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

13 Waterside, Coleraine

This is a three-storey former terraced house with basement, built around 1850 as part of a planned Georgian-style terrace on the western side of Coleraine. It was constructed as part of a phased redevelopment of the Waterside area carried out between approximately 1846 and 1854, under the ownership of the Worshipful Company of Clothworkers. The design of the overall terrace was overseen by Samuel Angell, the Company's surveyor in Ulster, working alongside surveyor Stewart Gordon, with individual buildings regulated strictly to conform to a unified architectural scheme.

The building is two bays wide and rectangular on plan, with a pitched return to the rear and multiple abutments. It has a pitched slate roof with blue-grey angled ridge tiles, a rendered chimney with clay pots, and ogee cast-iron rainwater goods mounted on a plain timber fascia to the boxed eaves, with uPVC rainwater goods to the rear.

The walling is ruled-and-lined rendered finish, plain stucco to the ground floor and unpainted render to the rear. The windows throughout are square-headed 2/2 timber sash, unless otherwise noted. The principal elevation faces south and features two windows to each of the upper floors. These windows have rendered moulded architraves, with floating cornices over the first-floor openings and projecting sills that run continuously across the first floor. Each side of the upper floors is framed by a raised panel-strip with a circular insert, which separates this facade from the adjoining terraced properties on either side. At ground floor level there is a replacement timber shop front with decorative lead flashing over the fascia, supported on console brackets and pilasters; to the right is an expansive single window, and to the left a replacement four-panelled timber door with a plain glass transom over it.

The west elevation abuts the adjoining terrace. The north (rear) elevation contains three 6/6 timber sash windows to the upper floors, with plain reveals and projecting sills. A gabled return to the right-hand side has a timber-sheeted door to the basement and a similar window to the first floor; at ground level this is abutted by a single-storey flat-roof extension with two timber casement windows, considered of no architectural interest. The left-hand side of the ground floor and basement are similarly abutted by further flat-roof extensions, also of no interest. The east elevation abuts the adjoining terrace.

Historically, this area of Killowen Parish — now known as Waterside — was a suburb of Coleraine originally under the stewardship of the Worshipful Company of Clothworkers, one of the London Merchant Companies charged with developing and settling County Londonderry during the early 17th century. The Company leased out these lands, often to absentee landlords, which led to general decline and a lack of new building. When the lease expired in 1840 the Company regained direct control and embarked on a substantial programme of improvement, including expenditure on buildings, infrastructure and education. A new bridge of increased height was built around 1844 to replace a previous timber structure 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 match the new bridge affected the existing buildings, and it was decided to demolish and entirely rebuild the Waterside area so as to create a more dignified approach into the Company's estate from the main part of Coleraine to the east.

The redevelopment was anchored by the neighbouring Clothworkers' Arms Hotel, built around 1846, which established the design standard for the rest of the terrace. Demolition of the neighbouring houses began in 1847, and Angell designed the new terrace to complement this prominent building and to line what amounted to a processional approach into the Clothworkers' estate via the new bridge. 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 architectural historian James Curl noted in 1986, the plain, balanced and unornamented style of the terrace reflects the Clothworkers' Company's deliberate choice to avoid the excessive ornamentation embraced by other London Companies during this 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 on the same site, visible on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1830, which formed part of a similar street pattern with extensive outbuildings to the rear. Under the Company's ownership, the building was first occupied by Robert Dunlop and was valued at £24 in Griffith's Valuation of 1856. Ownership subsequently transferred to Sir Hervey Bruce around 1868, followed by Jane Cassidy in 1887 and Charles Hamill around 1900, with the assessed value remaining unchanged until the mid-20th century when Annie McCandless took on ownership. The Census Records of 1901 and 1911 show the building was occupied by Andrew Reid, a mill manager; his son was recorded as a baker, suggesting the shop likely functioned as a bakery at that time. A number of small extensions were added incrementally during the 20th century, as shown by field evidence and Ordnance Survey maps from 1904 to 1968. The outbuildings to the rear were removed and replaced by a large modern factory building in the latter part of the 20th century.

The building sits in an urban and residential setting, with its main elevation fronting directly onto one of the principal approach roads into Coleraine town centre via the nearby Old Bridge. It stands on the western bank of the River Bann, west of Coleraine's central Diamond. It forms part of a terrace of similar listed buildings running along the northern side of the street, with a corresponding terrace of similar listed buildings on the opposite, southern side. A substantial three-storey office block is located to the rear. The yards behind the terrace are connected by a common alleyway to the north, though this has been disrupted in places by extensions and abutments. A ramp extends from basement level to a small yard enclosed by a rendered brick wall, and a modern timber stair leads to the rear ground floor entrance.

The integrity of the terrace's character has been largely retained across the upper floors, though incremental changes to the ground-floor shopfronts over the decades have eroded some historic fabric. The terrace as a whole is 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 street facades within the town. No. 13 has group value with the other listed buildings in the terrace.