Grand Central Bar, 27 Strand Road, Londonderry, Co.Londonderry, BT48 7BJ

Grand Central Bar, 27 Strand Road, Londonderry

The Grand Central Bar is a Victorian end-of-terrace public house built in 1895, occupying a prominent corner site at the junction of Strand Road and Great James Street on the western side of the River Foyle. The building sits outside both the historic city walls and the Clarendon Street Conservation Area, within a terrace of generously scaled red brick commercial buildings of varying type and style. The architect is unknown, though the building was constructed at the same time as the immediately adjoining No. 25 Strand Road, and the two share a closely related architectural character, giving them group value. One suggestion has been that the design of No. 25 may be attributable to the Australian architect Alfred Forman, though this has been discounted on chronological grounds — Forman did not arrive in Ireland until around 1897 — and the pair are considered even more refined than his known designs. The architect therefore remains unidentified.

The building is three storeys high with an attic, rectangular on plan, constructed in red brick laid in stretcher bond to the upper floors with painted rendered stucco dressings. It presents three bays to Strand Road (the principal, east-facing elevation) and six bays to Great James Street (the north elevation). The roof is hipped and clad in natural slate, set behind a low parapet wall. The original balustraded parapet was removed around 2006 and replaced by the current plain parapet with rendered painted piers, from which the ironwork is now missing, and end blocks.

The ground floor on both street elevations is treated as a public bar shopfront, featuring round-headed arch openings divided by fluted pilasters with Corinthian order capitals. Each capital is topped by a corbel bracket with stylised acanthus leaf detail to either side of the fascia signage. The arch heads carry moulded rendered dressings, and metal roller shutters are fitted below each opening. Original gilded lettering is retained on both elevations: the Strand Road fascia spells out "F. Mulhern" and the Great James Street fascia reads "Grand Central Bar." On the Strand Road elevation, the ground floor comprises a round-headed arch opening to the right and a double-width basket-handle arch window bay to the left. On the Great James Street elevation, the ground floor similarly has round-headed arch openings with the same pilaster and capital treatment.

To the upper floors on both principal elevations, the window bays have segmental arched heads and contain one-over-two timber sliding sash windows, with replacement windows installed at first floor level around 1985 — including a tripartite window on the north elevation. The bays are divided by brick piers at second floor level. A painted rendered string course runs between the first and second floors, with painted keystones to the first floor window bays. Rusticated quoins appear at either end of both elevations. Above the second floor bays there is a moulded frieze beneath a dentilled cornice on both street fronts.

The south side of the building is attached to No. 25 Strand Road. The west elevation gable wall is abutted at ground floor level by the adjoining No. 1 Great James Street. Above this junction, the upper floors of the west gable are finished in plain cement render, topped by a large red brick chimney stack with a stepped brick cornice carrying five buff clay pots. Rainwater goods are uPVC.

The interior retains some historic character, and much of the exterior detailing remains intact. A general restoration of the public house was carried out in 1992.

The site has a well-documented history. Before 1895 the corner was occupied by a licensed house and tobacconist's shop operated by John Connor, who is recorded in Ulster Town Directories from at least the 1880s. Connor ran his business on the ground floor and lived in the upper floors; the original structure was valued at £16 in the 1890s. The existing building was erected in 1895 when the earlier structure was demolished, and Connor continued to occupy and lease the completed building — at an increased valuation of £50 — from the Honourable the Irish Society. The 1901 census recorded No. 27 as a first class public house and dwelling containing ten rooms. Connor remained at the premises until his death in 1907. In 1922 Felix Mulhern took possession and renamed the establishment the Grand Central Bar, with both the publican's name and the bar's name appearing on the exterior signage — as they still do today. Mulhern lived in the upper floors and remained associated with the site until at least the 1970s. The rateable value of the licensed house rose from £124 under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57) to £224 by the close of the Second Revaluation (1956–72). The building was listed in 1985. It has been in continuous use as a public house since it was built.

The property is currently in a poor state of repair and is considered at risk of further deterioration.