Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB01/22/020 A

Address :
1-2 Clarendon Terrace Londonderry County Londonderry BT48 7ES

Townland:
Edenballymore

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Survey 2:
B2

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

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Office

Former Use
House

Conservation Area:
Yes

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
36-04SW

IG Ref:
C4333 1727

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Owner Category

Exterior Description And Setting

Late-Victorian pair of brick and stone semi-detached houses, three storeys with attic over basement. Built c.1881-1882. Rectangular on plan with large projecting modern rear extension. Principal elevation faces south onto Clarendon Street. Situated behind a low painted rendered wall with decorative painted cast-iron railings above. A renovation of the building was carried out in the mid 1980's and since then Nos 1 & 2 now form a single property. Mansard-style roof with straight and scalloped red clay tiles to lower section and slated pitched upper section, dormers have scalloped red clay tiles to cheeks and slate top finish; terracotta clay ridge tiles to main roof and black clay ridge tiles to slated half-hipped roof of rear extension. Large cement rendered chimney stack with projecting cornice rising from the east and west side, centred on ridge with ten octagon-shaped clay pots. Painted cast-iron guttering and square section downpipes to the front and uPVC to the rear elevation. Symmetrical front (south) elevation is set in Flemish brick bond with stone dressing to upper floors and rock-faced sandstone with cut stone dressings to ground floor. A canted bay on each house rises through two-storeys from ground floor level topped by scalloped red clay tiled hipped roof. All ground floor window openings and the bay window openings to first floor are shoulder-headed, with 1/1 timber sliding sashes; mullioned windows with polished red granite columns and foliage sandstone capitals to canted bays. Shoulder-headed entrance door openings, centred on elevation, three steps up, flanked by polished red granite columns either side of a pair of three-panelled painted timber half leaf doors extending to the full height of the opening. Sandstone sill course to upper floor windows; unpainted belt course to window heads on first floor; deep projecting cornice at eaves supported by sandstone corbel brackets grouped in 3s with acanthus leaf detail painted in contrasting colour. East and West elevations are blank, unpainted cement rendered finished. The east elevation abuts the Former Reformed Presbyterian Church (HB01/22/019) at ground floor level. North elevation to the rear is of unpainted cement rendered finish with a cat-slide roof to projecting return. The fenestration pattern to the rear elevation is irregular with 6/6 and 1/1 timber sliding sashes and casement windows. The original former dwellings are then abutted by a large two-storey red brick modern rear extension with half hipped roof and casement windows. Setting: A pair of semi-detached former dwellings located on the north side of Clarendon Street and abutting the Former Reformed Presbyterian Church (HB01/22/019) on the east side at ground floor level. Principal entrance faces south onto Clarendon Street. Clarendon Street is located on the western side of Queen's Quay and runs between Strand Road and Northland Road. Materials: Roof Red clay tiles and Slate RWG Cast Iron (S) uPVC (N) Walling Brick and Stone Windows Timber Sliding Sash & Casements

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 Lieutentant of Ireland between 1847 and 1852. The second edtion of the Ordnance Survey map records that Ponsoby 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). No. 2 Clarendon Terrace, along with the adjoining No 1, was constructed in 1881-82, approximately two decades after the majority of the Georgian-style dwellings on the street had been completed. The building was originally constructed for Joseph Ballantine, a timber merchant and owner of a local saw mill on the Strand Road (Ulster Town Directories). Nos 1 and 2 Clarendon Street were each valued at £40 upon their completion in 1882. Throughout its history the occupants of Clarendon Street were of the city’s merchant and professional classes. The first occupant of No. 2 Clarendon Terrace was William Mitchell, an insurance agent with offices on Foyle Street, however by 1901 the house was the residence of Dr. Michael O’Kane, a local magistrate and general practitioner. In that year the census building return described O’Kane’s home as a 1st class dwelling that consisted of 13 rooms and possessed a coach house and coal house as its sole out offices (located to the rear of the site and now demolished). Upon his death in c. 1910, Joseph Ballintine’s widow Annie Wilhemina Ballintine took over ownership of No. 2 Clarendon Terrace until her own death in 1927 (PRONI Wills). The Ballantine family continued to own nos 1-2 Clarendon Terrace until at least the 1970s. By the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1935) No. 2 Clarendon Terrace had been increased in value to £42. Between 1935 and 1956 the former private dwelling was converted into a number of self-contained apartments. By the end of the Second Revaluation (1956-72) the value of No. 2 Clarendon Terrace stood at £98. In 1970 the UAHS Guide for Londonderry described nos 1-2 Clarendon Terrace as ‘a pair of semi-detatched houses, three-storey houses [built] before 1900’ (UAHS, p. 52). 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). Nos 1-2 Clarendon Terrace were subsequently listed in 1979. The NIEA HB Records note that in the 1980s the walls between nos 1 and 2 Clarendon Street were knocked through to form a single connected building for office premises. A renovation of the buildings was carried out in 1991 that involved the reconstruction of its chimneys, the re-tiling of its Mansard roof, the replacement of its rainwater goods and the repointing of the exterior brickwork (NIEA HB Records). In 2013 Calley described nos 1-2 Clarendon Terrace as a ‘pair of three-and-a-half-storey late-19th century houses treated as a single composition. They have a red tiled mansard style roof with a hint of a barn. Upper floors are red brick whilst ground floor is rock-faced sandstone with cut stone dressings’ (Calley, p. 113). 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. During the Second Survey nos 1-2 Clarendon Terrace were both occupied as offices for a local solicitor’s firm. 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 Ordnanec 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 Property in Northern Ireland (1935) 7. PRONI VAL/4/B/5/13 – Second General Revaluation of Property in 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. PRONI Wills Catalogue (24 Nov 1927) 13. First Survey Record – HB01/22/020 (1970) 14. First Survey Image – HB01/22/020 (No Date) 15. NIEA HB Record – HB01/22/020 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: Coleriane 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 H-. Alterations detracting from building I. Quality and survival of Interior J. Setting

Historic Interest

S. Authenticity T. Historic Importance X. Local Interest R. Age

Evaluation

A pair of three storey with attic over-basement late-Victorian semi-detached houses, situated at the lower end of Clarendon Street, built approximately two decades after the Georgian-style dwellings of Clarendon Street which line both sides of the street. Nos 1 & 2 are set back from the street behind decorative cast iron railings. Constructed c.1881-82 for the city's merchant and professional classes, this pair of former dwellings has been altered internally to form one building. Despite the loss of the historic plan form, much historic detailing remains internally. The front elevation retains much ornate historic detailing such as the polished red granite columns and foliage sandstone capitals flanking the pair of front doors. The large modern extension to the rear detracts from the historic character of the former dwellings yet despite this, the Clarendon Street Conservation area is enhanced by their authenticity and historic importance.

General Comments

Nos 1&2 are described under the one record HB01/22/020A. HB01/22/020B is a dummy record and has been created because Nos 1&2 have been amalgamated into one building. FB/04-12-15.

Date of Survey

25 April 2014