5-6 Crawford Square, Londonderry, Co.Londonderry, BT48 7HR

5–6 Crawford Square, Londonderry

This is a three-storey, four-bay rendered Italianate-style late-Victorian terraced house, originally built in 1871 as two separate townhouses to designs by Robert Collins, Londonderry's Consulting Engineer from 1866 to 1874. It stands on the southwest side of Crawford Square, an elevated mid-Victorian garden square laid out in 1861 off Northland Road, overlooking the River Foyle, within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area.

Crawford Square was laid out by civil engineer and architect Fitzgibbon Louch (1826–1911), during his early career after establishing an independent practice in Londonderry in 1859. Louch was also responsible for the design of the Magazine Gate entrance to the city walls. The square was named after Samuel Law Crawford, a local solicitor who owned the land, as recorded in the Dublin Builder. Numbers 5–6 were constructed alongside the adjoining Nos 3–10 Crawford Square by the building firm of G. & R. Ferguson. On completion, each house was assigned a rateable value of £36 by the Annual Revisions. The square formed part of the city's northward expansion following the establishment of Georgian-style terraces along Great James Street, Queen Street and Clarendon Street in the 1830s to 1860s, and was designed to serve Londonderry's professional and merchant classes.

The building has a rectangular plan form with its principal elevation facing northeast. There is a three-storey rendered return built off half-landing level, and an original two-storey outbuilding accessed from Academy Road to the rear (southwest). The two properties were combined into a single dwelling in 1947, and the building is now divided into a number of self-contained flats.

The pitched roof is finished in natural slate with black clay ridge tiles. A large rendered chimney stack, shared with the adjoining properties, rises from each gable end and is fitted with a mix of buff and terracotta clay pots. The eaves have timber fascia boards and a panelled soffit with paired block modillions. Rainwater goods to the northeast elevation are half-round cast iron guttering discharging to a circular cast iron downpipe.

The front elevation is four bays wide and largely symmetrical. To either side are two-storey canted bay windows with parapets, featuring recessed panels between the first and second storeys, and moulded sills and a string course. All window openings have segmental arched heads and 1/1 double-hung timber sliding sashes with moulded horns.

The two central bays, which are assumed originally to have contained paired arched doorways, now have a single recessed entrance door to the right and a segmental arched window to the left. The first-floor windows above these two bays are aligned and have moulded architraves with stop blocks, all set on a moulded sill that spans the full width of both bays. At second-floor level, a further segmental arched window is centred above each of the four bays.

The recessed arched doorcase has a moulded soffit, a tiled step, an original letter slot to a four-panel timber door, and a semi-circular fanlight with radial glazing bars and stained leaded glass. The internal step, set higher than external ground level, is clad with alternating red and black terracotta tiles in a diamond pattern. On the main elevation, the arch has a hood mould with a diamond-faced keystone and decorative console brackets supporting a moulded string course returned within the recess.

The rear elevation is also four bays wide and largely symmetrical, with a painted rendered finish, square-headed window openings and 1/1 timber sliding sash windows where seen. A hipped roof return projects from the middle two bays, finished in natural slate with blue-black hip and ridge tiles. Rainwater goods to the rear elevation and return are uPVC, supported on a painted timber eaves board. The return is of painted rendered finish with square-headed window openings containing a 6/6 and a 1/1 double-hung sliding sash where seen. There is a single-storey gabled addition to the return, narrower in plan, with a duo-pitched slated roof.

A stone outbuilding with smooth unpainted rendered walling and a duo-pitched natural slate roof encloses the yard at the rear. This outbuilding forms part of a stepped row of outbuildings associated with the houses on Crawford Square that front onto Academy Road. It has a flush painted timber door to its right side and uPVC guttering and downpipe supported on a painted timber eaves board.

Nos 5–6 form part of a terrace of sixteen paired and symmetrical buildings on a sloping site. They sit within a stepped row of similar three-storey houses with canted bays and well-ordered fenestration overlooking the tree-lined Crawford Square, together forming a unique and distinctive setting within the conservation area.

Two original cast iron boot scrapers survive, one to the far left and one to the far right of the top step at the shared entrance. The principal entrance is approached by a path and a short flight of concrete steps with painted metal railings to either side.

In terms of historical occupancy, No. 5 was occupied in the 1870s by John McAdoo, the lessor of the adjoining terrace. By 1911 it had passed to Samuel Donnell, a prominent local estate agent and stockbroker, while the adjoining No. 6 was occupied by the Towers family. The 1911 census building return described Nos 5 and 6 as a pair of first-class dwellings, each consisting of 12 rooms with a stable and coach house as their sole outbuildings.

The First Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57) records that the two properties were combined into a single dwelling for a Mr John Towers in 1947, at which point the original entrance door to No. 5 was removed. In 1962 the building was acquired by Magee University and converted into a hostel, with a rateable value of £130 by the end of the Second Revaluation (1956–72). Crawford Square was included in the Clarendon Street Conservation Area in 1978, and Nos 1–23 Crawford Square were listed in 1979. By the 1980s, Nos 5–6 were occupied by the Methodist Mission. In 1982 the chimney between the buildings was rebuilt. A renovation in 2002 involved the removal of the two original staircases, the installation of a lift and new staircase, and the demolition of the original outbuilding to make way for a new office suite erected for the Cityside Mental Health Team. The building returned to domestic use in 2005 when it was converted into self-contained flats.

The exterior has retained its original character and style. However, the removal of the principal entrance doorway to No. 5 adversely affects the building's quality, and internal alterations have resulted in the partial loss of the original plan form.