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

No. 6 Waterside, Coleraine

This is a three-storey-with-basement terraced building, constructed around 1850 as part of a phased redevelopment of the Waterside area of Coleraine carried out between approximately 1846 and 1854. The building was designed as part of a largely homogeneous Georgian-style terrace overseen by architect Samuel Angell and surveyor Stewart Gordon on behalf of the Worshipful Company of Clothworkers. It is typical of the urban form of living accommodation set above a shop, and forms part of a coherent street frontage that remains one of the principal approaches into Coleraine town centre via the nearby Old Bridge across the River Bann.

Architectural Description

The building is rectangular on plan, two bays wide and painted brick in construction, with a substantial modern extension to the rear. The pitched slate roof has blue-grey angled ridge tiles and coping to the left-hand gable, with a rendered and capped kneeler. There is a brick chimney with clay pots. Rainwater goods are half-round cast iron, with a uPVC downpipe, mounted on a plain timber fascia to the boxed eaves, with a plain projecting eaves course below. The rear walling is unpainted render.

Window openings are flat-arched with plain reveals and painted projecting sills. The windows are replacement 2-over-2 timber sash units, with uPVC sashes to the rear.

The principal (north-facing) elevation comprises two windows to each of the upper floors set above a replacement ground-floor shop front. The shop front consists of a timber fascia supported on console brackets and pilasters, with two large display windows to the centre, modern tiles below, and a recessed modern timber and glazed entrance door to the right. This door has historic decorative black-and-white tiles to the step. To the left of the shop front is the original recessed twin-panelled entrance door to the upper accommodation, fitted with iron door furniture, a plain glass transom over, a tiled step, and timber panels lining the recess; the two lower door panels have been sheeted over.

The east elevation abuts the adjoining terrace building to that side. The south (rear) elevation contains two uPVC windows to the upper floors, while the majority of the ground floor and basement is obscured by a series of substantial modern extensions of no architectural interest, except for the basement. The southern wall facing the alleyway is parapeted and roughcast, and has a double-leaf sliding metal door. The west elevation abuts the adjoining terrace building to that side.

Interior

No interior description is recorded.

Historical Context

The area now known as Waterside forms part of Killowen Parish and was originally a suburb of Coleraine, historically owned by the Worshipful Company of Clothworkers — one of the London Merchant Companies entrusted with developing and settling, or 'planting', County Londonderry during the early 17th century. The Company had long leased out these lands, often to absentee landlords, which led to a general decline of the estate and a lack of new building due to uncertain tenancies. When the lease expired in 1840, the Company regained direct control and embarked on a substantial programme of improvement covering buildings, infrastructure, and education.

As part of this, a new bridge of increased height was built around 1844, replacing an earlier timber construction dating from around 1735, and stabilisation works were carried out to the western riverbank. The raising of the bridge necessitated raising the street level on the Killowen side, which affected the existing buildings. It was judged more appropriate to demolish and completely rebuild the entire Waterside area in order to create a more dignified approach to the Company's estate from the main part of Coleraine to the east.

The general layout of Waterside had already been established before this redevelopment, so the terrace changed little in plan. However, the design, scale, and style of the new buildings were strictly controlled, with the architectural character established first by the erection of the neighbouring Clothworkers' Arms Hotel around 1846. The hotel was the first stage of the new development, and demolition of the neighbouring houses commenced in 1847. According to James Curl (1986), the houses on this southern terrace were erected first in order to provide visual balance to the then-isolated hotel on the opposite side of the street. Samuel Angell, who designed both the hotel and the overall redevelopment scheme, provided the designs for the corner house at the end of the terrace. Three further houses were then built under contract by a builder named Dornan at a cost of £924, and No. 6 is likely to have been among those erected at that stage, abutting Angell's corner building. 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. The terrace was completed around 1854, by which point 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 the terrace reflects the Clothworkers' Company's deliberate choice to avoid the excessive ornamentation adopted by other London Companies during this period of widespread architectural improvement.

In Griffith's Valuation of 1856, the property was first recorded as occupied by a grocer, Thomas Henry, and valued at £20. Ownership transferred to Sir Hervey Bruce around 1872 and subsequently to Thomas Henry around 1913, with the valuation remaining broadly unchanged until the mid-20th century. By 1875, William and George Gilmore were operating a grocer's shop from the ground floor. By 1905 the premises had been divided, with Thomas Henry occupying the upper house while the shop, basement, and outbuildings were in the occupation of Robert Cochrane. The 1901 and 1911 Census Records show George Gilmore and eight family members living in the house above, with the outbuildings to the rear comprising a stable, shed, and store. The ground floor continued in use as a shop, occupied by a Miss Hughes in 1916 and a James White in 1927.

Alterations and Later Changes

Historical mapping shows that the building's footprint remained essentially unchanged from its construction until the removal of outbuildings to the north and the addition of a rear extension prior to 1904; this extension has since been remodelled and further extended. The stables which previously lined the rear yard were demolished in recent decades and a modern shed structure now covers the whole rear area. A two-storey gabled extension to the south abuts the similar extensions of the neighbouring properties, and a steel-framed double-height extension also adjoins to the south. The integrity of the building's original character has been largely retained across the upper floors, but incremental changes to the ground-floor shop over the decades have resulted in the erosion of some historic fabric.

Setting

The building is situated in an urban residential setting on the western side of Coleraine, directly fronting one of the principal thoroughfares into the town centre via the Old Bridge over the River Bann. It forms part of the southern terrace of Waterside (the wider terrace running from HB03/16/001K to T), with a corresponding terrace of similar listed buildings on the opposite, northern side of the street (HB03/16/001A to J). The south elevation addresses the road connecting the Strand to Killowen Street but is set back and separated from it by a brick wall lining a shared alleyway. The building holds group value with the other listed buildings in the terrace, and this southern terrace as a whole remains important to the visual balance of Waterside, helping to define the character of one of the main approaches into Coleraine and presenting one of the only coherent historic street facades within the town.