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

26 Lodge Road, Coleraine

A two-bay three-storey-over-basement mid-terrace townhouse with attic, built around 1860, located on the east side of Lodge Road in Coleraine town centre. The building is part of Waterford Terrace, an important and prominently sited group within the town, and represents one of the best preserved examples of mid-nineteenth-century terraced architecture in Coleraine.

The building is square on plan with a two-storey modern extension to the rear. The roof is pitched natural slate with blue and black angled ridge tiles and a rendered chimneystack. Cast-iron half-round rainwater goods are fitted to moulded eaves over a plain frieze. The walling is painted smooth render. Windows are timber sash without horns: 1/1 sash to the upper floors and basement, and 6/6 sash to the ground floor, all in plain reveals with projecting painted sills.

The principal elevation faces southwest and is three openings wide at each floor, with two basement windows. The ground floor entrance is positioned to the right and comprises a bolection moulded four-panel timber door with transom light in a plain reveal, accessed via a single concrete step. The entrance is flanked by pilasters with moulded imposts and carved console brackets supporting a corniced canopy.

The northwest elevation is abutted by the adjoining building. The northeast rear elevation is fully abutted by a modern two-storey extension incorporating an original two-storey outbuilding. The southeast elevation is abutted by the adjoining building. The outbuilding to the rear is painted roughcast render with a slate roof and plastic rainwater goods; its northeast elevation has a replacement timber window at first-floor level and a modern timber-sheeted door at ground-floor level.

The house is set back from Lodge Road with a concrete yard to the front, enclosed by hedging to the south and a smooth rendered wall with painted coping stones to the north and southwest. Square piers with painted caps mark the entrance. A tarmacadamed alley to the northwest and southeast of the terrace leads to a car park to the east.

Historical Context

The house dates from around 1860 and forms part of a development of sixteen houses built between approximately 1859 and 1888 for Coleraine's rising middle classes. The terrace first appears on the large-scale Ordnance Survey map of Coleraine from 1882. The group of four houses comprising numbers 26 to 32, of which this dwelling forms part, was the earliest section built and is named 'Waterford Terrace' on large-scale and valuation maps from the 1880s. These four houses are distinguished from later houses in the terrace by having been built with basement storeys.

The terrace was positioned on what was considered the best and sunniest side of Lodge Road. It was occupied largely by middle-class merchants and professionals who kept at least one servant. The building boom of terraces and villas in Coleraine during the closing decades of the nineteenth century was a source of local pride. The boom is recorded as having begun with the construction of Waterford Terrace by Thomas Boyd, a builder and elder of New Row Presbyterian Church. The terrace was named after the Marquess of Waterford, who owned significant land in the locality. All houses were let by December 1859.

Lodge Road itself was laid out between 1833 and 1845, first appearing on O'Hagan's map of Coleraine from 1845. It is named after 'The Lodge', a dwelling house at the southern end, now replaced by a hotel.

The original house, offices, yard and small garden were initially valued at £24, with the garden valued at £1. Thomas Boyd, the developer, was the first occupant. At the 1901 census, the occupier was Margaret Boyd, a widow of 78 years living on private income. By 1911, James Foulis, a caretaker, occupied the house with his wife, two children and two boarders—a National School teacher and a Dublin barrister and magistrate. The house subsequently passed to Robert Hunter in 1919, William Henry in 1920, and W Evans MD in 1924. Dr J W Sloan took over the house in 1953.

Valuer's notes from the 1930s describe the accommodation as follows: in the basement, a kitchen and scullery; on the ground floor, a reception room, surgery, kitchen, scullery, wash house; on the first floor, one reception room, one bedroom, a dispensary and bathroom; on the second floor, two bedrooms; and on the third floor, two attic bedrooms. The house had water laid on and gas lighting at this time. The yard contained a return, wash house, coal house and closet, with an outbuilding at the bottom of the yard, which remains present.

The house was listed in 1977. During the 1980s it was altered and extended to become an RUC recreation and social club, serving the police station opposite. In 2009 the building was refurbished as a private educational facility but currently lies vacant.

The terrace makes an important contribution to the architectural character of Coleraine town centre and is of significant local interest.