13 Main Street, Limavady, Co Londonderry, BT49 OEP

A fine, well-maintained Georgian townhouse on Main Street, Limavady, dating to circa 1840. The building is a three-storey, four-window-wide terraced house constructed in brick with a natural slate roof and brick chimneys on the party walls. It forms one half of a symmetrical pair with number 15 Main Street, though that neighbouring property has been rendered in sand cement. The house faces north-west onto Main Street.

The entrance is notable for its panelled door with a rectangular fanlight divided into a brick joint pattern by fine astragals. Three stone steps rise from street level to the door, with stone quoins set into the brick base of the door-case on either side. The front facade includes a light well to the basement trimmed in stone, now concreted over, with flat arches visible above three basement windows. Windows have sandstone cills.

The original Georgian sash windows have been replaced by PVC units with exposed mullions matching the original pattern. Ground and third floor windows contain twelve panes of equal height, while second floor windows are taller with fifteen panes. The heavy transom at second floor level does not align with the sash divisions on the adjacent property, creating an unfortunate discontinuity. This replacement of windows has degraded the architectural quality of the building.

Rainwater goods are in PVC. To the rear, the window arrangement is less ordered, with some windows on the stair dropped to landing level and only three openings serving the third floor. A steel fire escape descends from the south-west window on the third floor.

Behind the house lies a gravel courtyard enclosed by a high brick wall exceeding two metres, terminated by a two-storey coach house in good repair. The coach house has a slate roof, brick walls, and five openings of different sizes, all closed by solid matchboard doors. A line in the brickwork reveals that a lean-to shed has been removed.

The building shown on the 1831 Ordnance Survey Map likely represents an earlier thatched structure dating from the second half of the eighteenth century. The present substantial brick building was constructed circa 1840. The current arrangement of the courtyard and the relative depth of numbers 13 and 15 compared to neighbouring properties appear on the 1848 survey. By 1907 the house served as a dispensary, though the present occupants report their practice was established in 1905. The building was formerly residential and is now in office use.