3 College Terrace, Rock Road, Londonderry, County Londonderry, BT48 7NZ

No. 3 College Terrace is a Victorian mid-terrace redbrick townhouse of two storeys with an attic, built in 1889–90 as one of a curving row of thirteen similar houses lining the eastern side of College Terrace, close to the junction of Rock Road and Strand Road on the north side of the city centre, on the eastern bank of the River Foyle. The terrace faces west onto the boundary of the University of Ulster at Magee College. No. 3 is flanked by No. 2 to the north and No. 4 to the south.

The building is rectangular on plan, with a projecting two-storey rear return that steps down to a single-storey extension with a slated lean-to roof. The principal west elevation faces onto College Terrace, set back at the pavement edge overlooking an urban tree-lined green, and is laid in Flemish brick bond with ornate Victorian industrial brickwork dressings in contrasting colour. There is a dentilled brick cornice at eaves level with black brick dressings below, and continuous stepped decorative brick stringcourses in contrasting colour running at ground floor level, first floor level, and below the dormer window. All window and door openings are finished with red and black brick voussoirs.

The fenestration on the west elevation consists of a single segmental arch-headed window opening at ground floor and two at first floor, all fitted with 4/2 timber sliding sash windows with painted sills. To the right-hand side of the elevation there is a small semicircular arch-headed opening to the dormer, also fitted with a small 4/2 sliding sash and finished with a decorative metal apex. The semicircular arch-headed entrance door opening is one step up from the pavement and contains a painted four-panel timber door flanked by scrolled brackets on moulded timber architraves supporting a slightly projecting cornice, with a plain fanlight above. The roof steps up to the right side of the front door bay, with a large two-stage redbrick chimney stack rising at this step, centred on the ridge and topped with clay pots. The main roof and rear return are covered in natural slate with terracotta clay ridge tiles, and there is a small rooflight to the rear. Cast-iron guttering and circular downpipes serve the front elevation.

The rear east elevation is of rendered and painted finish. The rear elevations were not visible to the surveyor at the time of survey. Materials throughout include natural slate roofing, cast-iron rainwater goods, brick walling, and timber sliding sash windows to the west with casements to the east.

The terrace was originally built by the Trustees of Magee College to provide accommodation for college employees and students, following the development of the Magee College campus from the 1880s. Magee University had opened in 1865 as a seminary for young men seeking a career in the Presbyterian Ministry, and was renamed the Presbyterian Theological College when it became a constituent college of the Royal University of Ireland in 1879. The northern expansion of Londonderry had begun in the mid-19th century with the construction of Georgian-style terraces on Great James Street, Queen Street, and Clarendon Street, driven by economic growth from the 1860s to the end of the 19th century. College Terrace, along with the three-storey redbrick houses of Clarence Avenue, was part of this expansion. The Rock Road itself had first appeared on maps as early as 1689 but was not named until 1865, taking its name from The Rock, a house and hamlet of smaller buildings located off the Strand Road. One of the earliest photographs of Derry, taken around 1872, showed this hamlet as a small number of two-storey buildings near the banks of the Foyle, with Magee College standing alone on the hill above.

The Annual Revisions set the total rateable value of No. 3 at £10. Its first recorded occupant was a Mr Robert Michelin. By 1911 the house had passed to George Funston, a local telegraph operator; the 1911 census building return described it as a second-class dwelling consisting of six rooms. By the 1940s it was occupied by a Mr William McElhinney, who remained there until at least the 1970s. The rateable value was raised to £20 under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57) and further increased to £28 by the end of the Second Revaluation (1956–72). Within one decade of its construction the majority of houses along the terrace had passed to occupants unassociated with the college, and since Magee's incorporation into the University of Ulster in 1969, most of the houses along College Terrace have been converted from private dwellings to multiple-occupancy student accommodation. The Magee Conservation Area Design Guide records that this change came about in response to the negative impact of Strand Road bars and nightclubs on the quality of residential life.

In 1992 No. 3 underwent a renovation that included the reslating of its roof, the installation of a new entrance door, and the restoration of some sliding sash frames. The terrace was listed in 1980 and incorporated into the Magee Conservation Area in 2006, where it forms part of a zone of distinct character alongside the Rock Road and part of Northland Road. The Design Guide notes that the gentle curve of the terrace represents a departure from the earlier rectangular squares at Crawford Square and De Burgh Terrace, and that its overall composition — the pattern of stepped eaves, attic dormers, and chimneys combined with its high architectural quality — adds enormously to the quality and variety of the wider Magee Conservation Area. Writer D. Calley has suggested that College Terrace competes with Palace Street for the accolade of most charming street in the city, noting in particular the low schist wall topped with plain iron rails on the north side, bordering the Magee campus, with mature trees behind it giving a small space the feeling of an oasis.

The terrace as a whole, Nos. 1–13 College Terrace, carries group value and is a significant feature of the Magee Conservation Area. No. 3 is of architectural interest for its style, proportion, ornamentation, setting, and group value, and of historical interest for its local significance, age, and authenticity.