Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB01/21/005 O

Address :
33 Clarendon Street Londonderry County Londonderry BT48 7ER

Townland:
Edenballymore

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Survey 2:
B1

Date of Listing:
26/02/1979 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Office - Terrace

Former Use
House - Terrace

Conservation Area:
Yes

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
36-4SW

IG Ref:
C4327 1724

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Owner Category

Exterior Description And Setting

A mid-terrace two-bay three-storey with attic red brick Georgian-style townhouse, built in 1862 along with Nos. 29-31 & 35-51 Clarendon Street (HB01/21/005M-N & P-X). Rectangular on plan with projecting rear return. Principal elevation faces north onto Clarendon Street set behind low rendered wall surmounted by black painted replacement metal railings. Built as part of a row of similar houses of this type which line the south side of Clarendon Street. Pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles and a pitched roof dormer to the front. Large rendered chimney stack rising from the east side, centred on ridge with seven clay pots. Cast-iron guttering and circular downpipes to the front. Principal front (north) elevation is of Flemish brick bond with rendered plinth. Three-centred-arch opening to entrance doorway with moulded surround to right; recessed moulded cornice supported by columns of the Doric order to either side of a painted timber four-panelled door surmounted by an Adam-style fanlight. All window openings are square-headed with painted cement rendered reveals and painted sills. All windows are 6/6 timber sliding sash unless otherwise stated. Single window to right of door with two windows to first and second floors (those to upper floors are not aligned with ground floor openings). Narrow pitched roof dormer centred on elevation with a 6/3 timber sliding sash window. East and west elevations abutted by adjoining buildings No. 31 & No. 35 Clarendon Street (HB01/21/005N & HB01/21/005P respectively). South (rear) elevation is brick three-storey with attic. Three-storey rendered and brick rear return to left with door opening onto rear courtyard. The west face of the rear return is blank. Remaining faces not viewed at time of survey. The return is further abutted by a pitched roof rendered two-storey return. The west face of the rear return is blank. Remaining faces not viewed at time of survey. This return is in turn abutted by a pitched roof rendered single-storey return. The west face of the rear return is blank. Remaining faces not viewed at time of survey. The fenestration pattern is irregular with both 6/6 timber sliding sash windows to ground and first floors and a uPVC casement to second floor. (Rear elevation not fully visible at time of survey). Two-storey mews building to rear of site is rendered with natural slate roof and clipped eaves. North face has three 6/6 timber sliding sash windows to first floor. Abutted by the single-storey return to right; left ground floor section not visible at time of survey. East face is fully abutted by the mews building of no. 31 Clarendon Street. West face is fully abutted by the mews building of no. 35 Clarendon Street. South face has two blind former window openings to each floor (those to first floor aligned over ground floor openings). Setting: Built as part of a row of twelve mid-Victorian townhouses which line the south side of Clarendon Street. Located within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area, the front of the property faces north and is set behind a low rendered wall surmounted by black painted replacement metal railings. Small enclosed yard to rear bounded by a two-storey mews building to the south. Materials: Roof Natural Slate RWG Cast Iron (N) / uPVC (S) Walling Brick Windows Timber (N) / uPVC (S)

Architects

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 city 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 and charming 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 proposed 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). Nos 29-51 Clarendon Street were constructed in 1862 as part of the second phase in the laying out of Clarendon Street. No. 33 was constructed for a Mr. William M. Hunter and was originally valued at £29 in 1862. Throughout its history the occupants of Clarendon Street were of the city’s merchant and professional classes. In 1901 the house was occupied by Allison Lizzie and Kate Wright (who derived their income from Interest payments); the census building return of that year described their house as a 1st class dwelling that consisted of ten rooms. Ownership of No. 33 Clarendon Street remained with the Hunter family by the cancellation of the Annual Revisions in 1931, however in 1935 the First Revaluation recorded that the value of the building had been increased to £34 and ownership had passed to a Mr. R. W. and Ms. Anne Cunningham (who continued to own the site by the 1970s). No. 33 was no longer utilised as a private dwelling by 1968 when the building was converted into a private medical surgery for Dr. Thomas McCabe and was subsequently increased in value to £44. 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. 33 Clarendon Street was subsequently listed in 1979. The NIEA HB Records note that nos 31-33 were converted into a single property for the accountants firm of Fergus McAteer & Co. by the 1980s. The pair underwent a renovation in 1988 when their roofs were reslated, the front elevations repointed and the windows repaired (NIEA HB Records). In 2013 Calley described nos 29-39 Clarendon Street as ‘terrace houses with Doric doorway columns’ (Calley, p. 117). 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. Nos 31-33 Clarendon Street continue to be utilised by Fergus McAteer & Co. 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 Northern Ireland (1935) 7. PRONI VAL/4/B/5/13 – Second General Revaluation of 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 – HB01/21/005 (1970) 13. First Survey Image – HB01/21/005 (No Date) 14. NIEA HB Record – HB01/21/005O 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 D. Plan Form H-. Alterations detracting from building I. Quality and survival of Interior J. Setting K. Group value

Historic Interest

X. Local Interest R. Age S. Authenticity

Evaluation

A mid-terrace two-bay three-storey with attic red brick Georgian-style townhouse, built in 1862 along with Nos. 29-31 and 35-51 Clarendon Street (HB01/21/005M-N & P-X). It has group value with Nos. 5-31 and 35-73 (excluding No.53) which were built over a twenty-one year period and line the south side of the street. The conversion to office use and the internal linking of the property with No. 31 has resulted in some modernisation of the interior. Despite this, much of its internal detailing survives and the house forms an integral part of the terrace as a whole. Located within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area, the well preserved setting the survival of its rear mews building 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

Date of Survey

27 March 2014