39 Clarendon St., Londonderry

39 Clarendon Street is a mid-terrace, two-bay, three-storey with attic, red brick Georgian-style townhouse built in 1862. It was constructed as part of the same phase of development as Nos. 29–37 and 41–51 Clarendon Street, and forms an integral part of a long terrace of similar houses lining the south side of Clarendon Street. It has group value with Nos. 5–37 and 41–73 (excluding No. 53), which were built over a twenty-one year period. The property is located within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area, and its well-preserved setting adds to its interest. The conversion to office use and the internal linking of this property with No. 41 has resulted in some modernisation of the interior, though much of the original internal detailing survives.

EXTERIOR

The house is rectangular on plan with a projecting rear return. The principal elevation faces north onto Clarendon Street and is set behind a low rendered wall surmounted by painted black replacement metal railings with painted silver finials, set in a sandstone coping.

The roof is pitched natural slate with black clay ridge tiles, a single dormer to the front and a single dormer to the rear. A large brick chimney stack rises from the east side, centred on the ridge, with seven clay pots. Cast-iron guttering and circular downpipes serve both the front and rear.

The principal north elevation is laid in Flemish brick bond with a rendered plinth. To the right is a three-centred arch entrance doorway with a moulded surround; a recessed moulded cornice is supported by columns of the Doric order to either side of a painted timber four-panelled door, surmounted by an Adam-style fanlight. All window openings are square-headed with painted cement rendered reveals and painted sills. Unless otherwise noted, all windows are 6-over-6 timber sliding sashes. To the left of the door at ground floor is a single 8-over-8 timber sliding sash window. At first and second floors there are two windows per floor, though these are not aligned with the ground floor openings. Centred on the elevation is a narrow pitched-roof dormer containing a 6-over-3 timber sliding sash window. Modern signage appears to the left of the door, with further modern signage at first floor level comprising individually formed silver letters reading "HASSON & Co. SOLICITORS."

The east and west elevations are abutted by the adjoining Nos. 37 and 41 Clarendon Street respectively.

The south rear elevation is brick, three-storey with attic. A small pitched-roof three-storey brick return projects to the left; this is abutted by a modern profiled metal mono-pitched-roof single-storey rendered extension with casement windows and uPVC rainwater goods, which is of no interest. This single-storey extension abuts a whitewashed two-storey pitched-roof mews building that runs parallel to the main building.

In the right bay of the main rear block, the ground floor has an 8-over-8 timber sliding sash window, with a single 6-over-6 timber sliding sash window to the first and second floors aligned over the right reveal of the ground floor window; above is a pitched-roof dormer containing a casement window. The left bay is abutted by the rear return; the exposed section has a 6-over-3 timber sliding sash window. The south gable of the small three-storey rear return is abutted by the single-storey mono-pitched-roof extension at ground floor level; the exposed section above has a 6-over-6 timber sliding sash window to the first and second floors, the first floor window having a metal security grille. The east face of the rear return has a modern vertically sheeted timber door with a blind square-headed overlight at ground floor, and a single diminutive 2-over-2 timber sliding sash window to the first and second floors, aligned over the right reveal of the door. The west face was not visible at the time of survey.

The two-storey mews building to the rear of the site is rendered with a pitched fibre cement slate roof and clipped eaves. Its north face is abutted to the right by the single-storey mono-pitched-roof extension; it has a central casement window and a door opening to the far left, with a single casement window at first floor left of centre. The east face is abutted by the mews building of No. 37 Clarendon Street; the exposed section is blank. The west face is fully abutted by the mews building of No. 41 Clarendon Street. The south face was not viewed at the time of survey.

