14 Crawford Square, Londonderry

14 Crawford Square is a three-storey, two-bay rendered terraced house built in 1874–75, most likely to designs by Robert Collins, although this attribution is unconfirmed. It is built in a robust Italianate style and forms part of an impressive continuous terrace of sixteen houses arranged on a sloping site overlooking Crawford Square, a grassed and tree-lined park within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area. The house is largely intact and has considerable group value as part of this terrace.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Crawford Square was originally laid out in 1861 by Fitzgibbon Louch (1826–1911), a civil engineer and architect who established an independent practice in Londonderry in 1859 and was responsible for other notable local works including the entrance to the City Cemetery and the Magazine Gate entrance to the city walls. According to the Dublin Builder, the square was named after Samuel Law Crawford, a local solicitor who owned the land. It was conceived as part of the continued northward expansion of the city, following the establishment of Georgian-style terraces along Great James Street, Queen Street and Clarendon Street in the 1830s to 1860s. As one commentator has noted, Crawford Square, along with Templemore and Victoria Parks, can be seen as the city's delayed response to Dublin's garden squares, creating a green oasis for wealthy residents near the city centre, with an enclosed central garden bounded on three sides by the square.

The first houses on the square, Nos. 1–2, were erected in 1865 for Samuel Knox, a building contractor. The majority of the adjoining terrace was built for John McAdoo, a local seed merchant and landowner. The Irish Builder recorded that Nos. 3–10 Crawford Square were designed by Robert Collins, who served as Londonderry's Consulting Engineer from 1866 to 1874, and were constructed by the building firm of G. & R. Ferguson. Although it is not known whether Collins was personally involved in the construction of the remaining houses from 1874 onwards, it is clear that his original design was adhered to for Nos. 11–16, which are almost identical to the earlier part of the terrace. No. 14 was constructed along with the adjoining Nos. 13–16 in 1874–75, and upon completion its total rateable value was set at £36.

The occupants of Crawford Square were drawn from the city's professional and merchant classes. In 1911 the house was occupied by the Reverend Benjamin Eason, minister of the Congregational Church on Great James Street. The 1911 Census Building Return described it as a first-class dwelling of twelve rooms with a stable as its sole outbuilding. The rateable value remained at £36 through the Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956–72). Crawford Square was included in the Clarendon Street Conservation Area in 1978 as an area of special architectural or historic interest, and Nos. 1–23 were listed in 1979. General repairs to the rear of the building were carried out in 1983.

EXTERIOR

The house has a rectangular plan form facing north-east, with a three-storey rendered return to the rear, an attached single-storey kitchen outshot, and a two-storey outbuilding accessed from the rear. The pitched natural slate roof is continuous with that of the adjacent No. 13 Crawford Square, and a large buff brick chimney with clay pots is shared with No. 15. Timber fascia boards and a moulded soffit with paired block modillions run along the eaves. Half-round cast iron guttering discharges to a circular cast iron downpipe on No. 13; replacement uPVC rainwater goods are fitted to the rear elevation, with gutters supported on rise-and-fall brackets.

The front elevation features a two-storey, three-sided canted bay with a parapet, recessed panels between the first and second storeys, and moulded cills and string courses. Window openings have segmental arched heads and 1-over-1 double-hung timber sash windows with moulded horns. The first-floor window above the main entrance door has a moulded architrave with stop blocks and a moulded cill shared with No. 9 Crawford Square. The recessed arched doorcase has a moulded soffit and a tiled step, and contains an original four-panelled door with glazed upper panels and a plain semi-circular fanlight above. The doorcase is finished with a hood mould with keystone and decorative brackets.

The rear elevation is rendered with square-headed window openings fitted with 6-over-6 double-hung sliding sash windows. The three-storey return has a hipped natural slate roof with blue-black hip and ridge tiles and a buff brick chimney with a moulded corbel, shared with the return of No. 13. The return is also rendered with square-headed openings having 6-over-6 timber sashes to the upper floors. An attached single-storey rendered outshot does not extend the full width of the return and has a gabled monopitch natural slate roof with replacement gutters on rise-and-fall brackets. Window and door openings at ground floor level of the outshot were not inspected.

OUTBUILDING

At the rear of the site stands a stone-built outbuilding that forms part of the stepped row of outbuildings associated with the Crawford Square houses, fronting onto Academy Road. The Academy Road elevation is of exposed stone with brick dressings and features a modern garage door and a high-level timber window. This outbuilding contributes to the quality of the overall setting.

SETTING

The house faces north-east over the tree-lined Crawford Square green. It is set back slightly from the footpath and is modestly elevated above street level, approached by a path and a short flight of steps shared with the adjacent property. A modest front garden is enclosed by a hedge. The pairing and symmetry of No. 14 with the adjacent No. 13 Crawford Square is a particular feature of the composition, and the house shares various architectural elements — roof, chimneys, and rainwater goods — with its immediate neighbours, reinforcing the coherence of the terrace as a whole.