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

No. 16 Waterside is a three-storey Georgian-style terraced building with basement, constructed around 1850 as part of a phased terrace built between approximately 1846 and 1854. It is two openings wide and rectangular on plan, with a modern shop front at ground floor level and residential accommodation above. The building forms part of a largely homogeneous southern terrace on Waterside, one of the principal approaches into Coleraine town centre via the nearby Old Bridge over the River Bann.

ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION

The roof is pitched slate with blue-grey angled ridge tiles. The rendered chimney stack carries multiple terracotta pots and abuts the chimney of the adjoining terrace. Rainwater goods are uPVC, with some surviving cast-iron downpipes, mounted on a plain timber fascia to boxed eaves. The external walls are painted brick to the principal elevation and smooth rendered and painted to the rear. Window openings are flat-arched with plain reveals and painted projecting sills; windows are 1-over-1 timber sash, with some replacement units to the rear. Some windows to the rear elevation have been replaced in uPVC.

The principal elevation faces north and presents two windows to the upper floors. At ground floor, a modern timber shop front with large glazed openings, including a door to the left, has been installed. A fascia spanning across the elevation of the immediately adjoining terrace building indicates that the two properties have been substantially remodelled and now present externally and internally as a single unit. The east elevation is fully abutted by that adjoining terrace. The west elevation is similarly abutted by the next property in the terrace. Only a limited inspection of the south rear elevation was possible; this shows two windows to the upper floor and one below to the left, with the remaining rear elevation abutted by flat-roofed contemporary ground-floor and basement extensions of no architectural interest, and a smaller similar extension at first-floor level. These extensions continue eastward to abut the south elevation of the adjoining terrace. There are also substantial modern abutments to the rear at first-floor to basement level adjoining those of the neighbouring terrace to the east.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

This area of Killowen Parish, now known as Waterside, was originally a suburb of Coleraine town and was under the ownership of the Worshipful Company of Clothworkers, one of the London Merchant Companies charged with developing and settling — or 'planting' — the county of Londonderry during the early 17th century. The Company historically leased out these lands, often to absentee landlords, which led to a general decline of the estate and a lack of new house construction due to uncertainty of tenure. The Company regained direct control of its proportion in 1840 when the lease expired, and a subsequent period of improvement followed, including substantial expenditure on buildings, infrastructure, and education.

Around 1844, a new bridge of increased height was built to replace an earlier timber structure dating from around 1735, and stabilising works were carried out to the western embankment of the River Bann. The raising of the new bridge required the street level on the Killowen side to be raised to correspond, which affected the existing buildings. In the spirit of the times, the decision was taken to demolish and entirely rebuild the Waterside area in order to create a more dignified entry into the Company's estate from the main part of Coleraine to the east. Although the general layout of Waterside had already been established and the terrace did not alter greatly on plan, the design, scale, and style of the new buildings adhered to a strict architectural discipline.

This discipline was first established by the erection of the neighbouring Clothworkers' Arms Hotel around 1846, which marked the opening phase of the new development. Demolition of the neighbouring houses commenced in 1847. According to James Curl (1986), the houses on the southern terrace — of which No. 16 forms a part — were erected first as a means of providing visual balance to the then-isolated hotel on the opposite side of the street. A suitable corner terrace was designed by Samuel Angell, the Company's surveyor in Ulster, to complement his design of the hotel and to line what was conceived as an almost processional approach into the Clothworkers' Estate from Coleraine via the new bridge. Although the designs for the remaining buildings were largely generated by other architects, each was strictly regulated by Angell and surveyor Stewart Gordon to conform to the overall scheme. The terrace was completed around 1854, by which time the Clothworkers' Company claimed to have spent approximately £4,000 on the erection of houses in the Waterside area. As Curl notes, the plain, balanced, and unembellished style of this terrace reflects the Clothworkers' Company's conscious decision to refrain from the excessive ornamentation embraced by other London Companies during this same period of widespread architectural improvement.

The building is first shown on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1849–50. It replaced an earlier building visible on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1830, which was laid out to a broadly similar pattern but had extensive outbuildings to the rear. Under the ownership of the Worshipful Company of Clothworkers, the house and outbuildings were first occupied by Elizabeth Caldwell and valued at £20 in Griffith's Valuation of 1856. Ownership transferred to Sir Hervey Bruce around 1866, and then to John Ross in 1878, though the valuation did not significantly change until the mid-20th century. The building was vacant from 1863 to 1870, after which John Blair took up occupancy and operated a grocer's shop. The Blair family continued to occupy the house and shop until at least the mid-20th century. The original stone outbuilding to the rear was removed in recent decades.

ALTERATIONS AND CURRENT CONDITION

The building has been largely amalgamated with the immediately adjoining terrace property, with extensive internal reconfiguration and the addition of various modern extensions to the rear. The integrity of the original design has been largely retained across the upper floors, but incremental changes to the ground-floor shopfront over the decades have resulted in the erosion of some historic fabric.

SETTING AND GROUP VALUE

The building is situated in an urban and residential setting, with its principal elevation directly fronting one of the main thoroughfares into Coleraine town centre. It stands on the western bank of the River Bann, to the west of the central Diamond. A related terrace faces the building on the opposite side of the street to the north. The south extensions encompass the entire rear yard, with secondary access via a shared yard to the south-east. No. 16 has group value with the other listed buildings in this terrace. The southern terrace as a whole is important to the visual balance of Waterside, helps to define the character of one of the main approaches into Coleraine, and presents one of the only coherent historic street facades within the town.