Glengalliagh Hall, 22 Upper Galliagh Road, Londonderry, BT48 8LW

Glengalliagh Hall is a large country house built around 1846 and later renovated around 1890, most probably by architect R. E. Buchanan. It is an essentially late Victorian style house with much of its original detailing retained, including many Arts and Crafts references. It sits in a secluded, sylvan setting of considerable extent on the edge of Londonderry, approached by a long winding avenue from entrance gates and a lodge on the Upper Galliagh Road.

The house is two storeys high, built of random rubble schist with redbrick trim, five bays wide by four bays deep. It has multiple pitched natural slate roofs with gables and hips. A central projecting porch rises to three storeys. The base of the walls all around the south and west facades is defined by a broad plinth projecting some 600 mm, finished in stone with an upstand kerb forming a step to ground level.

THE ENTRANCE (EAST) FACADE

The five-bay east-facing entrance facade is not quite symmetrical: the two bays to the north of the entrance are slightly longer than the two to the south. The 12-panelled door has a Tudor-arched head and is recessed within a handmade redbrick surround with Tudor arches and a stepped brick pediment. A large lantern hangs over the centre of the pediment. The clear-finished oak door retains its original brass knob, bell, and letterbox. The door threshold is finished in red clay tiles with a narrow band of black, and the brick surround has a low plaster plinth. On each side of the entrance there is a slim round-headed two-pane fixed window with a half-brick surround and painted stone cill.

Above the entrance is a four-light oriel window with a plain smooth rendered parapet; below the cill an inverted faceted pyramid projects. The top of the parapet aligns with the top of the frieze, which continues on either side beneath the overhanging eaves. Above the oriel is the second floor of the entrance tower, finished in a whitish roughcast render, with a gabled double roof receding into the main roof. Set half in the gable and half in the wall below is a three-light window with a redbrick toothed surround, each light further subdivided into six panes. Originally the tower was not gabled but crenellated and considerably taller, rising well above the main ridge line; this crenellated top was removed by a later owner, W. Porter, after 1929.

On either side of the central entrance, each floor has pairs of 12-pane sliding sash windows with toothed redbrick surrounds, painted stone cills, and a roll moulding to the vertical reveals. The bricks used here are smooth red stocks. The walls are built of random rubble schist with wide clasping handmade brick quoins matching those of the entrance door surround. The corners of the projecting central tower have the same brick but toothed. The deep plastered frieze has a roll moulding beneath it, and the roof overhang has exposed rafter feet painted black. The gable tower has a straight bargeboard that returns as a fascia. The roof carries large natural slates with plain ridge tiles and a single chimney stack on the north side with tall serrated pots. Half-round metal gutters are used, with downpipes neatly tucked into the return corners of the tower. The first-floor windows are slightly less tall than those at ground floor, where the cills are quite low.

THE SOUTH FACADE

The south facade is four bays wide, with one bay projecting forward by approximately one metre, forming a black-painted timber and white plaster panelled gable. At ground level this projecting bay has a bold redbrick faceted canted bay window with 12-pane sliding sash windows in each facet. The canted bay is crowned with white panelled, narrow moulded crenellations sitting on a relatively slim cornice. At first-floor level over the canted bay there is a single wide six-pane casement window with vertical brick trim toothed into the stonework. The gable is framed in clasping red handmade bricks, and the deep whitish plaster frieze is carried across horizontally below the timber-panelled gable. A pair of small corbels decorates the frieze above the quoins. The roof terminates in a straight moulded bargeboard.

The remainder of the south facade has tall two-light brick-trimmed windows, toothed into random rubble schist walls, each light subdivided into four panes, with the central mullion forming a cross with an equally heavy transom. The west corner has a matching clasping brick quoin. The plaster frieze continues along under the eaves with exposed rafter feet, and rainwater goods are repeated throughout. The broad plinth returns along this facade with a higher step up to lawn level.

THE WEST FACADE

The west facade is again four bays wide, though the wall planes vary considerably. The south gable arrangement is repeated, except that the windows of the canted bay are tall casements with mullions and transoms dividing them into four lights, each with two panes.

