Brookhall, 65 Culmore Road, Londonderry, BT48 8JE

Brookhall is a substantial two-storey double-pile house with a small two-storey north side return, finished in smooth rendering with part slated roof and part flat roof. The house features large bow bays, a verandah with metal trellis, and a basement extending under most of the structure. The design is in the Georgian style.

The entrance elevation is the principal front. It has a double, panelled central doorway with a rectangular fanlight, over which projects a flat roof portico supported on four couplets of Roman Doric columns resting on oversized bases in a tetrastyle arrangement. On either side of the doorway are round-headed niches without statues. Beyond these stand single Wyatt-style sliding sash windows with 20 panes each, and on either side of those again are further niches. A plinth runs across the front at the height of the window and niche cills, matching the height of the column bases. Above this runs a continuous string course marking a solid parapet, which is returned on the sides but becomes openwork in the middle with a Guilloche pattern. The solid parapet has a small central blocking piece with shield and corner blocks, and its top forms a gentle downward curve between these elements. To either side of the door are black fish sculptures. A brass door bell is fixed in the wall. Both door leaves carry two rectangular panels above and below, with an octagonal panel between.

Behind the parapet, a flat roof covers the single-storey front section, which abuts the full length of the two-storey part behind. This rear section is seven bays wide with a three-bay bowed break front, expressed in the slating. The windows here are twelve-pane sliding sash, all similar in design. At each extreme corner are tall chimney stacks, rendered and panelled on their front faces. On the flat roof are two glazed domes: a central one lighting the inner porch and a smaller one lighting an inner room called the gallery.

A wing screen wall projects from the south-west corner, providing privacy to the south garden terrace and a screened former glasshouse. This wall has two small windows of out-of-character design and a double door.

On the other side is a two-storey side return projecting to the north, with its west wall set back from the entrance front. Its ground floor is considerably lower than the main floor, with a flight of external steps running along it. It has a pitched, slated roof with a single chimney stack rising from the ridge.

The south side comprises the end of the flat-roofed front and the end of the two-storey east-facing part. The two-storey gable is practically a complete bow bay three bays wide, with three tall eighteen-pane sliding sash windows at ground floor and three shorter nine-pane sliding sash windows directly above. The verandah along the east front is returned along the south gable and extends just past the tall eighteen-pane window to the gallery. The verandah, which adds delight and picturesqueness to the facades, is supported on projecting walls following the profile of the bays. Its roof is a slated skirt supported on a metal trellis with pairs of slim slender columns spaced to frame the windows behind with segmented arches filled with metal tracery. Under the verandah and echoing the window positions above is a row of large square six-pane sliding sash windows with reeded architraves all round. The middle one is in fact a door to the basement with stone steps leading down. A small two-pane sliding sash window lights a toilet. The wing screen wall is interposed between this and the rest of the south side.

The east elevation, which looks down on the River Foyle, is five bays wide with a central bowed bay equal in width to that at the front. The verandah extends across the entire east side, expressing the profile of the bowed bay. The bay has three windows at ground and first floors similar to the south bay, with a single window on either side on each level. The metal trellis and skirt roof extend across this front. Under-basement windows as before are present. Steps at each end of the verandah lead down to the terraced lawns, which change level from south to east. The hipped, slated roof expresses each bay, with two chimney stacks on the ridges. The slates on the bay roofs are gradated smalls. Cast-iron guttering and downpipes are fitted throughout.

The side return has two small four-pane sliding sash windows at ground and first-floor levels and a glazed panel door leading onto a platform continuing the verandah on the north side. Under this platform a door gives access to the basement, with two windows flanking it. Also on this side are four sliding sash windows and one tiny window. A new flue in brick has been erected just above the eaves.

The north elevation overlooks a partially sunken court which drops to a lower level connecting to a service road or lane.

The house is approached by a long winding avenue downhill through a pleasing landscape planted with indigenous and exotic trees of fine appearance. The present owner's forebears, particularly his uncle, established an arboretum which attracts visitors. The house enjoys marvellous views of the River Foyle and the countryside beyond. The garden is laid out in a series of stepped terraces of lawns, with the lower ends forming a ha-ha with concealed metal fence below. Further downhill is a walled garden divided into three sections containing interesting plant specimens. The south section is managed by Derry City Council with separate road access. At the river's edge is a quay named after Sir George Fitzgerald Hill, the initial builder of the house and Member of Parliament for Londonderry. The screen wall to the west formerly had a conservatory against its east side.