7 Bayview Terrace, Asylum Road, Londonderry

No. 7 Bayview Terrace, Asylum Road, Londonderry

No. 7 Bayview Terrace is a mid-Victorian end-of-terrace house built in 1870, of unknown architect. It forms the easternmost building in a continuous terrace of seven similar houses (Nos. 1–7 Bayview Terrace) lining the south side of Asylum Road, on the western bank of the River Foyle within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area.

The building is three storeys high with an attic, two bays wide, and rectangular in plan, facing north. The exterior is rendered, with banded rustication to the ground floor. To the rear there is a three-storey rendered return, which steps down to an attached flat-roofed single-storey extension. The hipped roof is covered in natural slate, continuous with the rest of the terrace, and carries two small dormers — one to the front and one to the rear. Roof drainage to the east elevation is by half-round cast iron guttering discharging to a circular cast iron downpipe; a uPVC downpipe serves the north elevation. Timber fascia and a slightly overhanging timber soffit complete the roofline.

The front (north) elevation is the most architecturally distinguished face of the building. A two-storey, three-sided canted bay rises from ground to first floor level. This bay has entablatures and a plain frieze to the lower window opening, and a blind fretwork frieze with a dentilled moulding to the parapet above at first floor level. A continuous sill course runs across the first floor windows. All window openings are square-headed with moulded architrave surrounds; the principal windows are 1/1 double-hung timber sliding sashes with moulded horns, though the windows within the canted bay have been replaced with timber casements. At first floor level there is one window aligned with the front door below, to the left of the canted bay; at second floor level there are two windows, centred on those below. On the main roof, a small pitched dormer centred on the front elevation has slated cheeks and a segmental-headed 1/1 timber sliding sash window.

The entrance doorcase is recessed within an elliptical arch, raised eight steps above street level. It is flanked by rendered square pilasters with an entablature above, and features a plain fanlight over a recessed pair of round-headed timber panelled doors, framed by moulded square pilasters of the Doric order with a moulded entablature above. Rendered corner quoins articulate the north-east corner of the front and gable elevations at first and second floor levels. The stone steps to the front entrance are fitted with modern galvanised handrails on either side, attached to existing iron railings and to rendered pilasters flanking the doorcase.

The rear (south) elevation is smooth-rendered and painted. At first and second floor levels the left-hand side of the elevation has timber casement windows; the third floor has a 1/1 double-hung timber sliding sash window to a wall dormer. The three-storey rear return has a pitched slate roof with black ridge tiles and uPVC rainwater goods. On the east elevation of the return there is a small outshot with a small timber casement window to the south side at second floor level; adjacent to this, on the east elevation itself, is a further small window opening whose glazing was not visible at the time of survey. The rear elevation of the return has two timber casement windows to the left side at first and second floor levels. A single-storey rendered outshot extends the full width of the rear of the site, abutting high concrete block walls at either end; it has a flat felt roof with a modern rooflight, a timber bargeboard, uPVC rainwater goods, timber casement windows, and a timber door opening onto the rear yard. The rear yard is enclosed by a high painted concrete wall with a vertically sheeted and braced timber gate, leading to an entrance lane accessed from Clarendon Street. The west side of the building abuts No. 6 Bayview Terrace, and the east gable faces a vacant plot; all three sections of the east elevation — the main three-storey house, the three-storey return, and the single-storey outshot — are blank.

Internally, the house retains decorative cornicing and other historic detailing, though some alterations to the internal layout have taken place.

The building is set behind a stone plinth wall with iron railings above, on the south side of Asylum Road, approached from the street by a flight of stone steps.

Historical background

Bayview Terrace was laid out in 1870, first recorded in the Annual Revisions of that year and first depicted on the Annual Revisions plan of Londonderry of circa 1873–1910. Asylum Road itself predates 1830 and therefore predates the surrounding streets of the Clarendon Street Conservation Area, which were laid out between approximately 1837 and the 1860s. The road originally formed the southern boundary of the Londonderry District Lunatic Asylum, built in 1825–29. The asylum was demolished in the 1960s, but its perimeter wall of locally quarried Derry Schist still stands opposite Bayview Terrace, marking the original institutional boundary. No buildings had been constructed along Asylum Road as of the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1853. The first houses to appear in the area were Nos. 1–13 Asylum Road, erected at the top of the hill around 1860, contemporary with the Georgian-style terraces of Queen Street and Clarendon Street. Nos. 1–7 Bayview Terrace were built a decade later and display a more distinctly Victorian character than those Georgian-style neighbours, though they are similar in scale. Ornate features of the terrace include Doric-columned door frames with entablatures, and bay windows on Nos. 1, 4, and 7 bearing entablatures with fretwork frieze decorations. The terrace took its name from its proximity to the River Foyle, which originally afforded views over Rosses Bay; subsequent land reclamation and construction on the eastern side of Strand Road has since removed that outlook.

The terrace was built on land owned by Harvey Nicholson, a local magistrate and Justice of the Peace, as recorded in the Ulster Town Directories. The architect is not known. No. 7 was originally valued at £48, with Matthew McClelland — a local magistrate and builder who resided at No. 1 Bayview Terrace — recorded as landlord. The first occupant was William Hunter, a clerk at the Union Workhouse and described in his will as a local gentleman. By 1911 the house had passed to John Boyd Moore, a veterinary surgeon; the 1911 census building return described it as a first-class dwelling comprising ten rooms, with a stable as its sole outbuilding. By the 1930s ownership had passed to John Hill, a local merchant, as recorded in the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), and the property's value was increased to £60 under that revaluation. By the Second Revaluation (1956–72) the value had risen further to £68, at which time the building was occupied by Hills (Derry) Ltd. The record also notes that No. 7 possessed a four-storey return leading onto Queen Street. In 1978 the Department of the Environment designated Bayview Terrace and the surrounding streets as a Conservation Area. No. 7 was listed in 1979 and was subsequently converted to office premises in the late 20th century. At the time of the second survey it was occupied by Gingerbread NI, a single-parent support organisation.

As a substantial terraced townhouse of the kind that became home to Londonderry's professional and merchant classes, No. 7 Bayview Terrace has architectural interest in its style, proportions, ornamental detailing and plan form, as well as historical interest by virtue of its age, authenticity and local significance. It also has group value as part of the complete terrace of seven houses.