10 College Terrace, Rock Road, Londonderry, County Londonderry, BT48 7NZ

10 College Terrace is a Victorian mid-terrace townhouse of two storeys with attic, built in 1889–90 as part of a continuous row of thirteen similar houses lining the eastern side of College Terrace, close to the junction of Rock Road and Strand Road on the north side of the city centre, on the eastern bank of the River Foyle. The terrace faces west, overlooking an urban tree-lined green and a low schist wall topped with plain iron rails that forms the boundary of the University of Ulster at Magee College campus. Number 10 is flanked by No. 9 College Terrace to the north and No. 11 College Terrace to the south. The full row of thirteen houses (Nos. 1–13 College Terrace) carries group value and forms a significant feature of the Magee Conservation Area.

The house is rectangular on plan with a projecting two-storey rear return that steps down to a single-storey extension with a slated lean-to roof. The principal west-facing elevation is laid in Flemish brick bond with Victorian industrial brickwork dressings in contrasting colour. A dentilled brick cornice runs at eaves level with black brick dressings below. The fenestration on the west elevation consists of a single segmental arch-headed window opening at ground floor, two segmental arch-headed openings at first floor, and a single small semicircular arch-headed window opening to a dormer centred on the elevation, topped with a decorative metal finial at its apex. All openings have red and black brick voussoirs. A continuous decorative brick stringcourse in contrasting colour runs at ground floor level, first floor level, and below the dormer window. The entrance doorway has a semicircular arch-headed opening set one step up from the pavement, fitted with a painted four-panel timber door flanked by scrolled brackets on moulded timber architraves supporting a slightly projecting cornice, with a plain fanlight above. Ground and first floor windows are 4/2 timber sliding sashes; the dormer also has a small 4/2 sliding sash. All sills have a painted finish. The north and south sides are abutted by the adjoining terrace houses. The rear east elevation was not visible at the time of survey.

The roof is pitched natural slate with terracotta clay ridge tiles to both the main roof and the rear return. A large modern timber Velux roof light is set to the rear slope. A large two-stage redbrick chimney stack rises from the north side, centred on the ridge, with clay pots. Cast-iron guttering and circular downpipes serve the front elevation.

College Terrace was laid out in 1889–90 by the Trustees of Magee College, originally to provide accommodation for college employees. The Rock Road on which it sits had first appeared on maps as early as 1689 but was not formally named until 1865, taking its name from The Rock, a house and hamlet of smaller buildings located off the Strand Road. The northern expansion of Londonderry had begun in the mid-19th century with the construction of Georgian-style terraces on Great James Street, Queen Street and Clarendon Street, driven by economic growth and prosperity that lasted from the 1860s through to the end of the 19th century. With the development of the Magee College campus from the 1880s, the new redbrick dwellings of College Terrace and the three-storey redbrick houses of Clarence Avenue were built to house students and college employees. Magee College had originally opened in 1865 as a seminary for young men pursuing a career in the Presbyterian Ministry, and was renamed the Presbyterian Theological College when it became a constituent college of the Royal University of Ireland in 1879. Three redbrick professors' houses were also built by the university during the three decades between 1881 and 1911, to designs by Young & Mackenzie, W. A. Barker, and Robinson & Davidson.

No. 10 College Terrace was constructed alongside Nos. 1–13 in 1889–90, with a total rateable value set at £10 under the Annual Revisions. Although College Terrace was originally intended for college staff and students, within a decade most houses had passed to occupants unconnected with the campus. The first recorded occupant of No. 10 was a Mr Joshua Mortimer. By 1901 the house had passed to Thomas McElhinney, a local engineer and boiler maker with business premises on Queen's Quay. The 1911 census building return described his house as a second-class dwelling consisting of six rooms. By the 1930s, a Mr Samuel Wright had taken possession and resided there until at least the 1970s. The rateable value was raised to £20 under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57) and further increased to £28 by the end of the Second Revaluation (1956–72). Nos. 1–13 College Terrace were listed in 1980. Following Magee's incorporation into the University of Ulster in 1969, the majority of houses along the terrace were converted from privately occupied dwellings to multiple-occupancy student accommodation, a change the Magee Conservation Area Design Guide attributes to the negative impact of Strand Road bars and night clubs on the quality of residential life.

In 1987, No. 10 College Terrace underwent extensive renovation that included the reconstruction of its redbrick chimney, reslating of the roof in natural slate, repointing of the exterior brickwork, and replacement of the rear sliding sash windows. The terrace was incorporated into the Magee Conservation Area in 2006, where it was identified as a zone of distinct character alongside the Rock Road and part of Northland Road. Its gentle curve represents a departure from the earlier rectangular arrangements at Crawford Square and De Burgh Terrace. The Magee Conservation Area Design Guide notes that the overall composition, with its pattern of stepped eaves, attic dormers and chimneys combined with the high architectural quality of the terrace, adds enormously to the quality and variety of the wider Conservation Area. Writer D. Calley has described College Terrace as competing with Palace Street for the accolade of most charming street in the city, noting in particular the effect of the low schist wall, plain iron rails and collection of mature trees on the north side fronting the Magee campus, which gives what is a small space the feeling of an oasis.