3 Aberfoyle Terrace, Strand Road, Londonderry, County Londonderry, BT48 6SE

No. 3 Aberfoyle Terrace is a late-Victorian three-storey end-of-terrace townhouse, built in approximately 1891 to designs by the local architect and engineer William A. Barker (1851–1898). It was the first house to be constructed in what became a terrace of seventeen, with the remainder built in stages and completed in 1911. The building is located on the west side of Strand Road, Londonderry, overlooking the River Foyle, close to the University of Ulster (Magee Campus). It sits within the Magee Conservation Area and forms part of a listed group, Nos. 3–35 Aberfoyle Terrace, whose late-Victorian and Edwardian detailing and form contribute to the character of that conservation area.

The terrace as a whole represents part of the northward expansion of Londonderry that gathered pace through the 19th century. Earlier phases of that expansion had produced Georgian-style terraces on Great James Street, Queen Street, Clarendon Street, Crawford Square and De Burgh Terrace. By the late 19th century, development had reached the campus of Magee University, which had been incorporated into the Royal University of Ireland in 1879, and new red brick terraces followed at Clarence Avenue, College Terrace and Aberfoyle Terrace itself. The terrace was built on land belonging to John McFarland, a local magistrate and engineer who lived at Aberfoyle House on the hill above Strand Road, from which the terrace takes its name — though it was originally known as Templemore Terrace until the name was changed to Aberfoyle in around 1903. Barker, who also designed Florence Terrace on Northland Road, a Professor's House within Magee Campus, and was associated with the layout of Foyle College grounds for building purposes, produced the standard design for the houses on the terrace, but died in 1898 before the terrace was completed. The McFarland estate retained ownership of the terrace until at least the 1970s. The terrace was listed in 1979 and incorporated into the Magee Conservation Area in 2006.

No. 3 is notably different from the other houses in the terrace. While the majority are two-storey with dormer attic level, No. 3 — along with No. 35 at the south end — rises to three full storeys, forming a bookend to the composition. The greater part of the terrace is built in Flemish bond red brick with contrasting polychromatic dressings, but Nos. 3 and 5 are set apart by their smooth-rendered and painted finish.

The building is rectangular on plan with a large projecting rear return. The principal elevation faces east onto Strand Road and is set behind modern painted steel railings enclosing a concrete-paved forecourt. The slated pitched roof carries terracotta clay ridge tiles, with large two-stage yellow brick chimney stacks rising from each gable elevation, each centred on the ridge and topped with terracotta circular clay pots. Cast-iron guttering and a circular downpipe run along the front.

The principal east elevation is of smooth-rendered painted finish with a deep projecting eaves cornice supported on corbel brackets. A canted bay rises through two storeys from ground floor level, with a sill course to the ground and first floor windows and a slightly projecting moulded cornice at the top of the bay. The window openings to the canted bay and at second floor level are segmental arch-headed; the first floor window above the door opening is square-headed with a moulded surround. All windows are 2/2 timber sliding sashes, with the first floor left-side window having a moulded surround, and a sill course and shoulder course to the second floor windows. The entrance doorway has a semicircular arch-headed opening approached by two steps, with a moulded surround, a flying keystone, and plain pilasters to either side. The doors themselves are a pair of painted three-panel fielded timber doors constructed as one unit, with a plain fanlight above.

The north elevation is cement rendered in an unpainted finish, with a single 1/1 timber sliding sash window at first floor level to the left side and a single window opening to the right side of the ground floor (not visible from the street at the time of survey). The south side is abutted by the adjoining No. 5 Aberfoyle Terrace. The west rear elevation is three storeys of unpainted cement render, abutted by a single-storey unpainted cement-rendered extension with a slated half-hipped roof that spans the width of the site and connects with the rear extension to No. 5. This single-storey extension was added in 1990 and is used as a waiting area. The fenestration to the rear is irregular, with 1/1 timber sliding sash windows to the rear elevation and casements to the rear extension. The rear extension has black clay ridge tiles in contrast to the terracotta clay ridge tiles of the main roof. The roof of No. 3 was reslated in 1993.

Some historic detailing survives internally, though alterations have detracted from the building in this respect.

The original occupant, recorded at the time of construction in 1891, was Philip McLaughlin, a post office clerk. The building was originally valued at £20, having been constructed at a cost of £300. By the 1901 Census it was recorded as a first-class dwelling of ten rooms with a shed as its sole outbuilding. In 1946 the house was converted into a medical surgery by Dr Denis Cavanagh, and it has remained in medical use since the 1940s. In 1965 the practice expanded into the ground floor of the adjoining No. 5, whose upper floors were converted into self-contained flats. The building continues in use as a health centre.

The terrace sits in a significantly changed urban setting. It overlooks the four-lane Strand Road carrying heavy fast-moving traffic, and the Conservation Area Design Guide has noted that the ambiance surrounding Aberfoyle Terrace has changed out of all recognition from the days when it was home to families looking onto a very different Strand Road. Magee College (University of Ulster) is located at high level immediately to the rear to the west, and the River Foyle lies to the east.