17 De Burgh Terrace, Academy Road, Londonderry

Number 17 De Burgh Terrace is a late-Victorian end-of-terrace townhouse built around 1889, forming the last in a uniform row of seventeen two-and-a-half-storey, two-bay houses on the north side of De Burgh Terrace, Londonderry. It sits within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area and carries group value as the final building in a listed terrace (the preceding sixteen houses are listed separately). The house is Georgian in style despite its late-Victorian date of construction, and the exterior has largely retained its character, proportion, and detailing.

ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION

The building is rectangular on plan with a projecting rear return. The principal elevation faces south onto a long, sloping raised front garden. The roof is a pitched slate roof with clay ridge tiles, and a large dormer sits above the principal elevation at the front. A large brick chimney stack rises from the east side, centred on the ridge and fitted with six clay pots. Eaves to the main roof are bracketed, and the dormer has a decorative bargeboard. Cast-iron guttering and a circular downpipe serve the front elevation; uPVC guttering and downpipe are used to the rear.

The principal south elevation is built in Flemish bond red brick with a painted rendered plinth. At ground floor level there is a canted bay with square-headed painted 2/2 sliding sash windows having horizontally divided panes and ogee horns. The entrance doorway has a segmental arched opening with a moulded cornice supported by scrolled console brackets with acanthus leaf detail on pilasters; the door itself is a painted timber four-panelled door with a plain fanlight above. At first floor level the windows are segmental-headed painted 2/2 sliding sash, with coupled windows positioned above the bay and a single light above the doorcase. A continuous projecting sill course runs across the first floor. The second floor dormer, situated above the bay, contains a pair of round-headed painted 1/1 sliding sash windows.

The north elevation is rendered and painted, with a two-storey rear return fitted with uPVC casement windows. A further single-storey monopitched building abuts the rear return. The east elevation is blank and rendered up to the underside of the chimney, with brick toothed quoins; timber garage doors occupy the north side of this elevation, which faces onto De Burgh Square. The west side abuts the adjoining No. 16 De Burgh Terrace.

BOUNDARIES AND REAR YARD

The southern boundary wall is of red brick with a rendered finish, a concrete coping, and a metal gate. To the north and east, the boundary is defined by a random schist stone wall. This schist walling to the rear and to the east boundary at the gable end further enriches the quality of the setting of the terrace.

The boundary to No. 17 along the rear lane is defined by a random schist stone wall with original upright stone copings still in place, though additional stone and brick have been added above to form the parapet of a monopitched outhouse with corrugated metal roofing behind; this parapet has a precast concrete capping. A former doorway to the shared rear lane has been infilled with red brick. Sheeted timber painted double doors provide access to the outhouse through the east boundary wall. The schist stone wall continues beyond this point, joined by a smooth rendered wall with a panelled door that leads to the rear yard next to the house. Beyond the rendered east gable, schist stone walling runs to the south street frontage, topped by timber-boarded fencing immediately adjacent to the front of the house and mature hedging beyond.

Access to the rear yard is from a shared lane that runs the length of the terrace.

MATERIALS

Roof: natural slate with clay ridge tiles. Rainwater goods: cast iron to the south, uPVC to the north. Walling: red brick in Flemish bond to the south, render to the north. Windows: timber sliding sash to the south, uPVC to the north.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The circa 1873 valuation town plan of Londonderry records that De Burgh Terrace was originally laid out in the 1870s, though the street was at that time unnamed and had no buildings. The first houses were not constructed until 1889. The development of De Burgh Terrace followed the earlier establishment of Georgian-style terraces along Great James Street, Queen Street, and Clarendon Street in the 1830s to 1860s, as the city continued its northward expansion to house Londonderry's professional and merchant classes spreading out from the Walled City. The northward expansion of the city was physically constrained by the walls of the Lunatic Asylum, which directed new development to the north-west onto picturesque hill sites overlooking the River Foyle. Terraces such as Crawford Square and De Burgh Terrace were erected in this area as a result. As scholar Calley has noted, the development of large terraces around a central garden or square can be seen as the city's delayed response to Dublin's garden squares, creating near the city centre a green oasis for its wealthier residents.

Following the laying out of Crawford Square in the 1860s to 1870s, Nos 1–17 De Burgh Terrace were developed by Ulick James Daly, a civil servant and gentleman who resided at Eccles Street in Dublin. Daly originally submitted plans for 18 houses on the terrace in 1888, but only 17 were ever built. The terrace was constructed in stages between 1889 and 1894, with Nos 1–8 being the first completed. The majority of the houses were leased by the Daly family following completion. Annual Revisions record that Nos 15–17 De Burgh Terrace were constructed in 1894 and were valued at £15 each — £1 more than most of the adjoining terrace, as these three houses possessed an additional room.

In 1911, No. 17 was occupied by John Samuels, a schoolmaster at Foyle College and Londonderry Academical Institution. The Census Building Return for that year described the house as a first-class dwelling consisting of 11 rooms. The Daly estate remained in family ownership until the 1930s, when a Mr Matthew McNeary purchased the lease on the property. By the end of the Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956–72), McNeary was still recorded as owner and the property was valued at £30.

Nos 1–17 De Burgh Terrace were listed in 1979. De Burgh Terrace was not included within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area when it was first designated in 1978, but in 2006 the conservation area boundary was extended primarily in order to incorporate the terrace. It has since been designated an area of special architectural or historic interest, the character of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance. Calley, writing in 2013, described De Burgh Terrace as "quite simply delightful", noting that what makes the houses particularly fine are the long sloping raised gardens to the front, which are generally very well maintained with some fine trees.

ALTERATIONS

To the rear of the building, a square dormer and uPVC casement windows have been introduced, which detract from the overall character. A renovation carried out in 1990–92 included the reconstruction of the red brick chimney stack, the reslating of the roof using second-hand slate, and the installation of new entrance doors.

SETTING

De Burgh Terrace is located immediately north-west of the town centre, on the western side of the River Foyle. It is accessed from Academy Road, which runs between Rosemount Avenue to the north-west and Northland Road to the south-east. Brooke Park lies to the south-west of the terrace. The row of seventeen houses has long front gardens and small rear yards, the latter accessed from a rear alleyway running the full length of the terrace.