7 Crawford Square, Londonderry

7 Crawford Square is a three-storey, two-bay rendered Italianate terraced house built in 1871, designed by Robert Collins, who served as Londonderry's Consulting Engineer from 1866 to 1874, and constructed by the building firm of G. & R. Ferguson. It forms part of a terrace of sixteen houses on a sloping site to the south-west side of Crawford Square, a grassed and tree-lined park, and is paired symmetrically with the adjacent No. 8 Crawford Square. The house retains its original character, style and proportions and has group value with the other listed buildings in the terrace. The extent of the listing covers the house, outbuilding and railings.

The front elevation is rendered and features a two-storey three-sided canted bay window with a parapet to the left of the entrance door. Window openings have segmental arched heads and 1/1 double-hung timber sliding sash windows with moulded horns. Recessed panels sit between the first and second storeys, and there are moulded cills and string courses throughout. The first-floor window above the main entrance has a moulded architrave with stop blocks and a moulded cill shared with No. 3 Crawford Square. The recessed arched doorcase has a moulded soffit, a tiled step, an original letter slot, and a four-panelled door with glazed upper panels and a plain semi-circular fanlight over. The doorcase is finished with a hood mould with keystone and decorative console brackets. The roof is natural slate, continuous with that of No. 8 Crawford Square, and a large rendered chimney with buff clay pots is shared with No. 6. The timber fascia boards have a moulded soffit with paired block modillions, half-round cast iron guttering discharging to circular cast iron downpipes.

The rear elevation and rear return are rendered, with square-headed window openings containing 6/6 double-hung sliding sash windows where visible. The three-storey rear return has a hipped natural slate roof with blue-black hip and ridge tiles and a rendered chimney, shared with the return of No. 8 Crawford Square. To the rear of the site is a stone-built outbuilding with brick surrounds to its openings and a pitched roof with plywood covering. This outbuilding forms part of the stepped row of outbuildings associated with the Crawford Square houses that front onto Academy Road.

The house faces north-east over the tree-lined Crawford Square green. It is set back from the footpath and slightly elevated, approached by a path and a short flight of stone steps fitted with an original cast iron boot scraper. A modest front garden laid out in gravel is enclosed by a dwarf wall, and the house is separated from No. 8 by a dwarf wall and painted metal railings.

Crawford Square was originally laid out in 1861 by civil engineer and architect Fitzgibbon Louch (1826–1911) during his early career, after he established an independent practice in Londonderry in 1859. Louch was also responsible for the entrance to the City Cemetery and the design of 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 laid out as part of the city's northward expansion following the development of Georgian-style terraces along Great James Street, Queen Street and Clarendon Street during the 1830s to 1860s. The Northland Road, on which Crawford Square sits, was still described as a country road leading out of the city towards Donegal when tenders for the first dwellings on the square were invited in the 1860s. Crawford Square, together with Templemore and Victoria Parks, has been described 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, while the majority of the adjoining terrace was built for John McAdoo, a local seed merchant and landowner. No. 7, along with Nos 3–6 and 8–10, was constructed in 1871. Upon completion, the total rateable value of No. 7 was set at £36. The occupants of Crawford Square were predominantly from the city's professional and merchant classes; in 1911 the house was occupied by William John Donnell, a prominent local estate agent. The 1911 Census Building Return described the adjacent and similar No. 8 Crawford Square as a first-class dwelling consisting of 12 rooms with a coach house as its sole outbuilding. By 1970 the rateable value of No. 7 had been increased to £39, and in that year the house was partially converted into a hairdressing salon. In 1970 the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society described Nos 1–19 Crawford Square as "a fine terrace of three-storey rendered buildings on a sloping surface overlooking a tree-lined grassy square. The houses are well modelled, with two-storey height bay windows." Crawford Square was included in the Clarendon Street Conservation Area in 1978, designated as an area of special architectural or historic interest whose character it is desirable to preserve or enhance, and Nos 1–23 were subsequently listed in 1979. In 2012 No. 7 underwent a renovation that included the replacement of its chimney, reslating of the roof, repair work to the original sliding sash windows, and the installation of cast iron rainwater goods.