1 Waterside, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, BT51 3DP

1 Waterside, Coleraine — Former Clothworkers' Hotel

This is a three-storey-with-basement former hotel building, constructed around 1844–46 to designs by Samuel Angell and completed by the contractor John Lynn. It occupies a commanding corner position on the western bank of the River Bann, at the main point of entry from the east side of Coleraine into the west. The building was designed to set the tone in terms of style and grandeur for the wholesale redevelopment of the Waterside area that followed during the mid-19th century. Together with the adjoining terrace to its west, it forms one of the few coherent and largely intact street frontages surviving within the town.

Architectural Description

The building is rectangular on plan and is constructed in a plainly detailed Georgian style. The external walls are finished in ruled-and-lined render (stucco) to the principal elevations, with roughcast render to the rear and west sides. Corner angles have raised quoins with banded rustication, and a projecting rendered plinth runs across the basement level. The roof is a shallow hipped slate roof with a raised flat top and lead-covered hip ridges. There is a rendered chimney to the north-west. Rainwater goods are half-round cast iron, mounted on plain timber fascia boards, with overhanging boxed eaves sitting below a moulded and rendered eaves course.

Window and door openings are square-headed throughout, generally with plain raised rendered architraves and projecting rendered sills. The original windows are 6-over-6 timber sliding sashes without horns. Moulded and rendered horizontal panels extend above the first-floor openings on the south and east elevations, with the upper panel inscribed 'CLOTHWORKERS BUILDING'.

South (Principal) Elevation

The principal elevation faces south and has four equally spaced windows across the first and second floors. The upper-floor windows have no architraves, and a continuous sill course runs along the first floor. At ground level, a central square-headed doorway is reached by rendered steps, with an expansive window opening to each side, both now boarded over. The current door is a replacement modern door fitted with metal grilles, and the transom light above it is also boarded up. A blank moulded and rendered horizontal fascia extends above the door opening.

East Elevation

The east elevation overlooks the River Bann and is a focal point in views from the west side of Coleraine's Diamond. It contains six unequally spaced, vertically aligned windows on each floor; those on the upper floor are without architraves. Banded rustication runs across the ground-floor level. At the plain rendered basement level to the right-hand side are three timber casement windows with blank lower portions.

West Elevation

The west elevation is abutted at ground-floor level by a flat-roofed extension and a pitched extension extending northward, which connects to a further north extension of no architectural interest. There are four irregular windows to the upper floors, including a diminutive window to the right. The right-hand side of this elevation is abutted by a three-storey flat-roofed link block connecting the main building to the neighbouring terrace. The right-facing cheek of this link block is roughcast rendered; the left cheek is finished in stuccoed ruled-and-lined render and has a two-panelled timber door with a similar panelled piece to the left, under a flat masonry canopy.

North (Rear) Elevation

The rear elevation is substantially obscured at basement and ground-floor level by two large 20th-century extensions — a pitched-roof extension to the right and a brick flat-roofed extension to the left — both of no architectural interest. At first- and second-floor level, two windows survive to the right. A flat-roofed projection left of centre has a casement window set within what was formerly a fire escape door, with external metal stairs. The window to the far right at this level is blocked up.

Setting

The building sits in an urban setting on one of the principal routes into Coleraine town centre, directly fronting the road leading over the Old Bridge. It forms the terminating element of a terrace extending westward, with a corresponding terrace on the opposite side of the street to the south. The substantial flat-roofed returns abutting to the north are generally two storeys in height, built in grey brick and pierced by a number of timber and metal-framed windows; these are of no architectural interest.

Historical Background

This area of Killowen Parish, now known as Waterside, was originally a suburb of Coleraine and lay within the lands owned by the Worshipful Company of Clothworkers, one of the London Merchant Companies charged with developing and settling County Londonderry during the early 17th century. For much of the intervening period, the Company leased its lands out — often to absentee landlords — which led to a general decline of the estate and a lack of new building owing to insecurity of tenure. The Company regained direct control of its proportion of the estate in 1840 when the lease expired, and a subsequent programme of improvement followed, involving substantial expenditure on buildings, infrastructure and education.

As part of these improvements, a new bridge of increased height was built around 1844 to replace a previous timber bridge dating from around 1735, and stabilising works were carried out to the western embankment of the river. The street level on the Killowen side was raised around 1843 to align with the level of the new bridge. It was judged more fitting to demolish and entirely rebuild the Waterside area in order to create a more dignified entry into the Company's estate, and the erection of the new hotel around 1844–46 marked the first stage in this extensive redevelopment.

The building was designed by Samuel Angell, the Company's surveyor in Ulster, and the contract was completed by John Lynn at a cost of £1,550, with two additional stables constructed to the rear at a further cost of £250. Completion of the interior was managed by Kilpatrick, a local architect. In the decade that followed, Angell oversaw the phased design and construction of the neighbouring terraces on Waterside, funded by the Clothworkers' Company at a total cost of approximately £4,000. Although the designs of these terraces were largely generated by other architects, each was carefully regulated to conform to the symmetrical and unadorned precedent established by the hotel, which dominated the western approach from Coleraine town.

The current building replaced an earlier hotel owned by Thomas Davock, which formed part of a previous street of similar layout to the current terraces. The present building first appears on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1849–50, having replaced the Davock's hotel building visible on the first edition map of 1830.

In Griffith's Valuation of 1856, the hotel and associated offices — then owned by the Worshipful Company of Clothworkers — were valued at £75, with a John McKillips recorded as proprietor. Ownership subsequently transferred to Sir Hervey Bruce in 1866, and by 1872 the proprietor was recorded as Emmerson. T. Weldon. James Lough followed as occupier and remained in the property until 1917. During the General Revisions of 1885–92 the valuation rose by £20, reflecting the hotel's expansion into a large part of the adjoining terrace, with the exception of two upper rooms used as a rent office by Sir Hervey Bruce. Field evidence indicates that the upper floor of No. 3 retains a blocked doorway that previously connected through the small link block between the two buildings. Sir Hervey Bruce also maintained an office on the first floor, separately valued at £6.

According to the 1911 Census, the hotel — which served as the residence of the Lough family and eight hotel servants — comprised thirty rooms and thirteen out-offices, including four stables, coach-houses and stores to the rear. The building was vacant for two years in the early 20th century before being taken over as a motor works and garage in 1919, at which point its valuation fell to £58. Contemporary maps indicate that the main building outline has changed little since its construction around 1846, apart from some enlargement and possible replacement of the outbuildings to the rear. The building was subsequently used as a house during the mid-20th century but is now vacant.