15 Main Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Three storey four windows wide Georgian terraced house in a group of two. Sand cement facade, natural slate roof, brick chimneys on party walls. Larger chimney on party wall with sister building number 13, (HB02/12/010A). Houses are symmetrical about their junction though number 13 is brick. House faces north west onto Main street. Georgian sash windows. Ground floor and third floor windows have each twelve panes and are equal in height. Second floor is a pane taller and windows have 15 panes. The panelled entrance door aligns with the second row of windows from the south west. It has a rectangular fanlight divided into a brick joint pattern by fine astragals. Three stone steps rise from the street to the door. Across the front of the facade a light well to the basement trimmed by stone is protected by iron railings. Three basement windows can be seen. Windows have sandstone cills, rainwater goods are in PVC.

To the rear windows are less ordered. Windows in line with the stair are dropped to landing level. There are only three openings to the third floor. The courtyard behind is enclosed by a high brick wall (over two metres) and terminated by a two storey coach house. The coach house is in good repair, slate roof, brick walls, five openings of different sizes all closed by solid matchboard doors.

To the side an entry way reveals a brick construction on a cut basalt plinth.

Historical information

Building shown on this site on 1831 Ordnance Survey Map. However, it has a long return and is the same depth as its neighbours. The present arrangement with numbers 13 and 15 much deeper than those to the south west, appears on the 1848 survey, as does the modern courtyard arrangement. The 1835 Ordnance Survey memoirs state that 50 years earlier there were ‘only a few cabins and indifferent houses’ on Main Street. It is likely therefore that the 1831 building was thatched (as numbers 11-15 until 1904 see HB02/12/009) and dated from the second half of the eighteenth century. This was replaced by the present much more substantial building circa 1840.

Reference

Primary Sources:
OS Map 'Newtown Limavady' enlarged from 1st Edition Map (1831) PRONI: Val 2D/5/4 & T2933/4/126
OS Map 'Newtown Limavady' (1848 revision with notes of 1858 valuation) PRONI: 058/120/1/1 & T2933/3/140
OS Map ' Town of Limavady' (1895) PRONI:Val 2D/5/4 & 293/4/261
OS Map ' Town of Limavady' (1907) PRONI:058/120/2/3

Secondary Sources
D Girvan, 'The Buildings of north Derry' UAHS 1975 p12
TH Mullan 'Limavady and the Roe Valley' Limavady Council 1983 p75

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

A townhouse in the Georgian style which adds to the formal quality of Limavady Main Street. Its sand cement render however detracts from its appearance as part of a terraced group.