18 Crawford Square, Londonderry

18 Crawford Square is a three-storey, two-bay rendered Italianate terraced house built in 1888, most likely to designs by Robert Collins, who served as Londonderry's Consulting Engineer from 1866 to 1874. It forms part of a stepped terrace of sixteen houses on a sloping site to the south-west side of Crawford Square, a mid-Victorian garden square laid out in 1861 by civil engineer and architect Fitzgibbon Louch (1826–1911) and named after Samuel Law Crawford, the local solicitor who owned the land. The square lies off Northland Road on a hill overlooking the River Foyle and sits within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area. Number 18 is paired with and symmetrical to the adjacent No. 17 Crawford Square, the two properties having been the last in the row to be completed. Both were built for Robert Hastings, a local flour merchant with premises at the Commercial Buildings on Foyle Street. The pair have a slightly higher upper storey than the adjoining buildings, but it is believed that Collins' original design for the earlier houses in the terrace was adhered to when Nos. 17 and 18 were erected.

The building has a rectangular plan form facing north-east, with a three-storey extended return and a two-storey outbuilding accessed from the rear.

The roof is pitched natural slate at the same level as No. 17, with a large buff brick chimney featuring a moulded corbel and buff clay pots shared with No. 19. Timber fascia boards and a moulded soffit carry paired block modillions. Half-round cast iron guttering discharges to a circular cast iron downpipe. A modern single-bay flat-roof dormer with timber casement windows has been added to the front roof slope.

The front elevation is the most intact and retains its original character, style and proportions. A two-storey, three-sided canted bay window with a parapet rises from ground level, with moulded panels between the ground and first floors, and moulded sills and string courses. Window openings have segmental arched heads and 1/1 double-hung timber sliding sash windows with moulded horns. The first-floor window directly above the main entrance door has a moulded architrave with stop blocks and a moulded sill shared with No. 17. The entrance doorcase has a semi-circular arch with a hood mould and keystone, decorative console brackets, and is recessed with a moulded soffit. The fanlight above the outer doors has been boarded up. The tiled step leads to a pair of replacement three-panelled outer doors. Inside the entrance, a replacement glazed inner door is flanked by slender timber columns with moulded capitals and is topped by a rectangular fanlight, also boarded up. The lobby space between the two doors has a flat ceiling with a cornice.

The rear elevation and rear return are rendered, with square-headed window openings fitted with replacement uPVC windows. The three-storey return has a pitched natural slate roof with a buff brick chimney featuring a moulded corbel and buff clay pots, shared with the return of No. 17. A further three-storey rendered extension has been added with similar windows and a half-hipped natural slate roof with blue-black angled hip and ridge tiles; a comparable extension exists on No. 17. A doorway at second-floor level opens onto external metal fire escape stairs.

To 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, all of which front onto Academy Road. The Academy Road elevation is constructed in rubble stone with red brick detailing, with a rendered ground floor containing doors clad in galvanised metal sheeting. There is a high-level 2/2 timber sash window opening, a natural slate roof, and uPVC rainwater goods.

To the front, the house is set slightly back from and above the pavement level. It is approached by a path and a short flight of concrete steps shared with the adjacent property. The modest front garden has a concrete finish and is enclosed by a dwarf wall with painted metal railings beside the steps.

Internally, the original layout has been substantially altered. The building was converted to office accommodation in 1986, having previously been converted to self-contained flats in 1966.

Crawford Square has a notable history of occupants drawn from the city's professional and merchant classes. The first recorded occupant of No. 18 was the Reverend J. M. Rodgers of Third Derry Presbyterian Church on Great James Street. By 1901 the property had been acquired by Victoria High School, whose main premises and boarding house were at the adjacent No. 19, and No. 18 was likely used for additional classroom accommodation. The school occupied the building until 1955, after which it returned to domestic use. By the time of the Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (completed 1972), the total rateable value had risen to £90, up from the original valuation of £40.

Crawford Square was included in the Clarendon Street Conservation Area in 1978, and Nos. 1–23 Crawford Square were listed in 1979. The building shares group value with Nos. 3–17 Crawford Square. Its setting is further enhanced by the stone outbuilding to the rear fronting Academy Road.