The Banks, 15 Beragh Hill Road, Londonderry, BT48 8LX

The Banks is a small farmhouse built between 1887 and 1888 on the south side of Beragh Hill Road near Londonderry. Though constructed in the late Victorian period, it displays distinctive Georgian style characteristics, particularly in the proportioning of solid to void.

The house is a two-storey, three-bay structure with a smooth rendered finish and a low-pitched hipped slate roof. It measures two bays deep with a two-storey gabled return to the rear. The entrance elevation is symmetrical, featuring a central four-panelled door with a plain fanlight set within a shallow projecting porch. The flanking walls are finished as smooth pilasters with a plain frieze above and a pronounced cornice with an upstand parapet to the flat roof.

On the ground floor, single four-pane top-hung windows with square heads flank the entrance on each side. Above these, slightly less tall similar windows sit directly over those below and above the entrance door. The first-floor windows have shallow segmented heads which cut into a plain frieze capped with a cornice that incorporates the metal gutter. Window cills are slightly horned, and there is a plinth at ground level. Two yellow brick chimneys with moulded detail rise from the roof.

Each side elevation carries two single windows at ground and first-floor levels, echoing those to the front. The frieze and plinth continue around both sides. The rear return is positioned to the north-east of the rear wall with lower ceiling heights than the main part of the house and a gabled roof. A back porch and a door connecting the kitchen directly to the dining room are later additions by the present owner. Both the back return and back porch are roofed in synthetic slates.

The farmyard behind the house contains two two-storey outhouses built in random rubble with pitched slate roofs, informally arranged rather than formally planned.

According to an account book kept by the original owner, J.C. Wylie acquired the farm in 1879 and commissioned architect William Barker to design the farmhouse. Eight tenders were received on 11 April 1887. The lowest was rejected; the accepted tender from Mr Carruthers of Culmore was for £425, which did not include fireplaces, built-in fittings, the entrance road, gate piers, or materials such as stone for hardcore, lime and sand supplied by Wylie himself. A one-page contract included a penalty clause of £5 per week or part thereof for late completion. Work commenced without delay, with a completion date set for 31 October 1887.

The house demonstrates how a small Victorian farmhouse was organised to accommodate hired labour. For most of the year, a hired farmhand and domestic servant occupied the property, typically engaged for the six larger months of the year at the local hiring fair and paid at the end of their term. The account book records Wylie's practice of making advance payments for clothes, shoe repairs, tobacco, laundry and visits to the races at nearby Ballyarnett.

Subsequent owners included a retired Presbyterian minister, Rev. Boyle, followed by W.J. Porter of Glengalliagh, who acquired it for his daughter Mrs Jameson. The present owners have occupied the property since the early 1940s.

The setting is fine, situated on the south side of Beragh Hill Road with views towards County Derry. The front and side gardens are well-tended, with a short flight of steps leading down to the front lawn.