18 Queen Street, Londonderry, County Londonderry, BT48 7EF

18 Queen Street, Londonderry

This is a detached two-storey former manse, built in 1861 in a simple Nash Italianate style. It stands on a corner plot at the junction of Queen Street and Patrick Street, and is three bays wide on each of its principal elevations. The building is finished in ruled and lined render throughout and sits within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area, where it cuts a distinctive and self-contained figure among the predominantly three-storey Georgian-style townhouses of the surrounding streets. It faces the polychromatic City Factory opposite. The site is bounded by a low rendered wall that adds further character to the setting.

Exterior

The roof is a deep overhanging hipped structure covered in natural slate, a feature that gives the building much of its particular character. Rainwater goods are cast iron.

On the ground floor, windows are round-headed; on the first floor they are segmental-headed. All windows have chamfered, slightly blocked rendered surrounds. The current windows are timber sliding sash replacements.

The principal west elevation faces Queen Street and is symmetrically arranged. It features a central inverted breakfront with a large round-headed entrance doorway, flanked on the ground floor by coupled windows. The first floor above carries three segmental-headed windows.

The north elevation faces Patrick Street and has similar fenestration to the Queen Street front, except that the central bay on both ground and first floor has square-headed windows. Between these windows is an inscribed rendered date shield bearing the year 1861. The leftmost first-floor window has a raised cill level, with the original cill intact and a partial build-up visible where the new cill level was formed.

The east elevation is finished in roughcast render and is abutted by a high red brick boundary wall belonging to the adjacent property. At ground floor level on this side there is a single-storey extension with a catslide slated roof. At first-floor level on the left side of this elevation there is a small single timber sliding sash window on a painted concrete sill, and to the right side a square uPVC downpipe.

The south elevation overlooks the former church building. It contains a coupled semicircular arched window on the ground floor and a segmental arched window on the first floor. A two-storey rear extension projects from this elevation and also has a catslide slated roof, with a semicircular arched window on both ground and first floor levels. This extension is abutted by a single-storey flat-roofed entrance porch accessed from Queen Street.

Interior

Despite alterations to the internal layout, a considerable number of interesting original elements survive inside the building.

History and Context

No. 18 Queen Street was constructed in 1861 as the manse for the adjoining Congregational Church — also known as the Independent Chapel — which had been built between 1856 and 1858 on the corner of Great James Street and Queen Street. The development of this area was part of a broader period of remarkable growth in the economy and population of Londonderry during the mid-19th century. As the historian John Hume has observed, during the period 1825 to 1850 the reconstruction of buildings within the city walls took place alongside the first development of housing outside the walls at Bogside and Edenballymore. Great James Street was laid out around 1833, Clarendon Street around 1856, and Queen Street followed as part of the same expansion. O'Hagan's 1847 plan of Londonderry and the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1853 show that by the mid-19th century only the western side of Queen Street had been developed.

The manse was first recorded in the Annual Revisions in 1862, shortly after completion, when its rateable value was set at £30. The valuer noted it had a single outbuilding and was held as freehold, administered by the church trustees. The first minister to live there was the Reverend Robert Sewell, who had previously resided at 16 Clarendon Street. Sewell remained at the manse until 1885, when the Reverend Alexander Bell succeeded him as minister and took up residence. In 1910, Bell vacated the property and the church trustees leased it to private tenants. That same year a Mr John G. McVicker moved in; the valuer recorded that the manse's only outbuilding was demolished in 1910, reducing the total rateable value of the site to £27. The 1911 census described the dwelling as a large first-class house with ten main rooms, and recorded its occupant — listed there as John G. Vicker — as a merchant tailor.

The Congregational Church continued to hold services until 1929, during which time only Sewell and Bell had lived at the manse. When the congregation departed, Londonderry Third Presbyterian Church took over the church building and converted it into a church hall and caretaker's house. By the First General Revaluation, recorded in 1935, ownership of the manse had passed to Londonderry Third Presbyterian and its rateable value had risen to £38. The building continued in use as a private dwelling until 1965, when the ground floor was converted into offices and the first floor became a private apartment, raising the total rateable value to £73.

In 1978 the Department of the Environment designated the mid-19th century terraces and buildings of Great James Street, Queen Street and Clarendon Street as a Conservation Area, described as an area of special architectural or historic interest the character of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance. No. 18 Queen Street was listed the following year in 1979. General repairs were carried out in 1996, including re-slating of the roof, as recorded in the Northern Ireland Environment Agency Historic Buildings records.

The Ulster Architectural Heritage Society described the building as a fine two-storey detached rendered house with a well-defined roof overhang giving the house character, noting that the ground-floor windows are arranged in pairs and are round-headed, while those on the first floor are single and segmental-headed. Writing in 2013, Calley described it as a freestanding former manse that is a fine structure with the simplicity of a Nash Italianate farmhouse, and a most satisfactory building, well looked after.

By the late 20th century, most mid-Victorian townhouses on Queen Street had been converted into offices for professional firms. No. 18 most recently housed the offices of a local opticians firm.