63 Rosemount Avenue, Londonderry

63 Rosemount Avenue is a mid-terrace two-bay two-storey red-brick townhouse with attic, built in 1904 as part of a terrace of five similar dwellings. The building is rectangular on plan with a three-storey rear return constructed at half-landing height, and adjoins properties to north-east and south-west, with the principal elevation facing south-east onto Rosemount Avenue at an elevated position overlooking Brooke Park.

The principal south-east elevation is constructed in red-brick laid in English Garden Wall Bond, featuring a canted rendered and painted bay window to the left with continuous cill and painted cornice, and a segmental-headed uPVC entrance door to the right with small overlight. Two first-floor windows above have segmental-arched heads with brick voussoirs. These windows and the ground-floor bay contain replacement 1/1 uPVC glazing with moulded concrete cills. A large red-brick two-stage chimney stack with five terracotta clay pots rises from the north-east side, featuring projecting stepped dog-tooth red-brick cornice detail that matches the cornice at eaves level. The pitched roof has been replaced with fibre-cement slate with black clay ridge tiles and two modern rooflights. Aluminium rainwater goods serve the front elevation, with uPVC goods to the rear. The south-west side abuts Rosemount Factory whilst the north-east side abuts No. 61 Rosemount Avenue.

The rear north-west elevation is rendered smooth at the main wall and three-storey rear return, with replacement uPVC windows to first-floor and first-floor landing levels. uPVC rainwater goods serve the rear extension.

The terrace was developed in 1904 to the north-east of the newly constructed Rosemount Shirt Factory (designed by local architect Matthew Alexander Robinson and erected for A. B. Grant & Sons), which facilitated working-class housing development in the area. The five dwellings, originally named Park Villas after their proximity to Brooke Park's entrance, were owned by William Doherty with a rateable value of £12 at construction. The first recorded occupant was Robert Guill, a local baker, who resided there in 1911 when the census classified it as a second-class dwelling containing eight rooms. Ownership passed to Mrs Annie McVeigh by the 1930s. The property's rateable value had increased to £20 by 1936-57 under the First General Revaluation, when occupied by John Gallagher, and to £22 by the Second Revaluation (1956-72) when occupied by T. P. Black.

The architectural and historic integrity of the exterior has been compromised by the loss of original windows and the addition of a rear extension. As a late example of the type with extensive alterations and inappropriate modern additions, it represents a diminished version of the terrace's original character, which was originally distinguished by two-storey two-bay proportions with high wall-head above first-floor windows, contrasting rendered canted bay windows with pitched roofs, segmental-headed openings, and boldly projecting cornices in matching brick with coordinated chimney detailing.