46 Great James Street, Londonderry, County Londonderry, BT48 7DA

46 Great James Street is a Victorian mid-terrace house built in a Georgian style, constructed between 1853 and 1856 in the townland of Edenballymore, Londonderry. It forms part of a terraced row alongside Nos 42 and 44 Great James Street, lining the north side of Great James Street, parallel to Clarendon Street and to the west of the River Foyle. While not considered of sufficient special architectural or historic interest to meet the statutory listing threshold, it is a significant feature within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area, which provides the appropriate level of protection for a building of this character.

The building is rectangular on plan, three storeys tall with two bays, and is finished in smooth painted render in a Georgian style. The roof is pitched natural slate with clay ridge tiles, and a rebuilt red brick chimney stack with six terracotta clay pots rises from the east side. Rainwater goods throughout are cast iron, comprising half-round guttering on cast iron drive-through brackets, terminating in a cast iron hopper and circular downpipe to the front elevation.

The principal elevation faces south and is finished in red brick laid in Flemish bond with cement strap pointing, over a smooth painted plaster plinth band. Window openings are square-headed with cut brick arches and painted masonry sills, and are glazed with timber sliding sash windows with a 6-over-6 pane configuration to the ground, first, and diminished second floors. Notably, the ground floor bays are not aligned with the window bays on the floors above. The entrance doorway is elliptical arch-headed and slightly recessed, flanked by flat pilasters on plinth blocks. It is fitted with a replacement six-panel painted timber door beneath a dentilled entablature with a plain fanlight above. The entrance is one step up from the pavement, with a small cast iron bootscraper to the right and original encaustic tiling to the step tread. The north elevation was not seen at the time of survey. The east and west sides are adjoined to neighbouring properties, No. 44 and No. 48 Great James Street respectively.

Great James Street was originally laid out around 1833, with the earliest buildings on the street constructed by 1835 to 1837, including the Londonderry Third Presbyterian Church, which was erected during those years. The street's development, along with the adjoining Queen Street (laid out around 1847) and Clarendon Street (laid out around 1853), was driven by significant economic and population growth in Londonderry during the mid-19th century. As the historian John Hume has observed, 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. The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1830 records the Great James Street area as rural hinterland, with urban development at that point extending no further than Waterloo Place, Abbey Street, and William Street. In the early 19th century, the only significant buildings north of the walls were isolated structures such as the Londonderry Infirmary, the Lunatic Asylum, and Foyle College. The only building in the Clarendon Street Conservation Area predating the early Victorian development is Foyle Cottage, a Regency-style house constructed around 1815. Robert Simpson, writing in The Annals of Derry (1847), noted that the entire district covered by Great James Street and its surrounding lanes originally comprised meadow ground without a house. The geometric street pattern of Clarendon Street, Great James Street, and Queen Street followed the Georgian model of planned urban development and represented the most ambitious town planning project in Londonderry since the construction of the walled city between 1613 and 1619. With the construction of uniform rows of neat three-storey townhouses, the area rapidly became the preferred residence of the city's merchant and professional classes.

No. 46 specifically does not appear on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1853 but had been completed by 1856, when it was recorded in Griffith's Valuation alongside the adjoining Nos 42 and 44. At that time, the house was leased by Edward Collum, a butter and egg merchant with premises on Bank Place, to a Mr George B. McKee, and was initially valued at £23. McKee occupied the property until around 1864, when it passed to a Mr Daniel Gillespie. The property is depicted on the Annual Revision map of around 1873 to 1910 in its current layout, including a two-storey return. In 1881 ownership briefly passed to a Ms Mary McMonagle, and in 1896 a Mr Joseph Browne purchased the house outright. Occupancy changed frequently in subsequent decades. The 1911 Census of Ireland recorded the building as occupied by Thomas Ferguson, a local coach builder, describing it as a second-class dwelling of eight rooms. Under the First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland (covering 1936 to 1957), the rateable value was increased to £24. The Browne family retained ownership until around 1956, when it passed to a Mr C. Nicholson. By the close of the Second Revaluation (1956 to 1972), the value stood at £28. In 1978 the Department of the Environment designated the mid-19th century streets and terraces of Great James Street, Queen Street, and Clarendon Street a Conservation Area, defined as an area of special architectural or historic interest, the character of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance.