15 Crawford Square, Londonderry

15 Crawford Square is a three-storey, two-bay rendered terraced house built in 1874–75, forming part of an impressive terrace of sixteen houses on a sloping site overlooking Crawford Square in Londonderry. It was most likely designed by Robert Collins, though this is unconfirmed. The house is robust in design and largely intact, and it sits within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area. It is paired and symmetrical with the adjacent No. 16 Crawford Square, and has group value with Nos 3–14 and 16–18 Crawford Square. The quality of its setting is further enhanced by a stone outbuilding which encloses the rear of the site and fronts onto Academy Road.

Architectural Description

The house is built in an Italianate style on a rectangular plan facing north-east, with a three-storey rendered return to the rear, an attached single-storey kitchen, and a two-storey outbuilding accessed from the rear. The pitched natural slate roof is continuous with No. 16 Crawford Square and carries a large buff brick chimney with a moulded corbel and buff clay pots, shared with No. 14. Timber fascia boards and a moulded soffit with paired block modillions finish the roofline. To the front elevation, half-round cast iron guttering discharges to a circular cast iron downpipe; replacement uPVC guttering has been fitted to the rear.

The front elevation features a two-storey, three-sided canted bay with a parapet, recessed panels between the first and second storeys, and moulded cills and string courses. Window openings have segmental arched heads and 1/1 double-hung timber sash windows with moulded horns. The first-floor window above the main entrance door has a moulded architrave with stop blocks and a moulded cill shared with No. 16. The semi-circular arched doorcase has a hood mould with a keystone and decorative console brackets; it is recessed with a moulded soffit, glazed fanlight, tiled step, and a pair of replacement timber panelled outer doors. Behind these, a glazed inner door is flanked by slender timber columns with decorative capitals, and is topped by a rectangular fanlight; beyond it is an original timber door with a glazed top panel and a single moulded bottom panel. The space between the outer and inner doors has a flat ceiling with a cornice.

The rear elevation is rendered with square-headed window openings fitted throughout with replacement uPVC windows. The three-storey return has a hipped natural slate roof with blue-black hip and ridge tiles and a buff brick chimney with a moulded corbel, shared with the return of No. 16. The return is also rendered with square-headed openings, replacement uPVC windows, and a glazed door leading to the rear yard. An attached single-storey rendered outshot, which does not extend the full width of the return, has a gabled monopitch natural slate roof with a high-level window opening in the gable, replacement uPVC windows, and uPVC rainwater goods.

Outbuilding

Stone steps from the rear yard lead to a stone-built outbuilding, now rendered, with painted timber windows and door and a pitched natural slate roof. This building forms part of the stepped row of outbuildings associated with the Crawford Square houses that front onto Academy Road. The Academy Road elevation is stone with brick surrounds to the openings and retains an original four-part timber sliding door that opens on a curved track within the building, as well as sheeted timber doors to a high-level opening.

Setting

The house faces north-east over the tree-lined Crawford Square green. It is set back slightly from the footpath and is modestly elevated, approached by a path and a short flight of concrete steps shared with the adjacent property. A modest front garden is enclosed by a dwarf wall.

Historical Context

Crawford Square was originally laid out in 1861 by Fitzgibbon Louch (1826–1911), a civil engineer and architect who established an independent practice in Londonderry in 1859. Louch was responsible for several notable city works including the entrance to the City Cemetery and the Magazine Gate entrance to the city walls. The square was named after Samuel Law Crawford, a local solicitor who owned the land, as recorded in the Dublin Builder. It was developed as part of the city's northward expansion, following the establishment of Georgian-style terraces along Great James Street, Queen Street, and Clarendon Street in the 1830s to 1860s. At the time the first tenders were invited for new dwellings on Crawford Square in the 1860s, the Northland Road was still described as a country road leading from the city towards Donegal. The square, along with Templemore and Victoria Parks, has been characterised as the city's delayed response to Dublin's garden squares, providing a green oasis for wealthy residents near the city centre, with an enclosed central garden bounded on three sides.

Nos 1–2 Crawford Square were the first houses built, erected in 1865 for Samuel Knox, a building contractor, while the majority of the adjoining terrace was built for John McAdoo, a local seed merchant and landowner. The Irish Builder recorded that Nos 3–10 Crawford Square were designed by Robert Collins, Londonderry's Consulting Engineer from 1866 to 1874, and constructed by the building firm of G. & R. Ferguson. It is not known whether Collins was personally involved in the construction of the remaining terrace from 1874 onwards, but his original design was clearly adhered to for Nos 11–16, which are almost identical to the earlier terrace. No. 15 was constructed together with the adjoining Nos 13–16 in 1874–75, according to the Annual Revisions. On completion, its total rateable value was set at £36.

No. 15 served as the private residence of John McAdoo, who owned the majority of the terrace. By the 1911 Census, the house was occupied by McAdoo's widow and was described as a first-class dwelling consisting of 12 rooms, with a stable as its sole outbuilding. The rateable value of £36 was maintained through to the end of the Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956–72). The McAdoo family vacated the house in 1955, when it was purchased by Violet Bigger, who resided there until at least the 1970s. A 1970 Ulster Architectural Heritage Society guide described Nos 1–19 Crawford Square as "a fine terrace of three-storey rendered buildings on a sloping surface overlooking a tree-lined grassy square. The houses are well modelled, with two-storey height bay windows." Crawford Square was included in the Clarendon Street Conservation Area in 1978, designated as an area of special architectural or historic interest, and Nos 1–23 Crawford Square were subsequently listed in 1979.

Recorded alterations include a renovation in 1997 that involved reslating the roof and rerendering the external walls, followed by a further restoration in 2003 when the rainwater goods were replaced and the sliding sash windows at the front of the house were repaired.