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

A two-bay three-storey-with-attic terraced former dwelling, now commercial premises, built in 1886 and altered around 1990. Located on the east side of Lodge Road in Coleraine town centre.

The building is square on plan with a two-storey return and modern extension to the rear. It has a pitched natural slate roof with blue and black angled ridge tiles and a rendered chimney stack. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods sit on moulded eaves. The walling is painted smooth render with a platband under the eaves and a continuous sill course to the first floor. Windows are 1 over 1 timber sash with horns, set in stop-end chamfered reveals with projecting painted sills.

The principal elevation faces southwest and is three openings wide at each floor. The entrance to the ground floor is positioned to the right and comprises a bolection moulded four-panel timber door with a bronze knob and a boarded transom light, set in a moulded reveal and accessed via a sloped concrete step. The door is flanked by panelled pilasters with decorative console brackets supporting a corniced canopy. The northwest elevation is abutted by the adjoining building (HB03/17/003K), and the southeast elevation is abutted by the adjoining building (HB03/17/003M). The northeast rear elevation is abutted by an original two-storey return, which is further abutted by a large two-storey modern extension of no architectural interest, incorporating an original two-storey outbuilding.

The outbuilding to the rear is painted roughcast render with a platband under the eaves and a slated roof with modern skylights to the ridge and a rendered chimney stack. The northeast elevation has two replacement windows over a large square-headed opening with modern timber-sheeted gates.

The building is set back from Lodge Road with a paved yard to the front, enclosed by a hedge and smooth rendered wall. A smooth rendered wall with coping stones and square piers marks the entrance. A tarmacadamed alley to the northwest and southeast of the terrace leads to a car park to the east.

The house dates from 1886, although radical reconstruction behind the front elevation took place in the late 1990s. It is part of a development of sixteen houses built between approximately 1859 and 1888 for Coleraine's rising middle classes. The terrace first appears in its complete form on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1904, with the current house being one of the last in the terrace to be built, appearing in valuation records in 1886 as a vacant, newly-built dwelling.

Lodge Road was laid out between 1833 and 1845, first shown 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 terrace was considered to be on the best, because sunniest, side of Lodge Road and was occupied largely by middle-class merchants and professionals who kept at least one servant.

The closing decades of the nineteenth century saw a building boom of terraces and villas in Coleraine, which the local population regarded with great pride. This boom is said to have begun in the late 1850s when Thomas Boyd built Waterford Terrace at numbers 26 to 32.

The house, offices, yard and small garden was initially valued at £24. It was occupied by Reverend John Carroll in 1888, followed by Anne Clarke in 1889, and was leased from James McMullen, who was most likely the developer. At the time of the 1901 census, the occupier was Andrew Clarke, a distiller from County Donegal, who lived with his mother and sister and employed two servant girls. The 1911 census records the occupier as Frederick William Skelly, a linen manufacturer, who lived with his wife and two young daughters and employed a general domestic servant. The house subsequently passed to William Lyons in 1917, William Knox in 1919, followed by Samuel Murray and Victor Rankin in the 1950s.

Valuer's notes from the 1930s list the accommodation as follows: on the ground floor, a reception room, kitchen with a hot water cylinder and range, scullery and pantry; on the first floor, one reception room, two bedrooms, a wood-lined bathroom and a separate water closet in the return; 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. A contemporary plan shows the house, return and an outbuilding at the bottom of the yard, which still survives. The tenant laid a concrete path and concreted the yard and garage floor in the 1930s. In 1956 a lean-to greenhouse and a coal shed were added to the rear yard, causing a rise of £2 in the valuation. The house was listed in 1977 and was damaged in a bomb attack in the late 1980s. In the late 1990s the house was refurbished and extended as offices, which entailed radical reconstruction retaining little fabric other than the front elevation. The building is now in use as a Citizens' Advice Bureau.

Despite extensive remodelling of the original plan form, the building retains some typical mid-Victorian features and is part of an important and prominent terrace situated in the heart of Coleraine. Coleraine is largely characterised by its development during the Victorian era, and this group is one of the best-preserved examples of mid-to-late-nineteenth-century terraced architecture in the town. The terrace makes an important contribution to the architectural character of Coleraine town centre and is of significant local interest.