20 Crawford Square, Londonderry

A Victorian end-of-terrace townhouse built in 1862, thought to have been designed by J.G. Ferguson. The building is a three-bay, three-storey structure over basement with an attic level, constructed in red brick with stucco dressings. The ground floor features rustication, and the basement level is finished in smooth render painted. The building sits on a rectangular plan with a two-storey rear return built off the half-landing level and an adjoining two-storey stone outbuilding with red brick dressing and a slated pitched roof.

The principal elevation faces south onto Crawford Square, set behind a low stone boundary wall with painted cast-iron railings above. The building was constructed as a pair with No. 21 and forms part of a terraced row of four similar houses offset to the northwest of Crawford Square.

The pitched natural slate roof features a platform ridge with two pitched roof dormer windows. These dormers have semi-circular fascia and 2/2 timber sliding sash windows beneath leaded roofs with slate cheeks. Two large sandstone chimney stacks rise from the west elevation, finished in ashlar sandstone with projecting string courses, panelled upper stages, and corbelled caps supporting octagonal buff clay pots.

The principal elevation displays red brick in Flemish bond on the upper floors with stucco dressings. The basement has a smooth-rendered painted finish with rustication applied to the ground floor level and a dentilled band on the moulded sill-course to first floor windows. All windows are square-headed. The basement has replacement timber casement windows, while windows on the ground and upper floors are currently concealed with plywood sheets. The dormer windows on the attic level retain 2/2 timber sliding sash windows.

The first floor windows have moulded stucco architrave surrounds with decorative console brackets to either side supporting deep projecting cornices above. Second floor windows have lugged architrave surrounds. A large round-arched opening with a moulded surround marks the entrance doorway at ground floor level, accessed via a flight of broad entrance steps shared with No. 21, positioned over the basement well. The original door case and detailing have been removed and partially replaced with reconstructed timber dentilled cornice and side panels. The semicircular fanlight above is concealed with plywood sheeting.

The east side is adjoined to neighbouring No. 21 Crawford Square. The west gable-end elevation is blank, finished in unpainted smooth render with two wide chimney breasts offset to north and south of the platform ridge, topped by the large two-stage sandstone chimney stack described above.

The north elevation to the rear is two bays wide and extends over three storeys with basement and attic level. A two-and-a-half-storey gabled rear return, built off the half-landing level on the left side, is split evenly between No. 20 and No. 22. Both the rear and return have smooth-rendered, unpainted walling. The main building has replacement timber sliding sash windows on the second floor, a plain glass roundel above the return, and boarded-up openings at both ground and first floor levels. A pair of small dormers with slated duo-pitched roofs and cheeks contain 2/2 timber sliding sash windows. The return features timber sliding sashed windows in a more informal fenestration arrangement, with one large window in its west face, assumed to be at first floor landing level, featuring margin panes.

The building is located at Crawford Square, which sits at an angle to Northland Road on an inclined site northwest of the city, within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area. Crawford Square is centred on a rectangular mature garden, bounded by low walling and enclosed on three sides by three-storey buildings. No. 20 forms the end of a terraced row of four similar townhouses, elevated and set back from the pavement behind a rubbled stone wall with painted stone copings and cast-iron railings above, with paired entrances opening onto broad steps over cellar wells. A shared yard to the rear is enclosed by a row of two-storey rubblestone outbuildings, formerly a stable block, with red brick dressings and slated roofs. A further rock-faced uncoursed schist stone retaining wall beyond aligns the boundary with Northland Crescent and returns to the west. The southeast side of Crawford Square comprises a long terrace of eighteen similar townhouses.