Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB01/21/005 G

Address :
17 Clarendon 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:
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:
C4334 1723

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Owner Category

Exterior Description And Setting

Mid-Victorian mid-terrace two-bay three-storey with attic townhouse, built c.1874. Rectangular on plan with projecting rear return. Principal elevation faces north set behind a low level painted rendered boundary wall surmounted by replacement metal railings. No's 17, 19 and 21 Clarendon Street are distinctive in character and were the last properties to have been built in this terrace of twelve predominately brick faced townhouses. Pitched natural slate roof with a dormer window to front and rear, terracotta clay ridge tiles to main roof and to rear return. Large cement rendered chimney stack rising from the east and west side, centred on ridge with seven clay pots. Principal front (north) elevation is painted render to ground floor and red Flemish bond brick to upper floors with a rendered band to eaves. All windows are 1/1 timber sliding sash (square-headed to ground floor, segmental-arched to upper floors) unless otherwise noted. Square-headed opening to entrance doorway surmounted by a projecting moulded cornice supported by a pair of pilasters painted in contrasting colour and console brackets with acanthus leaf detail to either side of a paired half leaf two-panelled painted timber doors with plain square-headed overlight. Single tripartite (1/1,1/1,1/1) timber sliding sash window to left of door surmounted by a hood mould supported by four console brackets with acanthus leaf detail painted in contrasting colour. Two windows to first and second floors (those to upper floors are not aligned with ground floor openings). First floor windows have a continuous sill course and painted moulded surrounds with keystone detail. Second floor windows have painted moulded surrounds. East and west elevations abutted by adjoining buildings No. 15 & 19 Clarendon Street (HB01/21/005F & HB01/21/005H respectively). South (rear) elevation is cement rendered three-storey with attic. Cement rendered rear return built at half landing height, with door opening out into enclosed rear yard. The fenestration pattern is irregular with a combination of timber sliding sash and casement windows. A window at attic level takes the form of a dormer set back within the main roof. Rear elevation not fully visible at time of survey. Setting: No's 17, 19 and 21 Clarendon Street are distinctive in character and were the last properties to have been built in this terrace of twelve predominately brick faced townhouses. Located within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area, the front of the property faces north and is bounded by Clarendon Street set behind a low level painted rendered boundary wall surmounted by replacement metal railings. Materials: Roof Natural Slate RWG Cast Iron (N) Walling Render/Brick 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 17-21 Clarendon Street were constructed in 1874, approximately two decades after the initial development of the street; as a result the three buildings display a clear Victorian character in contrast to the neighbouring Georgian-style terraces. Nos 17-21 Clarendon Street were constructed for Forrest Reid, a local solicitor who held business offices on Richmond Street (Ulster Town Directories); the Annual Revisions note that No. 17 was originally valued at £36 in 1874. Throughout its history the occupants of Clarendon Street were of the city’s merchant and professional classes. Between 1874 and 1891 the house was occupied by Joseph Orr, a local grocer. In 1901 the census building return described his residence as a 2nd class dwelling that consisted of eight rooms and possessed a stable as its sole outbuilding. Ownership of No. 17 remained with the Reid family by at least 1931 but by 1935 the house had been purchased by a Mr. J. H. N. Johnston. In that year the house was increased in value to £60 under the First Revaluation. Between 1935 and 1956 ownership of the building passed, once more, to a Mr. F. W. Craig who converted the former dwelling into a private surgery for the medical practise of Dr. Joy Little. Due to the change in the property’s use, the value of No. 17 Clarendon Street was slightly increased to £64 by the cancellation of the Second 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. 17 Clarendon Street was subsequently listed in 1979. The NIEA HB Records note that internal renovations were carried out for the medical surgery in 1993 (NIEA HB Records). In 2013 Calley described nos 17-21 Clarendon Street as ‘terrace houses, being a variation on the other houses on the street … the fenestration somewhat irregular [whilst] the outer buildings have tripartite ground floor windows and the ground of each is rendered’ (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. 17 Clarendon Street continues to be 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 – HB01/21/005G 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 I. Quality and survival of Interior J. Setting K. Group value

Historic Interest

X. Local Interest R. Age S. Authenticity

Evaluation

A Victorian mid-terrace two-bay three-storey with attic render and brick townhouse, built in 1874 along with Nos. 19 & 21 Clarendon Street (HB01/21/005 H & I). It has group value with Nos. 5-15 and 19-73 (excluding No.53) which were built over a twenty-one year period and line the south side of the street. No's 17, 19 and 21 Clarendon Street are distinctive in character and were the last properties to have been built in this terrace of twelve predominately brick faced townhouses. The conversion to office use has resulted in some modernisation of the interior. Despite this, its original character and much of its detailing survives. Located within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area, the well preserved setting 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

21 March 2014