22 Crawford Square, Londonderry

22 Crawford Square, Londonderry

This is a Victorian end-of-terrace townhouse of three bays and three storeys over a basement, with an attic and rear return, built in 1862 in red brick with stucco dressings. It forms a pair with the adjoining No. 23, and together the two houses read as a coherent group with Nos. 20 and 21, forming a terrace of four. All four are thought to have been designed by John Guy Ferguson (c. 1830–1901), one of Londonderry's most prominent architects, on the basis of their striking similarity to Nos. 1 and 2 Crawford Square, which are the earliest houses firmly attributed to him. Ferguson later designed the Apprentice Boys' Hall and the Guildhall (1887). If the attribution is correct, Nos. 20–23 Crawford Square would represent the earliest known domestic work by the city's most prolific architect. Crawford Square itself was laid out in 1861 by civil engineer and architect Fitzgibbon Louch (1826–1911), who established an independent practice in Londonderry in 1859 and was also responsible for the Magazine Gate entrance to the city walls. The square was named after Samuel Law Crawford, a local solicitor who owned the land, and was laid out on an inclined site to the northwest of the city, off Northland Road, which at the time was still a country road leading out toward Donegal. Together with Templemore and Victoria Parks, Crawford Square represented the city's response to Dublin's garden squares, providing a green oasis for Londonderry's professional and merchant classes close to the city centre.

The principal elevation faces south onto Crawford Square and is set behind a low stone boundary wall with painted cast-iron railings above. The upper floors are in red brick laid in Flemish bond, with rusticated stucco to the ground floor. A dentilled cornice sits on a moulded sill-course at first-floor level. The advanced left bay is particularly ornate, with a pedimented gable, toothed quoins rising from first-floor level, and a canted bay window rising from basement to first floor, finished with a moulded cornice and a guilloche ornamental pattern to the frieze below.

The windows throughout are carefully ordered. On the ground and first floors they are square-headed 2/2 timber sliding sashes, with 1/1 timber sliding sashes to the sides of the canted bay. The second-floor window is a tripartite arrangement with 1/1 timber sliding sashes flanking a central 2/2 sliding sash, each pane separated by a decorative console bracket with foliate detail; above this is a dentilled band topped by a dentilled segmental arch crown moulding with a brick tympanum. At attic level within the pedimented gable sits a Diocletian window with three unequal lights divided by plain mullions, within a moulded stucco surround with keystone. Above the entrance doorway on the first floor, the window has a moulded stucco architrave with decorative console brackets to either side supporting a deep projecting cornice; the second-floor window above has a lugged architrave surround. Above that, a semicircular arched dormer at attic level contains a square-headed 2/2 timber sliding sash window with slated cheeks.

The entrance doorway is set within a large semicircular arched opening with a moulded surround, accessed via entrance steps over the basement well, shared with No. 23 and flanked by stone walling and cast-iron railings. A cast-iron boot scraper survives at the top step. The steps lead to a pair of raised-and-fielded timber doors flanked by large fluted Doric columns supporting a dentilled cornice above; the fanlight over the cornice is boarded up.

The roof is a pitched natural slate covering, continuous with No. 23, with a platform ridge. There is a duo-pitched dormer with a semicircular fascia board and a large two-stage ashlar sandstone chimney stack to the front elevation, with a projecting string course, panelled upper stage, and a corbelled cap supporting four buff clay pots. Deep timber soffit boards at the eaves carry a timber fascia and modillion moulding. Rainwater goods to the principal and north elevations include half-round cast-iron guttering discharging to circular cast-iron downpipes on the south side, with uPVC replacements to the north.

The rear north elevation is three storeys over basement with attic level. A two-storey gabled return, shared with No. 23, is built off half-landing level and connects via an enclosed stair link cantilevered over the yard to a two-storey stone outbuilding. The fenestration to the rear is irregular, including a circular roundel window at third-floor level to the left of a 6/6 timber sliding sash, and two small dormers to the slated pitched roof, each with slated pitched roof, slated cheeks, and a 2/2 timber sliding sash window. There is also an additional single-storey hipped-roof abutment with smooth rendered walls and two square-headed openings to its west face.

The house is now subdivided into flats. In 1992 it underwent an extensive renovation that included the complete reconstruction of the two-storey bay window, reslating of the roof in secondhand slate, repointing of the front elevation, and installation of new entrance doors and cast-iron rainwater goods.

The listing extends beyond the house itself to include the boot scraper, boundary walling, gate, and cast-iron railings. The schist stone walling and outbuilding to the rear contribute to the character of the property. The setting within Crawford Square remains largely intact: the square is centred on a rectangular mature garden bounded by low walling and enclosed on three sides by three-storey buildings, many of which survive. To the rear, a shared yard is enclosed by a row of two-storey rubblestone outbuildings, the former stable block, with red brick dressings and slated roofs. A further rock-faced uncoursed schist stone retaining wall beyond marks the boundary with Northland Crescent. The southeast side of Crawford Square is formed by a long terrace of eighteen similar townhouses. The whole area falls within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area, designated in 1978, and No. 22 was listed in 1979.

The original rateable value in 1862 was set at £55. The property was originally leased by Samuel Crawford to John Munn, a local merchant and magistrate and member of Londonderry's Corporation. From the late 19th century it served as a manse for ministers of Londonderry First Presbyterian Church, which purchased the lease in the 1880s; the Reverend James Cargin was among its occupants. The congregation continued to own the building until at least the 1970s. The 1911 census described it as a first-class dwelling of 17 rooms with a stable as its sole outbuilding. By the time of the First General Revaluation (1936–57) the rateable value had been slightly increased to £57, and under the Second Revaluation (1956–72) it was reduced to £50, at which point the occupant was recorded as the Reverend William Steele. A 1970 Ulster Architectural Heritage Society guide described Nos. 20–23 as "a very imposing terrace of four houses of lofty appearance with tall windows on each floor… grouped in pairs with shared entrance steps," noting that Nos. 22 and 23 "are finished much more ornately with dentiled string courses and pedimented gables." Despite some loss of original fabric and the detraction of uPVC rainwater goods to the rear, No. 22 remains a very good example of its type, with finely detailed stucco dressings, a pedimented gable, canted bay, and well-ordered fenestration.