19 Clarendon St.

19 Clarendon Street is a mid-Victorian mid-terrace townhouse of two bays and three storeys with an attic, built in 1874 on the south side of Clarendon Street in the city of Derry/Londonderry. It was constructed at the same time as the immediately adjoining Nos. 17 and 21, and together these three properties were the last to be built in a terrace of twelve predominantly brick-faced townhouses that lines the south side of the street. The terrace as a whole was developed over a twenty-one year period and Nos. 17, 19 and 21 are distinctive in character relative to their neighbours. The building has been converted to office use, which has resulted in some modernisation of the interior, but its original character and much of its original detailing survive. It sits within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area, and its well-preserved setting adds to its interest.

ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION

The house is rectangular on plan with a projecting rear return. The principal elevation faces north onto Clarendon Street and is set behind a low painted rendered boundary wall topped by replacement metal railings enclosing a small hard-surfaced forecourt.

The roof is natural slate, with a dormer window to both front and rear. Rainwater goods are a mix of cast iron and uPVC.

The north (principal) elevation is painted render to the ground floor and red brick laid in Flemish bond to the upper floors, with a rendered band at eaves level. All windows are six-over-six timber sliding sashes throughout, square-headed at ground floor level and segmental-arched to the upper floors, unless otherwise noted. A continuous sill course runs across the first floor windows.

To the right of the elevation is the entrance doorway, which has a square-headed opening surmounted by a projecting moulded cornice supported by a pair of pilasters painted in a contrasting colour, with console brackets bearing acanthus leaf detail to either side. The door itself is a paired two-panelled painted timber door of half-leaf design with a square-headed three-pane overlight above. Above the doorway, a window is positioned at each of the upper floor levels within painted moulded surrounds; the first floor window has a keystone detail. The upper floor windows are not aligned with the door opening below.

To the left of the elevation is a two-storey rendered canted bay window, with a window to each facet at each floor. It features a moulded string course at first floor level, moulded panels to each facet below a continuous sill course at first floor window level, and a projecting moulded cornice above the first floor windows. Above the two-storey bay, at second floor level, is a paired window with a continuous sill course and painted moulded surrounds. The dormer to the left of the front roof slope contains a segmental-arched six-over-six timber sliding sash window.

The east and west elevations are abutted by the adjoining Nos. 17 and 21 Clarendon Street respectively.

The south (rear) elevation is cement rendered and rises three storeys with an attic. To the left is a cement rendered pitched-roof rear return of four storeys, built at half-landing height. The fenestration on the rear elevation is irregular: six-over-six timber sliding sash windows appear at ground, first and second floor levels, and a six-over-three timber sliding sash window at attic level. The rear elevation was not fully visible at the time of survey. The south gable of the rear return also has an irregular fenestration pattern, with a single six-over-six timber sliding sash window to the first floor right and a single six-over-six timber sliding sash window to each of the second and third floors on the left; the ground floor level was not visible at the time of survey. The west face of the rear return is abutted by the return of No. 21 Clarendon Street, and the east face was not visible at the time of survey.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Clarendon Street was laid out in the early Victorian period as part of a significant expansion of Londonderry beyond its historic walls, driven by growth in the city's economy and population during the mid-19th century. The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1830 records that the Clarendon Street area was originally rural hinterland, and at that date urban development extended no further than Waterloo Place, Abbey Street and William Street. The only major buildings north of the walls in the early 19th century were isolated institutions — the Londonderry Infirmary, the Lunatic Asylum and Foyle College — with little or no domestic architecture in the vicinity.

Robert Simpson, writing in The Annals of Derry (1847), noted that the entire district later covered by Great James Street, William Street, Little James Street and surrounding lanes had originally comprised meadow ground without a house. The sole building in the area predating the early Victorian development is Foyle Cottage, a Regency house of around 1815, which Calley describes as "a pleasing composition which offers a gentle rebuke to some of the exuberance of later nearby buildings … one of its pleasant features is that it opens a gap in the long terraces."

John Hume notes that during the period 1825 to 1850, reconstruction of buildings within the walled city took place alongside the development, for the first time, of housing outside the walls at Bogside and Edenballymore. The laying out of Clarendon Street, Great James Street and Queen Street followed a geometric street pattern 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. With its uniform rows of three-storey townhouses, the area quickly became the residence of the city's merchant and professional classes.

A plan of Londonderry dated 1847 — produced at least a decade before the street was completed — recorded that Clarendon 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 (1800–1870), the Fourth Earl of Clarendon and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland between 1847 and 1852. The second edition 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 let in perpetuity. Griffith's Valuation recorded only nine dwellings along the entire length of the street by 1856, and in that year additional leases were advertised for building ground on the northern side of the street.

Nos. 17, 19 and 21 were constructed in 1874, approximately two decades after the initial development of the street, which accounts for their distinctly Victorian character compared to the Georgian-style terraces on either side. Of the three, No. 19 expresses this Victorian character most clearly through the inclusion of canted bay windows. The three properties were built for Forrest Reid, a local solicitor with business offices on Richmond Street, as recorded in the Ulster Town Directories. The Annual Revisions note that No. 19 was originally valued at £38 in 1874.

The first occupant of No. 19 was Sir Edward Reid, a relative of the owner and a prominent figure in the city's history. Reid was a local magistrate, secretary to Gwyn's Charitable Institution, and served as Mayor of Londonderry in 1868–69 and again in 1880. By 1901 Sir Edward Reid had vacated the property. The 1901 Census described No. 19 as a second-class dwelling comprising eight rooms. Ownership remained with the Reid family until the 1930s, when Nos. 19 and 21 were purchased by a Mr Joseph A. L. Johnston, who occupied No. 19 as his personal dwelling. The property was increased in value to £67 under the First General Revaluation of 1935. Johnston had converted the former dwelling into a private medical surgery by the 1950s, but the building was returned to domestic use in 1968. Its value stood at £60 by the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72).

In 1978 the Department of the Environment designated Clarendon Street and the surrounding streets a Conservation Area, described as "an area of special architectural or historic interest, the character of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance." No. 19 was subsequently listed in 1979.

ALTERATIONS AND CONDITION

The house underwent an extensive renovation in 1991, which included the re-slating of the roof, repointing of the brickwork and chimney, and renewal of the rainwater goods, as recorded in the Northern Ireland Environment Agency Historic Buildings records. In 2006 the original two-storey outbuilding to the rear of the house was demolished. Conversion to office use has resulted in some modernisation of the interior, though the building's original character and much of its detailing survive. The property is currently used as office space for a local accountancy firm. Calley, writing in 2013, described Nos. 17–21 as "terrace houses, being a variation on the other houses on the street … the fenestration somewhat irregular [whilst] the outer buildings have tripartite ground floor windows and the ground of each is rendered."