35 Clarendon St., Londonderry

35 Clarendon Street is a mid-terrace, two-bay, three-storey with attic, red brick Georgian-style townhouse built in 1862, forming part of the south side of Clarendon Street in the Edenballymore townland of Londonderry. It was constructed as part of a larger phase of development that produced Nos. 29–33 and 37–51 Clarendon Street simultaneously, and it shares group value with the broader run of Nos. 5–31 and 35–73 (excluding No. 53), a collection of similar townhouses built over a twenty-one year period that together line the south side of the street. The listing covers both the house and its rear mews building. The property has been sympathetically converted to office use and much of its internal detailing survives intact. It sits within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area.

EXTERIOR

The building is rectangular on plan with a projecting rear return. The principal elevation faces north onto Clarendon Street and is set behind a low rendered wall surmounted by black painted replacement metal railings. The roof is pitched natural slate with black clay ridge tiles, cast-iron guttering and circular downpipes to both front and rear. A large brick chimney stack rises from the east side, centred on the ridge and fitted with seven clay pots. A narrow pitched-roof dormer projects from the front slope of the roof.

The north (principal) elevation is laid in Flemish brick bond with a rendered plinth. The entrance doorway sits to the right and has a three-centred-arch opening with a moulded surround. A recessed moulded cornice is supported by columns of the Doric order to either side of a painted timber four-panelled door, above which is an Adam-style fanlight. To the left of the door is a single 8/8 timber sliding sash window. All window openings are square-headed with painted cement-rendered reveals and painted sills. Unless otherwise noted, all windows are 6/6 timber sliding sash. The first and second floors each have two windows, though these are not aligned with the ground floor openings. The front dormer is centred on the elevation and contains a 6/3 timber sliding sash window. The east and west elevations are abutted by the adjoining Nos. 33 and 37 Clarendon Street respectively.

The south (rear) elevation is brick, three storeys with attic. To the left of the main block there is a sequence of rear returns: a small rendered pitched-roof three-storey return, abutted by a larger pitched-roof three-storey return, which is in turn abutted by a rendered pitched-roof single-storey return. The single-storey return connects to a rendered pitched-roof two-storey mews building that runs parallel to the main building.

The right bay of the main rear block features a projecting timber box bay at ground floor level. The east and west faces of this box bay have three-pane fixed lights; the south face has a pair of three-pane 1/2 fixed lights surmounted by single-pane casements. The first and second floors of this right bay each have a single 6/6 timber sliding sash window. The left bay is abutted by the rear return; the exposed section has a 6/3 timber sliding sash window.

The small three-storey rear return has its south gable fully abutted by the larger three-storey return. Its east face has a modern vertically sheeted timber door with a narrow single-pane square-headed overlight at ground floor level, and a single diminutive 2/2 timber sliding sash window at first and second floor levels aligned over the right reveal of the door. The west face has a window opening at first floor level, though this face was not fully viewed at the time of survey.

The large three-storey rear return has its north gable abutted by the small three-storey return; the exposed section is blank. Its south gable is abutted by the single-storey return; the exposed section is also blank. The east face has a chamfered corner to the right extending to first floor level and a window at each floor, though this face was not fully viewed at survey. The west face is blank.

The single-storey rear return has its north and south gables fully abutted by the large three-storey return and the two-storey mews building respectively. Its east face has two 6/6 timber sliding sash windows. The west face is blank.

The two-storey mews building to the rear of the site is rendered with a slate roof and clipped eaves. The north face has a single 6/6 timber sliding sash window at ground and first floor level in its left bay; the right bay is abutted by the single-storey return and the exposed section is blank. The east face is abutted by the mews building of No. 33 Clarendon Street; the exposed section is blank. The west face is abutted by the altered remains of the mews building of No. 37 Clarendon Street; the exposed section is blank. The south face has a door opening to the far right and a window opening to the far left, with two blind former window openings at first floor level aligned over the ground floor openings, though this face was not fully viewed at survey.

