68 Dunedin Terrace

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-bay two-storey-with-attic mid-terrace townhouse; built c.1880 to designs by J & W Kirkpatrick and located to the north side of Lodge Road in Coleraine town centre. Square on plan with two-storey canted bay and two-storey return to rear.

Mansard natural slate roof with blue/black angled ridge tiles and fish-scale tiles; slate roof with leaded hips and ridges to canted bay; red-brick chimneystack. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods on projecting eaves course. Walling is painted smooth render on a contrasting plinth with platband between floors; moulded eaves cornice. Windows are segmental-headed replacement 1/1 timber sash with horns, having projecting painted sills; square-headed with continuous sill course at ground floor of canted bay; two gabled dormers to attic having 1/1 round-headed windows in a timber frame with carved timber brackets under eaves.

The principal elevation faces southwest; two-storey canted bay at left with window to each facet; entrance door to ground floor right with window over at first floor. Replacement bolection-moulded four-panelled timber door in a segmental-headed doorcase with panelled sidelights and plain transom light; door accessed via single stone step.

The northwest elevation is abutted by adjoining building (HB03/17/005E).
The northeast (rear) elevation was only partially viewed (see surveyor’s comments). Wall-head gabled dormer with replacement timber window to right at attic; two-storey roughcast rendered return at left with two uPVC windows at first floor.

The southeast elevation is abutted by adjoining building (HB03/17/005G).

Setting:

Situated to the north side of Lodge Road in a residential area on the approach to the town centre. Set back from the road; lawned garden to front with modern brick pavior to front on house and bitmac path to entrance. Garden is bounded by mature hedges and modern timber fencing with replacement cast-iron latch-gate to front entrance. Rear yard enclosed to northeast by a two-storey roughcast rendered flat-roof outbuilding, which has been modified and refurbished. Northeast elevation has enlarged uPVC window insertions at ground and first floor; modern four-panelled timber door to ground floor right. Concrete communal yard to northeast has gravelled parking area.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Painted smooth render
Windows: Replacement timber sash
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

The current dwelling dates from 1880 and forms part of a terrace of seven houses, the only known work by local architects and brothers, J & W Kirkpatrick of Blindgate Street, Coleraine (Girvan, ww.dia.ie). The terrace was considered to be on the best, because sunniest, side of Lodge Road and was occupied largely by middle-class merchants and professionals who kept at least one servant. Lodge Road was laid out between 1833 and 1845, being first shown on O’Hagan’s map of Coleraine dating from 1845 and is named after ‘The Lodge’, a dwelling house at the southern end (now replaced by a hotel). The closing decades of the nineteenth century saw a building boom of terraces and villas in Coleraine of which local people were extremely proud. The boom is said to have begun in the late 1850s when Thomas Boyd built Waterford Terrace at the Coleraine end of Lodge Road (Mullin).

The terrace is entered into valuation records in 1880, given the name ‘Dunedin’ in 1881 and is first shown on the third edition OS map of 1904. The first occupier to be noted was the landlord and possibly also the developer of the terrace, Oliver H Liken in 1881, followed by Richard Griffith in 1883. The house, office, yard and small garden, was valued at £22 initially but reduced to £20 in 1887, probably as the result of an appeal. Richard Griffith died in 1892, leaving bequests to the Presbyterian Church, the Church of Ireland and the Methodists (Will of Richard Hamilton Griffith, died 27th May 1892). The house subsequently passed to Mary Griffith in 1893 who lived in the house with her widowed brother. The pair kept a domestic servant (1901 census).

W S Roberts was the next occupier in 1909, but the house was vacant at the time of the 1911 census. By 1912 James Galloway, shipping agent from Scotland , who had formerly lived at number 64, was living in the house with his wife, mother and two children. The family employed a domestic servant of local birth (1911 census). Dunedin Terrace was revalued in 1912, the value dropping to £18.10s. Valuer’s notes of this period show a plan of the house with two-storey rear extension and outbuildings at the rear of the yard, all still present.

Subsequent occupiers were Oliver H Liken (1914) John Oliver (1924) and Samuel Black (1926, a retired farmer who died in 1933 (Will of Samuel Black died 25th July 1933). Valuer’s notes of the 1930s give the accommodation as a reception, kitchen, scullery and pantry on the ground floor, two bedrooms, a bathroom, WC and reception on the first floor and three bedrooms on the second floor. In the 1930s the houses were said to have cost £1400 each to build, had gas lighting and the rear outbuilding was cobbled inside. The house was taken over by Samuel Elder in 1947 and Florence I Shaw in 1952.

Having been listed in 1977, renovations took place to the house in the 1980s, when it was divided into flats. Further renovations took place c2000 (HB file).

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/5/7/1 First Edition OS Map 1830
2. PRONI OS/6/5/7/2 Second Edition OS map 1849-50
3. PRONI OS/6/5/7/3 Third Edition OS Map 1904
4. PRONI OS/6/5/7/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1923
5. PRONI OS/6/5/7/5 Fifth Edition OS Map 1949
6. PRONI VAL/12/A/5/13 Valuer’s notes 1909-12
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/9A-N Annual Revisions (1864-1929)
8. PRONI VAL/3/C/6/4 First General Revaluation 1933-57
9. PRONI VAL/3/D/6/2/H/23-24 First General Revaluation 1933-57
10. PRONI Will of Richard Hamilton Griffith, died 27th May 1892
11. PRONI Will of Samuel Black died 25th July 1933
12. HB file – 03/17/005A-G
13. 1901/1911 census

Secondary Sources

1. Girvan, W D “Historic Buildings, Groups of Buildings, Areas of Architectural Importance in Coleraine and Portstewart” Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1971-2
2. Mullin, Rev T H “Coleraine in Modern Times” Belfast: Century Services Ltd, 1979
3. www.dia.ie

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 two-bay two-storey-with-attic mid-terrace townhouse; built c.1880 to designs by J & W Kirkpatrick and located to the north side of Lodge Road in Coleraine town centre. Some alterations and refurbishments, but the building retains much of its original detailing and remains a well-preserved example of a typical late-Victorian terraced townhouse. Forming part of an important and prominent terrace, in a town largely characterised by its development during the Victorian era, Dunedin Terrace is one of the best preserved representative examples of late-nineteenth century terraced architecture in Coleraine. No 68 has group value with the other listed buildings in the terrace and is of significant local interest.

General comments

Listing Criteria R - Age; and S - Authenticity also apply.