Millburn Terrace, 51 Millburn Road, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, BT52 1QT

A two-bay three-storey mid-terrace Victorian townhouse built around 1866 on the east side of Millburn Road in Coleraine town centre, close to the River Bann and overlooking The Rose Gardens and Anderson Park. The building is part of a significant mid-nineteenth century terrace of considerable architectural and historical importance to the town.

The house is square on plan with a single-storey canted bay to the front and a two-storey return to the rear. The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with rendered chimneystacks. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods sit on corbelled eaves. The walling is painted roughcast render over a smooth rendered plinth. Windows are uPVC in painted smooth rendered reveals with projecting painted sills; the canted bay at ground floor has a continuous sill. The principal elevation faces northwest and is two windows wide at the upper floors, with a single-storey canted bay positioned at ground floor left. A classical-style doorcase at the right comprises panelled pilasters, a frieze carved with Greek key motif, and scrolled acanthus-leaf console brackets supporting a corniced canopy. The doorcase contains a modern half-panelled timber door with a plain transom light above, accessed by two stone steps. The northeast elevation is abutted by the adjoining building. The southeast (rear) elevation has a window at centre second floor and to the left at first floor; it is abutted at left by the two-storey return. The southwest elevation is abutted by the adjoining building. An enclosed yard to the rear contains a two-storey slated roughcast rendered outbuilding with a corrugated tin roof and plastic rainwater goods, forming part of a terrace. The southeast elevation has a replacement timber-sheeted loading door at first floor over a large timber-sheeted entrance gate.

The setting comprises a lawned and shrubbed site that is slightly elevated, with a concrete pathway leading to a paved patio at the front. Mature hedges bound the property to neighbouring properties and the road. Access is via two rendered square gate piers supporting a replacement mild steel latch gate.

Originally named Clifton Terrace, the building was constructed around 1866 on land owned by Richard Olphert of Millburn House (Mullin), and is first shown on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1904. The terrace was developed by the Coleraine Building Society, which had been established in 1864 and sought suitable sites for workmen's cottages. The Society found the sites advertised by the Olphert estate on Millburn Road attractive for their first major development. The contractor was Joseph Esdale. The terrace was named 'Clifton' after the family name of Lady Bruce, whose husband Sir Henry Hervey Bruce was president of the building society. Originally comprising eight dwellings, all with returns and canted bays with railings to the front and a row of outbuildings to the rear, a ninth house was added around 1875.

Well-known Coleraine merchants such as Hugh Cheyne and James Brookes were the first occupiers. By the turn of the twentieth century, residents included retired farmers, professional people, and merchants, some of whom were able to employ servants. Number 51 was occupied by Hugh Cheyne as a house, office and garden, valued at £16 and 15 shillings for the garden. Subsequent occupiers included Hugh Nevins (1868/9), George Thompson (1879), James Graham (1889), James Foulis (1899), Hugh Ramsey (1906), and James McKay (1925). At the time of the 1901 census, the resident was Mary Grainger, a retired farmer's wife and widow aged 86 who was unable to read or write. The eleven-room house was designated first class in the 1901 census. In 1911, Hugh Ramsey, a retired farmer, lived in the house with his wife, as recorded in the 1911 census. The terrace was listed in 1997 and the current dwelling remains in domestic use.

The house is of interest primarily as part of this important group, which is one of the best preserved examples of mid-nineteenth century terraced architecture in the town and makes a considerable contribution to the architectural quality and character of Coleraine.