SETTING

The property sits within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area and forms part of a row of twelve mid-Victorian townhouses lining the south side of Clarendon Street. The front of the property faces north and is set behind a low rendered wall with replacement metal railings. To the rear there is a small enclosed yard bounded to the south by the two-storey mews building, the survival of which adds to the interest of the property.

Materials throughout are as follows: natural slate roof, cast-iron rainwater goods to both north and south elevations, brick and render walling, and timber windows.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Clarendon Street was laid out in the early Victorian period as part of a significant expansion of Londonderry beyond its historic walls. The first edition of the Ordnance Survey maps (1830) for the townland of Edenballymore records that the Clarendon Street area was originally rural hinterland with few significant structures. At that date, the city's developed streets extended no further than Waterloo Place, Abbey Street and William Street, and the only major construction north of the walls had been isolated institutional buildings such as the Londonderry Infirmary, the Lunatic Asylum and Foyle College, with little or no domestic architecture in the same area. The only building in the vicinity predating the early Victorian development is Foyle Cottage, a Regency house constructed around 1815 which, according to Calley, is "a pleasing composition which offers a gentle rebuke to some of the exuberance of later nearby buildings … one of its pleasant features is that it opens a gap in the long terraces."

In his Annals of Derry (1847), Robert Simpson noted that "all the district now covered by Great James's Street, William Street, Little James Street … and the numerous lanes in that vicinity [originally comprised] meadow ground without a house." The initial development of housing in this area began in the late Georgian period and continued into the Victorian era, with uniform rows of three-storey townhouses establishing a new affluent quarter that became the preferred residence 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.

A contemporary 1847 plan of Londonderry depicted the proposed layout of the street — then known as Ponsonby Street, named after the Right Reverend Richard Ponsonby (1772–1853), Bishop of Derry and Raphoe — at least a decade before its completion. By the 1850s the street had been renamed Clarendon Street in honour of George Villiers (1800–1870), the Fourth Earl of Clarendon and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland between 1847 and 1852. The second edition of the Ordnance Survey map confirms the street had been renamed by at least 1853.

Although the 1847 plan showed Clarendon Street extending from the quay up to Francis Street, only the section between the Strand Road and Queen Street had been laid out by 1853. In 1851, Skipton and Miller advertised building ground on Clarendon Street, Queen Street and Patrick Street to let in perpetuity. Griffith's Valuation (1856) recorded only nine dwellings along the entire length of the street, and in that year additional leases were advertised for building ground on the northern side. The development of Nos. 29–51 Clarendon Street in 1862 formed the second phase of the street's laying out.

No. 35 was originally built for Smyth Osbourne, an agent with Imperial Fire Insurance who held business offices on Foyle Street; the house was initially valued at £29 in 1862. By 1901 it was occupied by James Glendinning, a local chemist with premises on the Strand Road; the census return of that year described it as a first-class dwelling comprising ten rooms. Ownership remained with the Osbourne family until at least 1931. By 1935, the First Revaluation recorded that ownership had passed to a Mr J. B. Smith and the value had increased to £39. By 1956, the Second Revaluation recorded ownership had transferred to Dr Thomas McCabe; in 1963 McCabe converted the building into a private medical surgery for Dr M. O'Sullivan, at which point the building was no longer used as a private dwelling and its value was increased to £52.

In 1978 the Department of the Environment designated Clarendon Street and the surrounding streets a Conservation Area, described as "an area of special architectural or historic interest, the character of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance." No. 35 was listed in 1979. Renovation works carried out in 1987 included reslating of the roof, restoration of the sliding sash windows and repair of the original chimney stack. The current two-storey rear return was added around 1992. By 2013, Calley described Nos. 29–39 Clarendon Street as "terrace houses with Doric doorway columns." The property is currently in use as office premises for Sammon Surveyors, in keeping with the broader trend along the street, where the majority of the three-storey mid-Victorian townhouses were converted to office use for dentists, solicitors and accountancy firms during the late 20th century.