graham Mills bought the building and operated a restaurant. The present owner acquired the house in 1992 and it is now converted into flats.

(See additional notes to Interior Description above. )

References:

The Londonderry Plantation 1609-1914 J S Curl p. 265.
The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol. 25 p.70.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
V. Authorship
W. Northern Ireland/International Interest

Evaluation

Well constructed stone building marking the proper entrance to Ballykelly Village at the Derry side of its 18th century stone bridge. Care taken in its elevation and construction to create a simple good quality town building. Blank windows a detail of note. Most of the original sash windows remain. Building badly extended to the rear, and roof is in need of maintenance. Lack of cultivation of garden between house and river is an opportunity missed to enhance the setting. Removal of Fishmongers Coat of Arms and blocking of dispensary door has also reduced the architectural effect of the building. Important historically, as one of the pieces of architecture in Ballykelly commissioned by the Fishmongers Company. Of local interest as the first purpose built health care building in the village.
(See additional notes of 17th. July 2002 by D B under Interior Description.)