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

8 Waterside, Coleraine — Georgian-Style Terraced Building, circa 1847–1854

This three-storey-with-basement terraced building forms part of a largely homogeneous Georgian-style terrace on the western side of Coleraine town, facing onto one of the main approach routes into the town centre via the nearby Old Bridge. It was constructed around 1847–1854 as part of a phased development overseen by Samuel Angell, the Worshipful Company of Clothworkers' surveyor in Ulster, and regulated by surveyor Stewart Gordon. The building follows the typical urban form of living accommodation over a shop, and is three openings wide, rectangular on plan.

Architectural Description

The building has a pitched slate roof with blue-grey angled ridge tiles, a brick chimney stack with multiple terracotta pots abutting the chimney of the adjoining terrace, a modern skylight to the rear, and half-round cast-iron rainwater goods mounted on plain boxed eaves with projecting eaves to the front (plain to the rear). The walling is painted roughcast throughout. The windows are replacement square-headed 2/2 timber sash windows with projecting rendered reveals and painted sills.

The principal elevation faces north and presents three windows to the upper floors. The ground floor has a 20th-century timber shop front with large modern glazed openings, a timber fascia and pilasters, and a four-panelled timber door to the right with a plain glass transom above.

The east elevation abuts the adjoining terraced building. The south (rear) elevation is largely taken up by a substantial modern two-storey-with-basement extension with a hipped slate roof, two nine-paned timber windows over a canted bay with decorative lead flashing, and a timber-sheeted double door at basement level (of no further architectural interest). The left cheek of this extension contains a metal fire-escape stair, largely uPVC windows, and timber-sheeted doors. The west elevation abuts the adjoining terraced building. The remaining rear elevation is blank.

Setting

The building sits in an urban residential and commercial setting, with its principal elevation directly fronting Waterside, 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 it from the opposite side of the street to the north. To the south-west there is an enclosed yard bounded by a roughcast wall with a timber-sheeted door leading to a shared southern yard.

Historical Background

This area of Killowen Parish, now known as Waterside, was originally a suburb of Coleraine and was under the ownership of the Worshipful Company of Clothworkers, one of the London Merchant Companies charged with developing and planting the county of Londonderry during the early 17th century. Over subsequent centuries the Company chose to lease out these lands, often to absentee landlords, which led to a general decline of the estate and limited new building due to uncertainty of tenure.

The Company regained direct control of their proportion in 1840 when the lease expired, and a subsequent period of improvement followed, involving substantial expenditure on buildings, infrastructure, and education. A new bridge of increased height was built around 1844 to replace a previous timber construction of around 1735, and stabilising works were carried out to the western embankment of the River Bann. The raising of the street level on the Killowen side to correspond with the new bridge height had a direct impact on the existing buildings in the area.

It was judged more appropriate to demolish and entirely rebuild Waterside, in order to create a more dignified entry into the Company's estate from the main part of Coleraine to the east. The general layout of the street had already been established before redevelopment and so the terrace did not change greatly on plan. However, the design, scale, and style of the new buildings adhered to a strict architectural discipline, first established by the erection of the neighbouring Clothworkers' Arms Hotel around 1846. The hotel marked the first stage of the new development, and demolition of the neighbouring houses commenced in 1847. According to James Curl (1986), the houses on the southern terrace were erected first in order to provide visual balance to the then-isolated hotel opposite.

A new terrace was designed by Samuel Angell to complement that prominent building and to line the near-processional approach into the Clothworkers' Estate from Coleraine town via the new bridge. Although the designs for individual buildings were largely generated by other architects, each was strictly regulated by Angell and Stewart Gordon to conform to the overall scheme. Two houses were initially erected on the south side — one by the Company itself, and this building by Patrick McLaughlin. Although their elevations were approved, they differ slightly from the rest of the terrace, and designs which followed were advised to provide a more uniform elevation. 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 (1986) observes, the plain, balanced, and unembellished style of this terrace represents a conscious decision by the Clothworkers' Company to refrain from the excessive ornamentation embraced by other London Companies during this same period of widespread architectural improvement.

No. 8 Waterside first appears on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1849–50. In Griffith's Valuation of 1856, the house and outbuildings were recorded as occupied by Patrick McLaughlin and valued at £28. Ownership transferred to Sir Hervey Bruce around 1872, and in the late 19th century £15 was added to the valuation for a store and yard, with part of the building operating as a public house (General Revisions, 1866–1931). Historic building file evidence combined with field evidence confirms that the previous rear return and outbuildings, which once encompassed the whole rear yard as shown on the Town Plan map of 1882, have been replaced by the modern extension visible today.

Significance

No. 8 is an important element within the overall redevelopment of Waterside and has group value with the other listed buildings in this terrace. This southern terrace is significant to the visual balance of Waterside as a whole, helping to define the character of one of the main approaches into Coleraine and representing one of the only coherent unified street facades within the town. The integrity of the original character has been largely retained across the upper floors, though incremental changes to the ground floor shop over the decades have resulted in the erosion of some historic fabric.