St. Eugene's Lodge, Francis Street, Londonderry, County Londonderry, BT48 9AP

St. Eugene's Lodge is a single-storey gate lodge with half-dormer attic, designed in the Gothic Revival style and built in 1905. The building is constructed of un-coursed squared local schist with Barony Glen Sandstone dressings, and was designed by Edward J. Toye (1857-1932), a prominent architect whose practice focused predominantly on work for the Catholic Church.

The lodge is a three-bay structure with strong proportions and complementary materials and detailing that relate to the surrounding cathedral complex. The front elevation faces south onto Creggan Street and features a centred entrance through an open timber porch with a square-headed doorway and plain fanlight above. Paired narrow external doors with three unequal moulded panels each flank the entrance. A projecting gabled bay at the west end contains paired 1/1 timber sliding sash windows on the ground floor and a single 1/1 timber sliding sash window on the first floor, with carved bargeboards featuring pierced trefoil motifs at the apex. The eaves are supported by timber corbel brackets with a sandstone string course below. A canted bay window appears on the east elevation. The west elevation repeats the window style of the front, with a side extension adjoining an outbuilding of St. Eugene's School.

An M-shaped extension extends to the rear on the north side at right angles to the main roof. A decorative square-headed stained glass window is located on the first floor of the west end of the north elevation. The pitched slate roof is fitted with decorative crested ridge tiles and scroll finial tiles to each gable end. Paired corniced sandstone chimney stacks centre the main roof ridge with clay pots, and a tall brick and stone chimney stack serves the west end bay on the north side.

The lodge stands on a triangular site at the south-east corner of the Francis Street gate, bounded by low schist and sandstone-dressed walls with wrought iron railings facing the roadside. It sits within the grounds of St. Eugene's Cathedral and has significant group value with the cathedral itself, the former Bishop's house, and the Convent School.

Historically, the lodge was initially valued at £9 and described as the sexton's house. Census records indicate it was originally occupied by Hugh Carlin, the Cathedral's Sacristan, and was recorded as a second-class dwelling comprising five rooms. The valuation increased to £21 under the First Revaluation of 1935 and to £26 by the end of the Second Revaluation (1956-72). The lodge was listed in 1979 and underwent extensive conservation in 1993, when McCormick Tracey Mullarkey Architects undertook internal and external upgrades including reslating of the roof, repointing of stonework, replacement of windows, and restoration of the ornate bargeboards. Despite minor internal layout changes, the interior retains interesting elements.