SETTING

No. 39 was built as part of a row of twelve mid-Victorian townhouses lining the south side of Clarendon Street. The front of the property faces north and is set behind a low rendered wall surmounted by black painted replacement metal railings. To the rear is a small enclosed yard bounded by the two-storey mews building to the south.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Clarendon Street was laid out in the early Victorian period, with the construction of the first dwellings commencing around 1853. The laying out of similar terraced streets — including Great James Street and Queen Street — was driven by a period of growth in the economy and population of Londonderry during the mid-19th century. As the historian John Hume records, during the period 1825–1850 "reconstruction of the city's buildings [within the walls] took place alongside the development, for the first time, of housing outside the walls at Bogside and Edenballymore." The first edition of the Ordnance Survey map of 1830 records that the Clarendon Street area was originally rural hinterland. By 1830 the city's street development had extended no further than Waterloo Place, Abbey Street and William Street. In the early decades of the 19th century the only major construction north of the walls had been isolated buildings such as the Londonderry Infirmary, the Lunatic Asylum and Foyle College, with little or no domestic architecture in the same period. The only building in the area predating the early Victorian development is Foyle Cottage, a Regency house constructed around 1815, which Calley describes as "a pleasing composition which offers a gentle rebuke to some of the exuberance of later nearby buildings… one of its pleasant features is that it opens a gap in the long terraces."

Writing in The Annals of Derry (1847), Robert Simpson recorded that "all the district now covered by Great James's Street, William Street, Little James Street… and the numerous lanes in that vicinity [originally comprised] meadow ground without a house." The initial development of housing in this area began in the late Georgian period and continued into the Victorian era. With the construction of uniform rows of three-storey townhouses, a new affluent district was established that swiftly became the preferred residence of the city's merchant and professional classes. The geometric street pattern of Clarendon Street, Great James Street and Queen Street was characteristic of Georgian town planning, and represented the most ambitious planning project in Londonderry since the construction of the walled city in 1613–19.

A plan of Londonderry dated 1847 depicted the proposed layout of Clarendon Street at least a decade before its completion, and recorded that the street was originally known as Ponsonby Street, named after the Right Reverend Richard Ponsonby (1772–1853), Bishop of Derry and Raphoe. By the 1850s the street had been renamed Clarendon Street in honour of George Villiers, the Fourth Earl of Clarendon (1800–1870), Lord Lieutenant of Ireland between 1847 and 1852. The second edition of the Ordnance Survey map confirms the street had been renamed by at least 1853. Although the 1847 plan showed Clarendon Street extending from the quay up to Francis Street, only the lower section between the Strand Road and Queen Street had been laid out by 1853.

Development of the street progressed slowly throughout the 1850s. In 1851 Skipton & Miller had advertised building ground on Clarendon Street, Queen Street and Patrick Street to be let in perpetuity. Griffith's Valuation recorded that only nine dwellings had been constructed along the entire length of the street by 1856, when additional leases for building ground on the northern side of Clarendon Street were also advertised. Nos. 29–51 Clarendon Street were constructed in 1862 as part of the second phase of the street's development.

No. 39, together with the adjoining No. 37, was built for John Anderson, a grocer and baker who held business premises on William Street. The house was originally valued at £29 in 1862. In 1901 the property was occupied by Dr. Herbert W. Cunningham, one of the city's medical officers, who operated from the City of Derry Dispensary on William Street. The census building return for that year described his house as a first-class dwelling consisting of ten rooms. By 1895 ownership had passed to James Corscaden, a grain merchant with premises on Shipquay Place. By 1935, when the First General Revaluation was carried out, No. 39 had been acquired by a Mr. J. B. Smyth and its valuation had risen to £38. The Second General Revaluation (1956–72) recorded that ownership had passed to a Mr. F. Gallagher and that the value of the house had been reduced to £35.

In 1978 the Department of the Environment designated Clarendon Street and the surrounding streets a Conservation Area, defined as "an area of special architectural or historic interest, the character of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance." No. 39 Clarendon Street was listed in 1979. In 1987 Nos. 39 and 41 were combined into a single office premises; the subsequent renovation included reslating of the roofs, repointing of the brickwork, and the erection of new railings and boundary walls. In 2013 Calley described Nos. 29–39 Clarendon Street as "terrace houses with Doric doorway columns."

Few of the mid-Victorian townhouses along Clarendon Street remain in residential use. The majority were converted into offices for local solicitors, dentists and accountancy firms in the late 20th century. At the time of the most recent survey, No. 39 was in use as office premises for a local solicitors' firm.

The terrace as a whole represents the mid-19th century expansion of the city of Derry, and No. 39 is a noteworthy example of the type of property built during this period of economic and population growth.