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

12 Lodge Road, Coleraine

A two-bay three-storey-with-attic mid-terrace former dwelling, now commercial premises, built in 1880 and located on the east side of Lodge Road in Coleraine. The building is part of a significant group of sixteen houses (numbers 1-16 Lodge Road) constructed between circa 1859 and 1888, which represents one of the best preserved examples of mid-to-late-nineteenth century terraced architecture in the town centre and makes an important contribution to Coleraine's Victorian character.

The building is square on plan with a two-storey return to the rear. The pitched natural slate roof is fitted with blue and black angled ridge tiles and a rendered chimneystack. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods are mounted on bracketed eaves. The walling comprises painted smooth render over a plinth with a moulded eaves course. A cornice of porch entablature extends across the facade to form a string-course above the ground floor. Windows throughout are 1/1 timber sashes with horns set in chamfered stop-end reveals with projecting painted sills. The attic features a timber dormer with a Venetian-style arrangement of three round-headed window openings and plain bargeboards.

The principal southwest-facing elevation is three openings wide at each floor. At ground floor left, the entrance comprises a bolection-moulded four-panel timber door with a plain transom light, set in a stop-end chamfered reveal and flanked by pilasters. The entrance is surmounted by plain entablature with an ovolo-moulded cornice and accessed via a single concrete step. The northwest elevation is abutted by the adjoining building (number 10). The southeast elevation is abutted by the adjoining building (number 14). The northeast elevation could not be viewed.

The building is set back from Lodge Road with a front yard laid in square concrete paving, bounded by rendered walls with coping and square piers at the entrance. The rear yard is enclosed by a terraced two-storey outbuilding of painted smooth render with a slated roof and rendered chimneystack. The outbuilding's northeast elevation features a modern up-and-over garage door at left and a timber-sheeted door at right.

The house was originally named 'Elisa Villa', as recorded on large-scale maps and in valuation records, though the name plaque currently bears the name 'Nirvana'. The terrace was considered to occupy the best and sunniest side of Lodge Road and was occupied largely by middle-class merchants and professionals who kept at least one servant. Lodge Road itself was laid out between 1833 and 1845, first appearing on O'Hagan's map of Coleraine dated 1845, and is named after 'The Lodge', a dwelling house at the southern end now replaced by a hotel.

The closing decades of the nineteenth century saw a building boom in Coleraine of terraces and villas of which local people were extremely proud, said to have begun in the late 1850s when Thomas Boyd built Waterford Terrace at numbers 26 to 32.

Initial occupation records from 1880 show the house, offices, yard and small garden was valued at £24 10 shillings and occupied by William Price, leased from Edward Conville. Subsequent occupiers included Samuel N Searancke (1887), Robert W Jewell (1888) and James Crawford (1911). At the 1901 census, Robert William Jewell, a cork manufacturer, occupied the eleven-room first-class house with his wife, two daughters and a general domestic servant. The 1911 census records James Crawford, an insurance agent, as occupier, living with his wife and three surviving sons of five children born to the couple.

By 1921 the house was taken over by Charles Forsythe MD JP, a doctor, and by Thomas Duke in 1938. Valuer's notes from the 1930s describe the accommodation as: ground floor with reception, kitchen, scullery and pantry; first floor with reception and two bedrooms; second floor with two bedrooms and bathroom; third floor with two attic bedrooms. The house had water and gas lighting at this time, and contemporary plans show the house, return and an outbuilding at the bottom of the yard still present today.

The building was listed in 1977. Renovations and repairs took place in the 1980s, followed by conversion to office accommodation. The building has latterly been occupied by the Probation Board for Northern Ireland.

Extent of listing: House-terrace, walling, piers and outbuilding.