8 Lodge Road, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, BT52 1NB

8 Lodge Road is a two-bay, three-storey-with-attic end-terraced townhouse built in 1879, located on the east side of Lodge Road in Coleraine town centre. It is probably the best-preserved house in the street and retains its original residential function, making an important contribution to the terrace group of which it forms part.

The building is square on plan with a two-storey gabled return and an original half-timber porch to the front. The pitched natural slate roof is fitted with blue and black angled ridge tiles and has a rendered chimney stack. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods are mounted on bracketed eaves. The walling is painted smooth render over a chamfered plinth with a moulded string course between ground and first floors. Windows are 1/1 timber sash with horns set in stop-end chamfered reveals with projecting painted sills. A tripartite timber-sheeted gabled dormer lights the attic, featuring round-headed window openings with a 1/1 sash to the centre, and decorative bargeboards with trefoil detailing and finial.

The principal elevation faces southwest and is three openings wide at each floor. A half-panelled timber door to the ground floor left of centre occupies a chamfered reveal flanked by pilasters. This is adjoined by the half-timber porch, which is shared with the neighbouring number 6 Lodge Road. The porch has a corbelled cornice surmounted by decorative cast-iron balustrade, is lit to the southwest, and opens at its right cheek with a replacement half-panelled timber door with sidelights and transom, accessed by a single concrete step. The northwest gable elevation is abutted by an adjoining building. The southeast elevation is also abutted by an adjoining building. The northeast (rear) elevation was not inspected during the survey.

Externally and internally, much of the original architectural detailing remains intact, including the original porch. Architectural detailing is largely typical of mid-nineteenth-century terraced housing, demonstrating proportions and details characteristic of the period.

The house was part of a terrace of sixteen houses built between circa 1859 and 1888 for Coleraine's rising middle classes. The group of four houses comprising numbers 2–8 Lodge Road, of which this dwelling is part, was first recorded in valuation records in 1879. The terrace appears on the large-scale map of Coleraine dating from 1882. Numbers 6 and 8 were named 'Cecilia Place', recorded in both period maps and valuation records. The glazed porch spanning numbers 6 and 8 is shown on the 1882 map and appears to be an original feature. The terrace was situated on the sunniest and therefore most desirable side of Lodge Road. It was occupied largely by middle-class merchants and professionals who kept at least one servant.

Lodge Road itself was laid out between 1833 and 1845, first appearing on O'Hagan's map of Coleraine dating from 1845. It takes its name from '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 numbers 26–32.

The house, offices, yard and small garden was initially valued at £24 10 shillings and occupied by John Murphy, leased from Robert Ferris, who was most likely the developer. By 1894, the valuation had dropped to £22, probably as a result of an appeal. At the time of the 1911 census, the occupier was John Murphy, a retired Inland Revenue supervisor born in London, who lived with his Donegal-born wife and two adult daughters. Subsequent occupiers included James R McKee (1914), Charles J H Frederick (1931), Stephen Martin (1940), Robert Smith (1945) and the Anderson family in the 1950s.

Valuer's notes from the 1930s record the accommodation as follows: on the ground floor, a reception room, kitchen, scullery and pantry; on the first floor, a reception room and two bedrooms; on the second floor, two bedrooms and a bathroom; and on the third floor, two attic bedrooms. The valuer noted that the gates, kitchen range and bath were old-fashioned. At this time the house had mains water and gas lighting. A plan from the valuer's notes shows the house with single-storey and double-height returns, a coal house and closet in the yard to the rear, and an outbuilding at the bottom of the yard which still remains.

The house was listed in 1977, with repairs and renovations undertaken in the 1980s.

The setting places the building to the east side of Lodge Road in Coleraine town centre, set back from the street with a small yard to the front laid in modern paving and enclosed by a rendered wall with painted coping, square piers with pointed caps supporting a replacement cast-iron latch-gate. A tarmacadamed alley to the northwest leads to a rear yard and provides access to a car park to the east. The rear yard contains a coal house and outbuilding still present. The outbuilding to the rear forms part of a terrace and comprises a two-storey building with painted roughcast render and slated roof, fitted with rendered and red-brick chimney stacks. It features a timber-sheeted loading door and 2/2 timber sash window at first floor, over a modern up-and-over garage door and timber-sheeted entrance door.

The extent of listing includes the house-terrace, walling, piers and outbuilding.