60 Northland Road, Londonderry, Co. Londonderry, BT48 0AL

60 Northland Road, Londonderry

This is an end-of-terrace, three-storey-with-attic, two-bay rendered Italianate-style townhouse, built in 1869 to designs by John Guy Ferguson (c.1830–1901), one of Londonderry's most prominent Victorian architects. The terrace of three houses — nos 56, 58, and 60 — is known collectively as 'Edenbank' and was recorded in the Irish Builder in 1869 as possessing 'pleasing Italian elevations' with 'deeply recessed doorways with crested bays rising two storeys'. The terrace was built by contractor Alexander McElwee, who frequently collaborated with Ferguson, and commissioned by James McNeill, a steamboat agent whose company operated from Shipquay Street. The listing covers both the house and the mews building to the rear.

Ferguson was a partner in the practice of Frazer, Ferguson & Frazer from 1861, and was appointed architect to the Church of Ireland diocese of Derry and Raphoe in 1868. Among his other notable works in the city are St Augustine's Church, the Apprentice Boys' Memorial Hall, the extension to St Columb's Cathedral, the design of the first Guildhall, and nos 1–2 Crawford Square (1865).

The terrace sits on an elevated site on the west side of Northland Road, at its junction with Eden Terrace, in the townland of Edenballymore, with views down to the River Foyle to the east. This part of the city was still largely rural when construction began. The opening of Magee College in 1865 stimulated residential development in the surrounding area, including College Terrace, Clarence Avenue, Florence Terrace, and Crawford Square, all constructed during the period of economic growth and prosperity that ran from the 1860s to the end of the 19th century.

The building has a rectangular plan form facing north-east, with a three-storey rendered return built at half-landing height, stepping down to a single-storey extension that overlooks a long enclosed garden, and with a local schist outbuilding to the rear of the site.

The roof is pitched and hipped natural slate with clay roll-top ridge tiles to the ridge and hip. A tall smooth rendered unpainted two-stage chimney stack to the left side is shared with no. 58. Half-round cast-iron guttering discharges to a circular painted cast-iron downpipe on the adjoining building, no. 58 Northland Road. There is also replacement uPVC rainwater goods present.

The front elevation (north-east facing) is the most architecturally rich face of the building and retains much of its original character, style and proportions. The ground floor has channelled rusticated render; the upper floors are painted smooth plaster with corner stepped plaster quoins. A decorative cornice runs along the top of the elevation, featuring narrow fielded panels, roundels, and paired corbel brackets that support the projecting eaves.

The doorway is a particular highlight, containing three-panel timber double doors with roundels at mid-height, set within a shouldered arch with a detailed plaster architrave incorporating a rope moulding, a vermiculated keystone, and vermiculated blocks. To the left of the doorway is a two-storey canted bay window with a hipped roof, surmounted by cast-iron cresting. Ground and first floor windows are square-headed with 2/2 timber sliding sashes. The first-floor window to the right is an aedicule framed by foliate console brackets. Second-floor windows are segmental-arched 2/2 timber sliding sashes with slightly shouldered architraves sitting on a continuous sill course. A roof dormer to the left has a round-arched 1/1 timber sliding sash window with a decorative timber fascia and a cast-iron finial to the apex. There is a small modern rooflight to the right side.

The south-east side elevation abuts no. 58 Northland Road. The rear (south-west) elevation is of smooth unpainted render. It has a three-storey return built to the left at half-landing level, abutted by a single-storey return. Fenestration to the rear includes a single square-headed 2/2 timber sliding sash window to the first floor, a 1/1 timber sliding sash to the second floor on the right side, and a segmental-headed 1/1 timber sliding sash window to the second floor on the left above the roof of the rear return. The rear return contains replacement timber casement windows at first and second floor landing levels. A smooth rendered buttress wall to the left of the rear return rises to first floor level with a sloping slate-clad top. A small roof dormer on the right side matches the style of the front dormer but contains a replacement timber casement window to its lower section.

The north-west elevation presents a blank rendered wall adjacent to the garden of the neighbouring property. It has strip quoins to the left corner from plinth to cornice under a continuous sill course at first floor level, with stepped quoins to the upper floors.

The two-storey outbuilding to the rear of the site is constructed of local schist walling with redbrick-dressed window openings, containing a replacement timber casement window to the left. The right section of the north-east elevation is covered in ivy. The south-west elevation has square-headed openings with two sets of double timber doors and replacement casement windows above. The outbuilding has a pitched natural slate roof with clay roll-top ridge tiles and replacement uPVC rainwater goods.

The front garden is small and enclosed by a low rendered plinth wall with a capping stone and metal railings above. The rear garden is enclosed by a schist boundary wall with the schist outbuilding at the far end.

Nos 56, 58, and 60 together have recognised group value, and the Magee Conservation Area Baseline Audit (2010) described the three houses as 'very fine three-storey houses' of 'very high architectural quality', noting that they 'differ considerably in their detailing from other terraces either in the Magee or Clarendon Street Conservation Areas' and appear to be 'the only plastered and painted terrace in the city with horizontal astragal divisions in the sash windows', though at the time of the audit they were identified as buildings at risk due to their poor condition.

Historically, no. 60 was valued at £35 in the Annual Revisions of 1870. James McNeill initially leased the property to a Mr John Moore Little, but by 1875 it had passed to John Lindsay. Upon Lindsay's death around 1876, the house passed to his widow Annie. By the turn of the century it was occupied by John Greenhill, employed at a local chemical plant. The 1911 census building return classified no. 60 as a first-class dwelling of 13 rooms with a coach house and stable among its outbuildings. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57) the house had passed to R. McKee, who leased it to Henry McCready, with the value rising to £40. Ownership and occupancy remained unchanged by the end of the Second Revaluation (1956–72), at which point the value stood at £38. An outline planning application for a 70-bed hotel on the site of nos 56–60 was submitted in November 2004 but withdrawn in July 2006. The houses were included in the Magee Conservation Area in 2006.