8 Queen Street, Londonderry, Co. Londonderry, BT48 7EF

8 Queen Street, Londonderry

This is a Victorian end-of-terrace former townhouse of three storeys with an attic, built in 1847 on the west side of Queen Street, which runs between Great James Street and Clarendon Street on the west bank of the River Foyle. It forms part of a terrace of eight similar houses, with which it shares group value, and sits within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area. Its southern side adjoins No. 7 Queen Street.

Architectural Description

The building is rectangular in plan, with its principal elevation facing east onto the pavement. It is rendered and painted throughout, sitting on a low rendered and painted plinth. The roof is pitched natural slate with terracotta clay ridge tiles, and a large rendered and painted chimney stack with seven clay pots rises from the north side. Guttering is uPVC on a timber fascia board to the front elevation.

On the principal (east) elevation, all window openings are square-headed on painted masonry sills, though the ground-floor bays are not aligned with those on the floors above. There is a single window bay on the ground floor to the right of the entrance doorway, with a low metal railing. The entrance doorway is slightly recessed under an elliptical arch, flanked by engaged fluted columns of the Doric order. It features a raised-and-fielded four-panel painted timber door with an entablature, dentilled cornice, and a webbed Adam-style fanlight above. The door opens directly onto the pavement without a step. Windows are 6/6 timber sliding sashes on the ground and first floors, and 6/3 timber sliding sashes at second-floor level.

The north elevation is a rendered and painted gable end with a small casement window at attic level and the large rendered chimney stack with seven clay pots. This elevation is abutted by a two-storey concrete structure bearing the inscription "Water Minerals" and a datestone of 1900.

The rear (west) elevation is three storeys and is abutted by a two-storey cement-rendered, unpainted flat-roofed rear extension. The fenestration to the rear is irregular and consists largely of replacement uPVC casement windows. A cement-rendered, unpainted dormer with a casement window rises from the slated pitched roof section to the rear. uPVC rainwater goods are used throughout.

The south side of the building is joined to the neighbouring No. 7 Queen Street.

Setting

The house forms part of the continuous terrace of eight similar dwellings fronting directly onto the pavement on the west side of Queen Street. To the rear there is a small yard enclosed by a rendered wall. The building sits within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area, and its historic authenticity makes a significant contribution to the character of that area.

Historical Context

Queen Street was laid out around 1840, with its earliest buildings constructed by at least 1847. Its development, along with that of the adjoining Great James Street and Clarendon Street, was driven by significant economic and population growth in Londonderry during the mid-19th century. The historian John Hume notes that during the period 1825 to 1850, reconstruction within the city walls took place alongside the first development of housing outside the walls at Bogside and Edenballymore. Queen Street was the second major new street in the area, following Great James Street, which had been laid out around 1833.

The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1830 for the townland of Edenballymore shows the Queen Street area as rural hinterland with few significant structures. At that date, the city's streets extended no further than Waterloo Place, Abbey Street and William Street. In the early decades of the 19th century, the only notable construction north of the walls had been isolated institutional buildings — the Londonderry Infirmary, the Lunatic Asylum, and Foyle College — with virtually no domestic architecture nearby. The only building in the area predating the early-Victorian development is Foyle Cottage, a Regency house built around 1815.

Writing in 1847, Robert Simpson recorded in his Annals of Derry that the entire district now covered by Great James Street, William Street, Little James Street and surrounding lanes had originally comprised meadow ground without a single house. The late-Georgian development of housing in this area continued into the Victorian era, with uniform rows of three-storey townhouses creating a new, affluent quarter that became the preferred address of the city's merchant and professional classes. The geometric street pattern of Clarendon Street, Great James Street and Queen Street was characteristic of Georgian town planning, and represented the most ambitious planning project in Londonderry since the construction of the walled city between 1613 and 1619.

O'Hagan's contemporary plan of Londonderry recorded that the street was originally called Queen's Street — a name that continued to alternate throughout its history — and noted that at least twelve houses had been built along it by 1847. Nos. 1–8 Queen Street and nos. 9–12 Queen Street are among the earliest terraced dwellings within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area. No. 8 is specifically depicted on O'Hagan's 1847 plan, which shows it with a rear outbuilding that has since been demolished. The layout of nos. 1–8 had not changed by the time of the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1853, and no further buildings had been added along the street in the intervening period.

Griffith's Valuation of 1856 recorded that nos. 1–8 Queen Street were leased to tenants by Thomas Major, a landowner residing in Creggan. Nos. 7 and 8 were each valued at £21, higher than the rest of the terrace owing to their additional out-offices. At that time, No. 8 was occupied by Moses Swan, a grocer with business premises on Bishop Street, as recorded in the Ulster Town Directories. Despite Thomas Major's death in 1858, nos. 2–8 Queen Street continued to be administered by his estate until the 1930s.

The 1911 Census records the house as occupied by a Mrs. McConnell, and describes it as a second-class dwelling with seven main rooms. By the end of the Annual Revisions, the rateable value of No. 8 had fallen to £16. Ownership had passed to a James Mitchell by the First Revaluation of 1935, at which point the value was raised to £24. Neither the owner nor the value changed during the Second Revaluation covering 1956 to 1972.

In 1978 the Department of the Environment designated this group of mid-19th-century streets and terraces as the Clarendon Street Conservation Area, defined as an area of special architectural or historic interest the character of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance. Nos. 1–8 Queen Street were subsequently listed in 1980.

Writing in 2013, Calley described nos. 1–8 Queen Street as the earliest buildings along the street, characterising them as smooth-rendered, three-storey and two-bay with deep-set square-headed window bays and round-headed doorways, noting that the second-storey bays are of diminished scale. He observed that the timber-framed doorways have Doric columns supporting dentilled entablatures and simple spider-web fanlights, that most retain their glazing bars, and that although their finishes have been altered over the years they retain their large, deep chimneys.

Few of the mid-Victorian townhouses along Queen Street remain in residential use today; the majority were converted into offices for dental, legal and accountancy practices during the late 20th century. NIEA Historic Buildings records note that No. 8 had been converted to office use by 1990, and that in 1991 the building was renovated: the chimney was rebuilt, the roof was reslated, the rainwater goods were replaced, and new sash windows and an entrance door were installed.