1 Bayview Terrace, Asylum Road, Londonderry

No. 1 Bayview Terrace is a mid-Victorian end-of-terrace house built in 1870, forming the westernmost dwelling in a terrace of seven broadly similar properties (Nos 1–7 Bayview Terrace) lining the south side of Asylum Road on the western side of the River Foyle, within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area. It stands on the corner of Asylum Road and Queen Street, and carries group value with the remaining six houses in the terrace.

ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION

The building is three storeys with an attic level, rendered throughout, and sits on a rectangular plan facing north. The ground floor is finished with rendered banded rustication, and rendered quoins articulate the corners at first and second floor level. A large three-storey rendered return projects to the rear, itself abutted by an adjoining three-storey extension with a flat roof and low parapet wall behind.

The hipped roof is covered in natural slate and features two small pitched-roof dormers — one to the front and one to the west side — each containing a semicircular or concealed window. There are three chimney stacks: two are two-stage rendered and brick chimneys, one rising from the west end of the main house with terracotta clay pots, the other from the south end of the main house with buff clay pots; the third is a rendered stack rising from the south end of the rear return, topped with three octagon-shaped buff clay pots. The roof has a timber fascia and a slightly overhanging timber soffit, with half-round cast iron guttering discharging to circular cast aluminium downpipes on the west elevation.

FRONT ELEVATION (NORTH)

The front elevation is two bays wide. To the right of the entrance, a two-storey three-sided canted bay rises from ground to first floor level. It features entablatures and a plain frieze above the lower window, blind fretwork decoration to the upper frieze, and a dentilled moulding to the parapet above; the windows to the canted bay are timber casements. Rendered banded rustication continues across the ground floor, and a continuous sill course runs across the first floor windows. The remaining window openings are square-headed with moulded architrave surrounds and 1-over-1 double-hung timber sliding sash windows with moulded horns.

The entrance doorcase is recessed and elliptically arched, approached by two tiled steps rendered over. It is flanked by rendered square pilasters with an entablature above and a plain fanlight. The door itself is a pair of recessed single-panel timber doors framed by moulded square pilasters of the Doric order, with a moulded entablature and decorative acanthus leaf detail to the crown moulding above. Rendered quoins mark the northwest corner at first and second floor level. A small pitched-roof dormer, centred above the second floor windows, contains a semicircular 1-over-1 timber sliding sash window.

WEST SIDE ELEVATION (FACING QUEEN STREET)

The west elevation of the main block has six square-headed window openings, two aligned on each floor level. The left-hand ground floor bay is entirely blocked up. A small pitched-roof slate dormer, positioned slightly off-centre, contains a concealed plywood window. The west elevation of the rear return features an oriel window with curved edges extending across the first and second floors; the lower window has a uPVC casement and the upper a steel-framed window. The remaining windows on this elevation are square-headed 1-over-1 timber sliding sashes: two on the ground floor, one to the left of the oriel window on each of the first and second floors, and two further sashes at attic level, all with margin panes. An exposed section of the rear return gable has a window opening to the right-hand side at second floor level.

The west elevation of the rear flat-roof extension has a square-headed door opening on the left side, containing a vertically sheeted timber door with a plain architrave surround and fanlight above, and square-headed 1-over-1 timber sliding sash windows. A concrete coping sits atop the solid parapet.

EAST SIDE

The east side of No. 1 is abutted by No. 2 Bayview Terrace.

REAR ELEVATION (SOUTH)

The rear is occupied by the three-storey return, which has a pitched slate roof with black ridge tiles. It is abutted by a three-storey flat-roof extension that spans the full length of the site and adjoins the neighbouring former manse.

MATERIALS

The roof is natural slate; rainwater goods are cast iron; external walling is painted render; windows are a mixture of timber sliding sashes and timber casements.

WINDOWS

A number of windows are replacements following bomb damage sustained in 1992, but sufficient original external detailing survives — notably the timber panelled front door and the bay window with its fretwork frieze entablature — for the building to retain its special architectural character.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Bayview Terrace was laid out in 1870 and first recorded in the Annual Revisions of that year, with the terrace first depicted on the Annual Revisions Plan of Londonderry of approximately 1873. The terrace takes its name from its former outlook over Rosses Bay on the River Foyle; subsequent land reclamation and construction on the eastern side of the Strand Road has removed this view.

Asylum Road itself predates 1830 and thus predates the surrounding streets of the Clarendon Street Conservation Area, which were laid out between approximately 1837 and the 1860s. The road formed the southern boundary of the Londonderry District Lunatic Asylum, built between 1825 and 1829. The asylum itself was demolished in the 1960s, but its perimeter wall of locally quarried Derry Schist still stands opposite Bayview Terrace, marking the original institutional boundary. No buildings were recorded along Asylum Road on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1853. The first houses to appear — Nos 1–13 Asylum Road, at the top of the hill — were erected around 1860, contemporary with the Georgian-style terraces along Queen Street and Clarendon Street. Nos 1–7 Bayview Terrace were constructed approximately a decade later and display a more distinctly Victorian character than their Georgian-style neighbours, with ornate features including Doric-columned door frames and entablatures; Nos 1, 4 and 7 additionally have bay windows with fretwork frieze decorations to the entablatures.

The terrace was built on land owned by Harvey Nicholson, a local magistrate and Justice of the Peace, though the architect is not known. No. 1 was originally occupied by Matthew McClelland, a local magistrate and builder who leased the whole terrace from Nicholson and sublet Nos 2–7 to tenants. The McClelland family remained landlord of the majority of the terrace until the 1970s. The original valuation of No. 1 was £57. By 1911 the property was occupied by Joseph Dean, a local magistrate and commercial trader; the 1911 census building return described it as a first-class dwelling of twelve rooms, reflecting its character as one of the residences of Londonderry's professional and merchant classes.

The First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57) raised the rateable value to £68 and records that in 1945 the property was occupied by Dr Joseph A. L. Johnston, who had partially converted it into a medical surgery. Dr Johnston continued to practise from the address until 1966, when the building was converted into offices. By the end of the Second Revaluation (1956–72) the value had risen to £144.

In 1978 the Department of the Environment designated Bayview Terrace and the surrounding streets as the Clarendon Street Conservation Area. No. 1 Bayview Terrace was subsequently listed in 1979. In 1992 a bomb exploded outside the building, shattering all original windows and causing minor façade damage. The building was restored in 1993 and has continued in use as office premises.

SETTING

The building occupies a corner site on the south side of Asylum Road and the east side of Queen Street. It is set behind a low stone wall with steel railings above, and the main entrance is approached by a short flight of stone steps. It sits within a terrace row of seven houses of similar type and style facing north, situated within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area.