11 Clarendon St., Londonderry

11 Clarendon Street is a mid-Victorian mid-terrace townhouse of two bays and three storeys with an attic, built in rendered construction around 1861. It forms part of a group with Nos. 5–9 and 13–15 Clarendon Street, all of which were built over a twenty-one year period and line the south side of the street. Nos. 11, 13 and 15 are particularly distinctive within this terrace because they are rendered and treated as a single unified composition, set within a run of predominantly brick-faced townhouses. The building is located within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area, and its well-preserved setting adds to its significance.

The plan is rectangular, with a modern projecting rear return. The principal elevation faces north and is set behind a low, painted rendered boundary wall topped with replacement metal railings. The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with black clay ridge tiles, and large brick chimney stacks rise from the east and west gables, each centred on the ridge and carrying nine terracotta pots. Rainwater goods to the front elevation consist of a cast-iron downpipe with hopper and uPVC guttering.

The principal north elevation is painted render, with deeply ruled rustication to the ground floor and smooth render to the upper floors, with corner quoins. All windows are square-headed one-over-one timber sliding sashes unless otherwise noted. The entrance doorway has a three-centred arch opening with a recessed cornice supported by scrolled console brackets on pilasters to each side, and contains a painted timber four-panelled door with a plain fanlight above. To the left of the door is a single tripartite window comprising three one-over-one timber sliding sashes, surmounted by a hood mould supported on scrolled console brackets. The first and second floors each have two windows, though these are not vertically aligned with the ground floor openings. The first-floor windows have a continuous sill course and moulded surrounds.

The east and west elevations are abutted by the adjoining buildings, Nos. 9 and 13 Clarendon Street respectively. The south rear elevation is rendered, three-storey with attic, and is abutted by a rendered rear return. A small courtyard sits to the rear, along with a large modern extension that extends fully to a rear access passageway leading to Edward Street. The fenestration pattern to the rear is irregular, and the rear elevation was not fully visible at the time of survey.

Access to the entrance door is by two modern steps at the boundary wall, with a modern ramp to the left. The conversion to office use has resulted in some modernisation of the interior, though the original character and much of the original detailing survives.

The building's historical context is substantial. Clarendon Street was laid out in the early Victorian period, with construction of the first dwellings beginning around 1853. The street was part of a broader expansion of Londonderry driven by growth in the city's economy and population during the mid-19th century. The first Ordnance Survey maps of 1830 show the Clarendon Street area, in the townland of Edenballymore, as rural hinterland with few structures. By that date, the city's streets extended no further north than Waterloo Place, Abbey Street and William Street, and the only significant buildings north of the walls were isolated institutions such as the Londonderry Infirmary, the Lunatic Asylum and Foyle College. The only building in the area predating the early Victorian development is Foyle Cottage, a Regency house built around 1815.

Robert Simpson, writing in The Annals of Derry in 1847, recorded that the entire district now covered by Great James Street, William Street, Little James Street and the surrounding lanes had originally been meadow ground without a house. The initial housing development began in the late Georgian period and continued through the Victorian era, with uniform rows of three-storey townhouses swiftly becoming the preferred address 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.

An 1847 plan of Londonderry depicted the proposed layout of Clarendon Street at least a decade before it was completed, and recorded that the street was originally known as Ponsonby Street, named after the Right Reverend Richard Ponsonby (1772–1853), Bishop of Derry and Raphoe. By the 1850s it had been renamed Clarendon Street in honour of George Villiers, the Fourth Earl of Clarendon (1800–1870), 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 lower section between the Strand Road and Queen Street had been laid out by 1853. Development progressed slowly through the 1850s. In 1851 Skipton and Miller advertised building ground on Clarendon Street, Queen Street and Patrick Street to be let in perpetuity. Griffith's Valuation of 1856 recorded only nine dwellings along the entire length of the street. Additional leases for building ground on the northern side of the street were advertised in 1856. Nos. 5–15 Clarendon Street were constructed in 1861 as part of the second phase of the street's development. Nos. 11–15 were built for William Stirling, a painter and glazier who operated his business from Pump Street.

In 1861 No. 11 was originally valued at £32 and occupied by a Mr Stewart Christie. By 1901 the house had passed to James Colhoun, a timber merchant and builder with offices on the Strand Road. The 1901 census building return described Colhoun's residence as a second-class dwelling with eight rooms and a stable and coach house as its sole outbuildings. On William Stirling's death in 1869, ownership of Nos. 11–15 passed under his will to Hugh Stevenson, whose family continued to own No. 13 into the 1970s. By 1935 the house was valued at £45. By the 1950s it had been partially converted into a private medical surgery for a Dr J. Duff, and its total value stood at £50 by the end of the Second Revaluation (1956–72).

In 1978 the Department of the Environment designated Clarendon Street and the surrounding streets a Conservation Area. No. 11 was subsequently listed in 1979. A renovation in 1989 involved reslating the roof, inserting new sash windows and installing the current front railings. In 1992 the building suffered light damage from a bomb explosion at the bottom of Clarendon Street, which shattered the glazing and damaged the original sliding frames and glazing bars. In 2010 the original three-storey rear return was demolished and replaced with the current two-storey extension.

Calley, writing in 2013, described Nos. 11–15 Clarendon Street as terrace houses that are fully rendered, although the chimney between Nos. 11 and 13 is brick. He noted that the ground floors are rusticated with tripartite windows, and that stepped quoins at the two outer edges treat the three houses as a single composition. Few of the mid-Victorian townhouses along Clarendon Street remain in residential use; most were converted to offices for dentists, solicitors and accountancy firms in the late 20th century. No. 11 has been in office use from at least the 1950s and is currently occupied by a number of local companies including a chiropody clinic.