The next bay recedes, and at ground floor is the termination of the long hall, marked by a framed Tudoresque gothic window painted white — a prominent feature in this elevation. This window consists of eight lights formed by mullions and one transom; the top lights are pointed with a quatrefoil and a single mouchette. Directly above this window, centred on it, is a single nine-pane sliding sash window with brick trim.

The quoin formed by the further receding third bay is unusual in that the ground-floor quoin is of toothed brickwork while the first-floor quoin is in flat clasping brickwork. The frieze continues under the eaves of the hipped roof over this section.

The next bay recedes some two metres further and has a single brick-trimmed sliding sash window at both ground and first floors.

The last bay projects forward as a one-and-a-half-storey gable built in random rubble schist. It has a large tripartite double-hung 20-pane window centred above a 12-pane sliding sash window, both brick-trimmed. The gable is asymmetrical with straight bargeboards. The wall plane continues outward to form the enclosing yard to the rear of the house.

THE NORTH (REAR) ELEVATION

The north or rear elevation is a mixture of windows and surface finishes — part stonework, some brick trim, and smooth render. A small low-pitched gable porch projects from the wall. The window of greatest interest is that of the main staircase: a six-light casement with margined glazing. Part of the rear extends to three floors where a bathroom is formed off the half-landing. The roof edge at the rear presents an untidy arrangement of gable, flat soffit to a hip over the staircase, and a much lower roof over the gable projection on the west elevation.

THE ROOF

The roof as a whole is a complex arrangement. Essentially it is an L-shaped main roof with various hipped roofs abutting it and a narrow double roof occurring over part of the staircase and first-floor landing, within which a roof lantern is formed. The resulting valleys have been causing leak problems. A number of chimney stacks rise from the ridges, all with tall serrated pots.

THE INTERIOR

The house has a dramatic internal progression of spaces with a varied use of materials and an eclectic choice of finishes. Arts and Crafts references are notable throughout: the entrance detailing, the canted bays, an interior timber chimneypiece, a wooden cornice, and a heating stove in the hall all contribute to this character. The stained glass windows at the west end of the hall were installed by W. Porter after he acquired the property in 1929.

THE OUTBUILDINGS

To the north side of the house is a range of farm outbuildings forming three courts. The first forms a yard to the back of the house. The second is an enclosed small farmyard that also contains a coachman's dwelling. The third is a larger court with its fourth side missing. The outbuildings are a collection of two- and one-storey stone-built structures with brick-trimmed openings, arranged haphazardly. Roofs are a mixture of slate and corrugated asbestos.

Two features of particular interest survive within the outbuildings. At the open end of the third court, at the gable end of the two-storey barn, is a brick bellcote that still possesses its small bell, which is said to bear impressions of the apostles and to have come from an abbey. The gateway to the second court consists of a rendered wall with a crude Tudor arch and wooden gates; the date 1940 is inscribed beneath a horseshoe symbol, placed there by the father of the present owner.

THE GROUNDS

The remains of a walled garden survive, along with one greenhouse in reasonable condition. Lawns and some shrub planting surround the house immediately, and from the south facade a straight path leads to a tennis court. The surrounding woodland contains some good specimen trees.

HISTORICAL NOTE

The site does not appear on the first Ordnance Survey map of 1830, but by the 1850 revision Glengalliagh Hall is shown, though with a different plan form from that existing today, albeit of roughly equal area. Griffith's Valuation of 1858 records Mary McCorkell as lessee, with the Marquis of Donegal as lessor, at a valuation of £35. Mary McCorkell was probably the wife of Archibald McCorkell, a solicitor who died in March 1854 aged 50, and who was probably the son of Archibald McCorkell who died in New York in 1829. The house was most likely erected around 1846 and later renovated around 1890, with R. E. Buchanan as the probable architect. Major McCorkell occupied the house until his death in 1923, after which Judge R. Cooke lived there for the following six years. The property was acquired in 1929 by W. Porter, proprietor of a number of shops in Londonderry trading under the name of All Cash Stores, with principal offices in Strand Road. The present owners acquired the property in 1940.