Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB01/21/005 M

Address :
29 Clarendon Street & 12a Queen Street Londonderry County Londonderry BT48 7EP

Townland:
Edenballymore

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Survey 2:
B1

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

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
House - 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:
C4328 1724

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Owner Category

Exterior Description And Setting

An end-of-terrace two-bay three-storey with attic red brick Georgian-style townhouse, built in 1862 along with Nos. 31-51 Clarendon Street (HB01/21/005N-X). Rectangular on plan with projecting rear return and rendered two-storey mews building to rear fronting onto Queen Street. Principal elevation faces north onto Clarendon Street set behind low rendered wall surmounted by black painted metal railings. Built as part of a row of similar houses of this type which line the south side of Clarendon Street. Pitched slate roof with black clay ridge tiles and single dormer to the front. Large brick chimney stack rising from the East side, centred on ridge with seven clay pots. Cast-iron guttering front and rear with circular downpipe to rear. 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 (gable) elevation is of Flemish brick bond with painted render finish to ground floor level. Single 6/6 timber sliding sash window to first and second floor level at far right. Gable is surmounted by a large red brick chimney with seven pots. West elevation is abutted by adjoining building No.31 Clarendon Street (HB01/21/005N). South (rear) elevation is brick three-storey with attic. Pitched roof, three-storey brick rear return to left abutted by a small two-storey brick return which is in turn abutted by a larger two-storey rendered and brick return which is further abutted by a rendered two-storey mews building which runs parallel to the main building. Right bay of main block comprises a single 6/6 timber sliding sash window to ground, first and second floor levels. Left bay is abutted by rear return; exposed section on second floor level has a 6/3 timber sliding sash window. Three-storey rear return south gable is abutted by a two-storey brick return; exposed section has a single 6/6 timber sliding sash window to first floor level. East face has a single diminutive 2/2 timber sliding sash window to first and second floor levels (ground floor not visible at time of survey). West face is blank. Small two-storey rear return east face has a 6/6 timber sliding sash window to first floor (ground floor not visible at time of survey). West face is blank. Large two-storey rear return north face is partly abutted to right by the small two-storey return; exposed section blank (ground floor not visible at time of survey). East face has two 6/6 timber sliding sash window to first floor (ground floor not visible at time of survey). South face is abutted by a two-storey mews building; exposed gable is blank and surmounted by a tall red brick chimney with a single pot. West face is blank. Two-storey mews building is rendered with natural slate roof and timber fascia, soffit and barge boards. North face is abutted to right by the large two-storey rear return; exposed section is blank (ground floor not visible at time of survey). East (gable) face has a single tripartite (6 pane, 9 pane, 6 pane) timber casement window to first floor centred on the ridge and a square-headed door opening to ground floor right comprising a recessed moulded cornice supported by columns of the Doric order to either side of a painted timber four-panelled door. South face (onto rear alleyway) has a painted vertically sheeted timber door to right and a single casement window to left at ground and first floor. West face is completely abutted by the mews building of no. 31 Clarendon Street. 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 at the junction of Clarendon Street/Queen Street, the front of the property faces north and is set behind a low rendered wall surmounted by black painted metal railings. Small enclosed yard to rear bounded by a rendered wall along Queen Street and a two-storey mews building (12a Queen Street) to the south. Materials: Roof Natural Slate RWG Cast Iron Walling Brick/Render Windows Timber

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 the 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. 29 (and the adjoining No. 31) was constructed for Smyth Osbourne, an agent with Imperial Fire Insurance who held business offices on Foyle Street (Ulster Town Directories). The house 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 William Colhoun, the owner of the Londonderry Sentinel (one of the city’s three main periodicals). In that year the census building return described the house as a 1st class dwelling that consisted of ten rooms. Ownership of No. 29 remained with the Osbourne family until 1923 when a Mr. [C. M.] Lynch took possession of the property, although by the First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland (1935) ownership of the house had passed to John Thompson & Sons. The value of No. 29 Clarendon Street was increased to £42 by 1935. By the Second Revaluation (1956-72) a Dr. T. McCabe had taken over ownership of the house which had been decreased in value to £34. The building remained in use as a private dwelling by the end of the revaluation in 1972. 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. 29 Clarendon Street was subsequently listed in 1979. The NIEA HB Records note that No. 29 Clarendon Street underwent an extensive renovation in 1989 that included the reslating of its roof in natural slate, the replacement of its rain water goods, the repointing of its front elevation and the restoration of its railings and windows (NIEA HB Records). In 2013 Calley described nos 29-39 Clarendon Street as ‘terrace houses with Doric doorway columns’ noting that No. 29 Clarendon Street possesses ‘a linked two-storey rendered mews house under slate roof and a doorway to street which has similar timber Doric columns as those on the main elevation’ (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. No. 29 Clarendon Street is currently utilised as a bed and breakfast whilst the mews building to rear is used as office premises. 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 – HB01/21/005M 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 J. Setting K. Group value

Historic Interest

S. Authenticity U. Historic Associations X. Local Interest R. Age

Evaluation

An end-of-terrace two-bay three-storey with attic red brick Georgian-style townhouse, built in 1862 along with Nos. 31-51 Clarendon Street (HB01/21/005N-X). It has group value with Nos. 5-27 and 31-73 (excluding No.53) which were built over a twenty-one year period and line the south side of the street. Much of its 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 and the survival of its rear mews building (12a Queen Street) adds to its interest. The terrace represents the mid 19th century development of the city of Derry and the house and mews are a noteworthy example of the type of property built during this period of growth in the economy and population of the city.

General Comments

Date of Survey

27 March 2014