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

No. 3 Waterside is a three-storey-with-basement, Georgian-style terraced building constructed around 1847 to 1854 as part of a phased redevelopment of the Waterside area of Coleraine. The designs were overseen by Samuel Angell, the Worshipful Company of Clothworkers' surveyor in Ulster, and Stewart Gordon. It forms the eastern end of a terrace of similar buildings and sits immediately adjacent to the former Clothworkers' Arms Hotel to the east. The building was designed to provide the typical urban combination of a shop on the ground floor with living accommodation above, and this character remains largely intact at upper floor level, though the ground floor has been altered incrementally over the decades.

Architecture and Exterior

The building is rectangular on plan with a canted south-east corner and multiple abutments to the rear. The roof is partially hipped and slate-covered with lead-covered ridges; the chimney has been removed in recent decades. Rainwater goods are ogee-profile cast iron mounted on a plain timber fascia, with some half-round uPVC to the rear. The walling is ruled-and-lined unpainted render to the principal elevations, with smooth render to the rear.

The principal (south) elevation is two windows wide to the upper floors, with a single window to the canted south-east corner. Square-headed uPVC replacement windows are used throughout, with plain reveals and rendered projecting sills. The moulded window architraves have been removed. At ground floor level, a deep painted vertical timber fascia sits above a 20th-century shop front with modern openings flanked by green mosaic-tiled piers. To the left is a two-panelled 20th-century timber door with a glazed transom over; to the right is a large plain-glass window with a projecting metal roller blind. A similar modern doorway sits at the chamfered corner, with a semi-circular step.

The west elevation is abutted by the adjoining terrace to the west. The rear (north) elevation has two windows to the left side of the upper floors. A mono-pitched return abuts to the right side below eaves level, with a timber-sheeted access door at basement level. There is a window to each floor on the left side except at ground floor, where a small flat-roofed extension with a single window abuts the building. The right cheek is abutted by the return of the neighbouring building to the west. The left cheek is abutted by a pitched-roof return with a right-of-centre modern timber door at ground floor and a metal fire escape extending down to basement level at the rear. The remaining elevation and left cheek are abutted by a neighbouring single-storey extension belonging to the former Clothworkers' Arms Hotel. The east elevation is blank and is abutted by an adjoining three-storey flat-roofed link block connecting the building to the former Clothworkers' Arms Hotel.

Interior

Field evidence shows that the upper floor corridor contains a blocked doorway that previously connected through to the small link block joining No. 3 to the former hotel.

Historical Background

This part of Coleraine, in the area of Killowen Parish now known as Waterside, was originally a suburb of the town and formed part of the estate 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 historically leased 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. When the lease expired in 1840, the Company regained direct control and embarked on a substantial programme of improvement, investing in buildings, infrastructure, and education.

As part of this programme, a new bridge of increased height was built around 1844 to replace an earlier timber construction dating from around 1735, and stabilising works were carried out to the western embankment of the River Bann. The raising of the bridge also required the street level on the Killowen side to be raised to correspond, which affected the existing buildings on the street. It was considered more appropriate to demolish and rebuild the entire Waterside area in order to create a more dignified approach into the Company's estate from the main part of Coleraine to the east.

The general layout of Waterside had already been established before the redevelopment, so the terrace did not change significantly in plan. However, the design, scale, and style of the new buildings were subject to strict architectural control. The Clothworkers' Arms Hotel, erected around 1846, established the architectural benchmark, and the demolition of the neighbouring houses began in 1847. Samuel Angell designed a new terrace to complement the hotel and to line what was intended as an almost processional approach into the Clothworkers' Estate via the new bridge. While individual building designs were largely produced by other architects, each was strictly regulated by Angell and Gordon to conform to the overall scheme. The terrace was completed around 1854, by which time the Company claimed to have spent approximately £4,000 on the erection of houses in the Waterside area. As architectural historian James Curl has noted, the plain, balanced, and unembellished style of the terrace reflects a conscious decision by the Clothworkers' Company to avoid the excessive ornamentation embraced by other London Companies during this widespread period of architectural improvement.

The building first appears on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1849 to 1850, replacing an earlier building shown on the first edition map of 1830, which had formed part of a similar street pattern with extensive outbuildings to the rear. In Griffith's Valuation of 1856, the building was first valued at £28 but remained unoccupied until around 1859 when James Shannon took up residence. Ownership transferred to Sir Hervey Bruce in 1867, and by 1875 Bruce was operating a rent office from two rooms on an upper floor, valued at £10, while the remainder of the building formed part of the neighbouring hotel accommodation, valued at £20. In 1919 the rent office was replaced by a store, valued at £20 and operated by Daniel Todd. Following the dissolution of the Hervey estate, ownership passed to David Todd by the time of the First General Revaluation of 1935, by which point the accommodation above the shop was occupied by William Turner.

Setting

No. 3 Waterside sits in an urban setting directly fronting one of the main approach roads into Coleraine town centre, close to the Old Bridge over the River Bann on the western bank of the river, to the west of the central Diamond. The building terminates the eastern end of a terrace of similar listed buildings extending to the west. A comparable terrace lines the opposite side of the street to the south. The rear of the building has a narrow shared yard bounded by the two-storey extensions of the neighbouring properties. The northern 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. 3 has group value with the other listed buildings in this terrace.