12 Crawford Square, Londonderry

No. 12 Crawford Square is a three-storey, two-bay rendered terraced house built in 1874, most likely to designs by Robert Collins, who served as Londonderry's Consulting Engineer from 1866 to 1874, though this attribution is unconfirmed. It forms part of an impressive and largely intact terrace of sixteen buildings set on a sloping site to the south-west side of Crawford Square, within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area. It shares group value with Nos. 3–11 and 13–18 Crawford Square.

Crawford Square itself was originally laid out in 1861 by Fitzgibbon Louch (1826–1911), a civil engineer and architect who established an independent practice in Londonderry in 1859 and was responsible for, among other works, the entrance to the City Cemetery and the Magazine Gate entrance to the city walls. The square was named after Samuel Law Crawford, a local solicitor who owned the land, and was designed as a tree-lined, grassed park enclosed on three sides by terraces of houses intended for the city's professional and merchant classes. It was conceived, along with Templemore and Victoria Parks, as a delayed equivalent of Dublin's garden squares — a green oasis near the city centre for its wealthier residents. The Northland Road, on which the square sits overlooking the River Foyle, was at the time of the first tenders in the 1860s still described as a country road leading out of the city towards Donegal.

The first houses on the square, Nos. 1 and 2, were erected in 1865 for Samuel Knox, a building contractor. The majority of the terrace was built for John McAdoo, a local seed merchant and landowner. Nos. 3–10 were recorded in the Irish Builder as being designed by Robert Collins and constructed by the firm of G. & R. Ferguson. Although it is not known whether Collins was personally involved in the later phases of construction, Nos. 11–16, including No. 12, are almost identical to the earlier terrace, indicating that his original design was followed throughout. No. 12 was constructed in 1874 alongside the adjoining No. 11, and on completion its total rateable value was assessed at £40. The first recorded occupant was John Gamble, a local seed merchant with business premises on Waterloo Place. The 1911 Census Building Return classified No. 12 as a first-class dwelling comprising twelve rooms, with a stable as its sole outbuilding. Ownership passed from McAdoo to a Ms Mary McConnell by the 1930s, who retained ownership until the 1970s. By the end of the Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956–72), the rateable value had fallen to £36.

Crawford Square was included in the Clarendon Street Conservation Area in 1978, defined as an area of special architectural or historic interest the character of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance, and Nos. 1–23 were subsequently listed in 1979. Records held by NIEA note that the roof of No. 12 was reslated in 1984, and in 1986 the building was treated for dry rot and an original first-floor sash window was replaced.

The house is of rectangular plan form facing north-east, with a three-storey rendered return to the rear and a two-storey outbuilding accessed from the rear. It is robust in design and Italianate in character. The pitched natural slate roof is continuous with that of the adjacent No. 11, and the large buff brick chimney stack, which has a moulded corbel and buff clay pots, is shared with No. 13. The eaves have timber fascia boards and a moulded soffit with paired block modillions. Half-round cast iron guttering discharges to a circular cast iron downpipe.

The front elevation features a two-storey, three-sided canted bay window with a parapet, recessed panels between the first and second storeys, and moulded cills and string courses. All window openings have segmental arched heads and 1/1 double-hung timber sash windows with moulded horns. The first-floor window above the main entrance door has a moulded architrave with stop blocks and a moulded cill, which is shared with No. 11. The doorcase has a semi-circular arched head with a hood mould incorporating a keystone, decorative console brackets, and a recessed surround with a moulded soffit. It contains a glazed fanlight, a tiled step, and a pair of panelled outer doors. An inner glazed door has slender timber columns with moulded capitals to each side, a rectangular fanlight above, and an original timber door with a glazed top panel and a single moulded bottom panel. The space between the outer and inner doors has a flat ceiling with a cornice.

The rear elevation and three-storey return are rendered with square-headed window openings. The return has replacement uPVC windows (where seen) and a hipped natural slate roof with blue-black hip and ridge tiles and a buff brick chimney stack with a moulded corbel, shared with the return of No. 11. To the rear of the site is a stone-built outbuilding with brick surrounds to its openings and a pitched roof covered in artificial slates. This outbuilding forms part of the stepped row of outbuildings associated with the Crawford Square houses that front onto Academy Road, and its presence further enhances the quality of the overall setting.

No. 12 is paired with and symmetrical to the adjacent No. 11. It is set back slightly from the footpath and elevated above it, approached by a path and a short flight of steps shared with No. 11, with a modest front garden enclosed by a dwarf wall. The tree-lined Crawford Square green lies directly to the north-east.