9 Crawford Square, Londonderry

9 Crawford Square is a three-storey, two-bay rendered Italianate terraced house built in 1871 to designs by Robert Collins, who served as Londonderry's Consulting Engineer from 1866 to 1874. It was constructed by the building firm of G. & R. Ferguson alongside the adjoining nos 3–8 and 10, and forms part of an impressive continuous terrace of sixteen houses on a sloping site overlooking Crawford Square, a grassed and tree-lined park on the south-west side of the square. The house is paired with and symmetrical to the adjacent No. 10 Crawford Square, and has group value with the other listed buildings in the terrace.

The plan is rectangular, facing north-east, with a three-storey rendered return to the rear and a two-storey outbuilding accessed from the rear. The pitched natural slate roof is continuous with No. 10 Crawford Square, and a large rendered chimney with buff clay pots is shared with No. 8. Timber fascia boards and moulded soffits with paired block modillions run along the eaves, with half-round cast iron guttering discharging to circular cast iron downpipes to the front; uPVC rainwater goods have been fitted to the rear.

The front elevation features a two-storey, three-sided canted bay with a parapet, positioned to the left of the entrance door. Recessed panels sit between the first and second storeys, with moulded cills and string courses throughout. Window openings have segmental arched heads and 1-over-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. 9 Crawford Square. The entrance is set within a recessed arched doorcase with a moulded soffit and stone step, and contains an original four-panelled door with glazed upper panels and a plain semi-circular fanlight above. The doorcase is topped by a hood mould with keystone and decorative console brackets.

The rear elevation and return are rendered, with square-headed window openings fitted with uPVC replacement windows where visible. The three-storey return has a hipped natural slate roof with blue-black hip and ridge tiles and a rendered chimney with a moulded corbel, shared with the return of No. 10 Crawford Square. To the rear of the site stands an outbuilding finished in roughcast render with a blank façade and a pitched roof covered in artificial slate. This outbuilding forms part of a stepped row of outbuildings associated with the Crawford Square houses, which front onto Academy Road.

The house is set back from the footpath and is slightly elevated above it, approached by a path and a short flight of steps shared with the adjacent property. It has a modest front garden enclosed by a dwarf wall and galvanised metal railings, with views north-east over the tree-lined Crawford Square green.

Crawford Square was originally laid out in 1861 by civil engineer and architect Fitzgibbon Louch (1826–1911), who established an independent practice in Londonderry in 1859 and was also responsible for the entrance to the City Cemetery and the design of 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 laid out 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, and was designed for Londonderry's professional classes. At the time the first tenders were invited in the 1860s, the Northland Road was still described as a country road leading from the city towards Donegal. Crawford Square, along with Templemore and Victoria Parks, has been characterised as the city's response to Dublin's garden squares, providing a green oasis with an enclosed central garden bounded on three sides by the square.

Nos 1–2 Crawford Square were the first houses to be 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. Upon its completion in 1871, No. 9 was assessed at a total rateable value of £36. The occupants of Crawford Square were predominantly drawn from the city's professional and merchant classes. In 1911 the house was occupied by Abraham McCausland Stewart (1857–1927), a local civil engineer and secretary to the Derry Port and Harbour Commissioners. The 1911 Census Building Return described it as a first-class dwelling consisting of twelve rooms with a stable as its sole outbuilding.

In 1970 the house was converted into offices for E. F. McCambridge & Co., an accountancy firm, raising its rateable value to £68 by the end of the Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956–72). Crawford Square was included in the Clarendon Street Conservation Area in 1978, and Nos 1–23 Crawford Square were listed in 1979. The property was subsequently converted into flats in 2002.