Derby Bar, 63A Great James Street, Londonderry, County Londonderry, BT48 7DF

Derby Bar

The Derby Bar is a three-storey Edwardian Freestyle public house prominently sited on the rising corner junction of Great James Street and Lower Road in Londonderry. Built in 1894 (as inscribed on the building), it was designed by local architect Daniel Conroy, with later alterations and improvements attributed to James Patrick McGrath.

The building presents three bays to each of its principal elevations facing north and east, whilst its south and west elevations are built against adjoining dwellings. The most distinctive feature is the canted corner, which contains the entrance doorway with a curved oriel window above on the first floor. The design demonstrates Art Nouveau characteristics mixed with classical motifs, marking it as an early and locally significant example of the Art Nouveau movement.

The exterior walls are constructed of painted brick and stucco. The ground floor contains a shouldered square-headed three-light window with a stucco swan-neck pediment, flanked by coupled decorative pilasters. A round-headed single-light window appears at the south end of the east elevation. First-floor windows are 15-over-2 painted timber sliding sash with square-headed keystone surrounds flanked by plain pilasters, with a stucco sill course and salient cornice above. The second-floor windows are simpler 1-over-1 painted timber sliding sash with square-headed surrounds. The entrance doorcase features a painted three-panelled timber double door with a square-headed keystone arch supporting the oriel window corbel above.

The roof is gabled and hipped, clad in slate with clay ridge tiles. Painted render chimney-stacks in two stages with four pots to the south elevation and eight pots to the west elevation. Cast-iron rainwater goods are present throughout.

The interior has been largely altered with little trace of original historic features remaining. However, the quality of the external detailing is good, preserving the building's value as a rare example of Edwardian Freestyle architecture. The facade appears to have undergone very little structural alteration since completion, as confirmed by an architect's sketch published in 1992 by the Foyle Civic Trust, though this sketch indicates that a dormer window formerly present on the Lower Road side has since been demolished or was never constructed.

The building was first recorded in 1901, when it served both as a public house (occupying three bays on Lower Road and two bays on Great James Street) and as an attached private dwelling. The public house was initially occupied by Patrick Magill and valued at £30, with the adjoining dwelling valued at £12. The Magill family remained associated with the building into the 1970s. Under the First Revaluation of 1935, the public house was valued at £65, increasing to £160 under the Second Revaluation (1956-72), when Mary Magill was noted as owner. The Derby Bar has remained in public house use continuously for over a century.

The building stands in stylistic contrast to the Georgian-style terraces of the Clarendon Street Conservation Area, with its employment of natural and curving lines opposing the uniformity and symmetry of surrounding buildings, though it respects the height and proportions of neighbouring structures. It was listed in 1987.