17 Crawford Square, Londonderry

17 Crawford Square is a three-storey, two-bay rendered terraced house built in 1888, most likely to designs by Robert Collins, Londonderry's Consulting Engineer from 1866 to 1874. It forms part of an impressive terrace of sixteen houses on a sloping site overlooking Crawford Square, a mid-Victorian garden square laid out in 1861 by civil engineer and architect Fitzgibbon Louch (1826–1911) off the Northland Road, on a hill overlooking the River Foyle. The square was named after Samuel Law Crawford, a local solicitor who owned the land, as recorded in the Dublin Builder. The house sits within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area and carries group value as part of the terrace together with Nos. 3–16 and 18 Crawford Square.

Architectural Description

The house is Italianate in style, rectangular in plan, and faces northeast. It is paired with, and symmetrical to, the adjacent No. 18 Crawford Square — except for the modern dormers — and the two properties share several architectural elements throughout. A three-storey extended return and a two-storey outbuilding are accessed from the rear.

The pitched natural slate roof is continuous with No. 18, and a large buff brick chimney with a moulded corbel and buff clay pots is shared with No. 16. Timber fascia boards and a moulded soffit with paired block modillions are present, along with half-round cast iron guttering discharging to a circular cast iron downpipe. A modern single-bay flat-roof dormer with timber-framed windows has been added.

The front elevation features a two-storey, three-sided canted bay with a parapet, moulded panels between the ground and first floors, and moulded cills and string courses. Window openings have segmental arched heads and 1/1 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. 18.

The semi-circular arched doorcase has a hood mould with keystone, decorative console brackets, and is recessed with a moulded soffit, glazed fanlight, tiled step, and a pair of three-panelled outer doors. An inner doorcase has slender timber columns with decorative capitals to each side, a rectangular fanlight, and an original timber door with a glazed top panel and two moulded bottom panels. The space between the outer and inner doors has a flat ceiling with cornice.

The rear elevation and rear return are rendered with square-headed window openings fitted with replacement uPVC windows, and a wall-headed dormer with a pitched roof containing a round-arched replacement uPVC window. The three-storey return has a pitched natural slate roof and a buff brick chimney with moulded corbel and buff clay pots, shared with the return of No. 18. A further three-storey rendered return has been added, with similar windows and a half-hipped natural slate roof with blue-black angled hip and ridge tiles; a comparable extension has been added to the adjacent No. 18.

To the rear of the site is a stone-built outbuilding forming part of the stepped row of outbuildings associated with the Crawford Square houses, which front onto Academy Road. The Academy Road elevation is roughcast rendered with blocked-up openings at ground-floor level, timber sheeting to a high-level opening, a natural slate roof, and uPVC rainwater goods.

Materials throughout include natural slate roofing, cast iron rainwater goods, painted render walling, timber sash windows to the front elevation, and uPVC windows to the rear. Cast iron railings survive to the front elevation.

Setting

The house faces northeast over the tree-lined Crawford Square green. It is set back from the footpath and slightly elevated, approached by a path and a short flight of concrete steps shared with the adjacent No. 18. The modest front garden has a concrete finish and is enclosed by a dwarf wall with painted metal railings adjacent to the steps. The quality of the setting is further enhanced by the stone outbuilding enclosing the rear of the site and fronting onto Academy Road.

Historical Context

Crawford Square was laid out in 1861 by Fitzgibbon Louch during the early part of his career, after he established an independent practice in Londonderry in 1859. Louch was also responsible for the entrance to the City Cemetery and the design of the Magazine Gate entrance to the city walls. The square followed the earlier Georgian-style terraces along Great James Street, Queen Street, and Clarendon Street, which had been established in the 1830s to 1860s, continuing the city's northward expansion and providing housing for Londonderry's professional classes. At the time the first tenders for dwellings on Crawford Square were invited in the 1860s, the Northland Road was still described as a country road leading from the city to Donegal. Crawford Square, along with Templemore and Victoria Parks, has been characterised as the city's delayed response to Dublin's garden squares, creating a green oasis for wealthy residents near the city centre.

Nos. 1–2 Crawford Square were the first houses 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. The Irish Builder recorded that Nos. 3–10 Crawford Square were designed by Robert Collins and constructed by the building firm of G. & R. Ferguson. No. 17, together with the adjoining No. 18, was constructed in 1888, making the pair the last buildings to be completed along the row. Despite being built over a decade after the rest of the terrace, Collins' original design appears to have been adhered to — the pair are almost identical to the rest of the terrace, though they have a higher upper storey than the adjoining buildings. Nos. 17 and 18 were constructed for Robert Hastings, a local flour merchant who held business premises at the Commercial Buildings on Foyle Street. The total rateable value of No. 17 was set at £40 by the Annual Revisions.

The first occupants were the family of Major S. Hervey Bruce, governor of H.M. Prison on Bishop Street. Major Bruce had died by 1911, when the census recorded his widow in occupation. The 1911 census building return described No. 17 as a first-class dwelling consisting of 12 rooms, with a stable as its sole outbuilding. In 1929 the house was acquired by the Trustees of Carlisle Road Presbyterian Church and used as a manse by the Reverend S. A. McVicker for over thirty years. The manse was converted into a number of flats in 1961, by which time the total rateable value stood at £83 10s. at the end of the Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956–72).

In 1970 the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society described Nos. 1–19 Crawford Square as "a fine terrace of three-storey rendered buildings on a sloping surface overlooking a tree-lined grassy square. The houses are well modelled, with two-storey height bay windows." Crawford Square was included in the Clarendon Street Conservation Area in 1978, and Nos. 1–23 Crawford Square were subsequently listed in 1979.