13 Northland Road, Londonderry

13 Northland Road is a substantial late-Victorian three-storey, three-bay, mid-terrace townhouse built in 1900 in the Arts and Crafts style, constructed in red brick with rendered dressings. It is the middle property of a row of three closely related dwellings — numbers 11, 13, and 15 — situated on an elevated site on the east side of Northland Road at its corner with Clarence Avenue, Londonderry, within the Magee Conservation Area. The architect is not known with certainty, though Edward J. Toye or Robert Eccles Buchanan may have been responsible, as both designed contemporary dwellings along Northland Road between 1895 and 1902. Numbers 13 and 15 were built together in 1900 as a pair, one year after the adjoining number 11 (which dates from 1899), and while the three properties are similar in style, character, and proportion, numbers 13 and 15 differ slightly in external detailing from their neighbour. Together the three dwellings have group value, and their historical authenticity and presence enhance the Magee Conservation Area. The house was originally known as "Mount Maple" and was leased by the Trustees of Foyle College, initially valued at £30. The first recorded occupant was Thomas McCready, a local pawnbroker whose business, Thomas McCready and Son, operated from premises on William Street. The 1901 census return described the property as a first-class dwelling of nine rooms, with a stable and coal house as its only outbuildings. The building was first depicted in its current plan form — including the rear return and two-storey outbuilding — on the Annual Revisions Town Plan of Londonderry (circa 1873–1910). By the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), the value had risen to £40, and the records note that occupants changed frequently during the 20th century. In 1947 the house was occupied by James Logan, a local accountant; following his death in 1954 the property passed to Henry Armstrong, who remained there through the Second Revaluation period (1956–72), with the value still recorded at £40. Number 13 was listed in 1991, and the terrace was incorporated into the Magee Conservation Area in 2006. Architectural writer D. Calley, writing in 2013, described the group as "three big showy red-brick three-storey, three-bay terrace houses," noting that numbers 13 and 15 "are a pair but with varying details which show off their Arts and Crafts pedigree."

The building has a rectangular plan form facing west, with a four-storey rendered rear return built at half-landing height, stepping down to a three-storey extension and then a two-storey brick outbuilding on the east boundary.

Front elevation (west)

The front elevation retains much of its original character, style, and proportions. There is a slightly projecting pedimented bay to the left side, with a single-storey three-sided canted bay window at ground floor level fronted by a solid rendered recessed panelled parapet. On the first and second floors, paired windows are centred over the ground floor bay window, and a single window is centred over the doorway. The tympanum of the gable carries decorative terracotta tiled detailing, which is among the finest surviving external features of the building. All windows are timber sliding sashes with horns. Ground and first floor windows have multi-paned upper lights over a single light below (a 12-over-1 configuration); the canted sides of the bay window have 6-over-1 sashes. The second floor has 1-over-1 timber sliding sashes. First floor windows and the paired second floor windows have segmental arched heads with a brick relief detail beneath the sill. The entrance has a semicircular arched door opening with brick pilasters and rendered capitals to either side, a rendered moulded archway with a central keystone, and a plain glazed fanlight over a pair of recessed raised-and-fielded diamond-faced three-panel timber doors. Eaves have a stepped brick detail. Rainwater goods to the front elevation are moulded uPVC guttering with circular uPVC downpipe.

Roof

The pitched roof is covered in artificial slate, running continuously with the adjoining number 15. Terracotta clay ridge tiles are used throughout. A large red brick chimney stack with buff clay pots is centred on the ridge and rises from the north elevation.

Rear elevation and return

The rear elevation, facing east, has a smooth rendered unpainted finish; full access was not possible and windows are not visible from outside. It is abutted by the four-storey rendered return, which has roughcast unpainted finish to its east elevation and is topped by a red brick chimney stack on the gable end with a single terracotta clay pot. The north elevation of the return has 1-over-1 timber sliding sash windows where seen. Rainwater goods to the rear are uPVC. The return steps down to a three-storey extension with rendered unpainted walls and a small red brick chimney stack rising from the north side; the east elevation of the extension has a single 1-over-1 timber sliding sash window at second floor level and a circular cast-iron downpipe. Both the rear return and the extension have pitched artificial slate roofs with terracotta ridge tiles and uPVC rainwater goods.

Outbuilding

The two-storey outbuilding to the rear has exposed concrete blockwork to the right side of the ground floor, containing a square-headed timber casement window, with red brick to the remaining elevation and chipped roughcast render at eaves level. The east elevation faces onto a rear laneway accessed via Clarence Avenue, and has a square-headed door opening concealed with timber ply and a glazed transom light above, a square-headed timber casement window to the right, and two further casement windows on the first floor. The north and south elevations adjoin the neighbouring outbuildings, forming a continuous row of rear outbuildings associated with numbers 11 to 15 Northland Road. The outbuilding has a pitched fibre cement roof with black clay ridge tiles and a uPVC circular downpipe to the east elevation.

Setting

The property sits on an elevated site on the east side of Northland Road, with the River Foyle below to the east. A small front garden is enclosed by a low rendered painted wall with a capping stone and metal railings above. The front elevation faces west as part of a terrace row of three three-storey red brick buildings on the corner of Northland Road and Clarence Avenue. The northern expansion of Londonderry had begun in the mid-19th century with Georgian-style terraces on Great James Street, Queen Street, and Clarendon Street. The Northland Road area, historically part of the townland of Edenballymore, was still described as rural in character when the Victorian terrace of Crawford Square was built in the 1860s–1870s. The expansion of the city was facilitated by a period of economic growth and prosperity lasting from the 1860s to the end of the 19th century, and the opening of Magee College in 1865 in particular prompted the construction of a number of new terraced dwellings in the vicinity, including College Terrace, Clarence Avenue, and Florence Terrace.