3 Crawford Square, Londonderry

3 Crawford Square is a three-storey, two-bay rendered Italianate terraced house, built in 1871 to designs by Robert Collins, Londonderry's Consulting Engineer from 1866 to 1874, and constructed by the building firm of G. & R. Ferguson. It forms part of an impressive terrace of sixteen buildings on a sloping site to the south-west side of Crawford Square, a grassed and tree-lined park, and is paired with and symmetrical to the adjacent No. 4 Crawford Square. The listing extends to the house itself, its outbuilding, and an original cast iron boot scraper.

The building has a rectangular plan form facing north-east, with a three-storey rendered return to the rear, an attached single-storey outshot, and a two-storey outbuilding accessed from the rear of the site.

The roof is a pitched natural slate finish, continuous with that of No. 4 Crawford Square, with a large rendered chimney bearing buff clay pots on the south-east gable. The eaves are finished with timber fascia boards and a moulded soffit featuring paired block modillions, and the rainwater goods consist of half-round cast iron guttering discharging to circular cast iron downpipes.

The front elevation features a two-storey, three-sided canted bay window to the left of the entrance, with a parapet above, recessed panels between the first and second storeys, and moulded cills and string courses throughout. Window openings have segmental arched heads and 1/1 double-hung timber sliding sash windows with moulded horns. The first-floor window above the main entrance door has a moulded architrave with stop blocks and a moulded cill shared with No. 4 Crawford Square. The recessed arched doorcase has a moulded soffit and a natural stone step, and contains an original four-panelled door with glazed upper panels and a plain semi-circular fanlight above. The doorcase is finished with a hood mould with keystone and decorative console brackets.

The rear elevation is rendered with square-headed window openings, now fitted with replacement uPVC top-hung casement windows where visible. The three-storey return has a hipped natural slate roof with blue-black hip and ridge tiles and a rendered chimney with a moulded corbel, shared with the return of No. 4 Crawford Square. The return is likewise rendered with square-headed openings and replacement uPVC top-hung casement windows. An attached single-storey brick-built outshot, which does not extend the full width of the return, has a gabled monopitch natural slate roof and is attached to a similar structure at the rear of No. 4. To the rear of the site stands a stone-built outbuilding with brick surrounds to its openings and a pitched artificial slate roof. This outbuilding forms part of the stepped row of outbuildings associated with the Crawford Square houses, fronting onto Academy Road.

In terms of setting, the house faces north-east over the tree-lined Crawford Square green. To the front, it is set back slightly from the footpath and is modestly elevated, approached by a shared path and a short flight of stone steps. An original cast iron boot scraper sits at the top step. A modest front garden is enclosed by a 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 in Londonderry, which he established in independent practice from 1859. He was also responsible for the entrance to the City Cemetery and the design of the Magazine Gate entrance to the city walls. The square was named after Samuel Law Crawford, a local solicitor who owned the land, as recorded in the Dublin Builder. It was conceived as part of the city's northward expansion beyond the earlier Georgian-style terraces of Great James Street, Queen Street, and Clarendon Street, which had developed between the 1830s and 1860s. At the time the first tenders for dwellings on Crawford Square were invited in the 1860s, the Northland Road was still described as a country road leading from the city towards Donegal. Crawford Square, along with Templemore and Victoria Parks, has been described as the city's response to Dublin's garden squares, creating a green oasis near the city centre for its wealthier residents, with an enclosed central garden bounded on three sides by the square.

The first two houses on the square, Nos 1–2, were erected in 1865 for Samuel Knox, a building contractor, with the majority of the remaining terrace built for John McAdoo, a local seed merchant and landowner. No. 3, along with the adjoining Nos 4–10, was constructed in 1871, as reported in the Irish Builder. On completion, the rateable value of No. 3 was assessed at £36. By 1911 the house was occupied by Edward George Cary, the County Inspector of the Royal Irish Constabulary. The 1911 Census Building Return described it as a first-class dwelling containing 12 rooms, with a stable and coach house as its sole outbuildings. Cary continued in residence until 1945, when Isabella Gillespie took occupancy and remained there until at least the 1970s. By the end of the Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956–72) the value of the house stood at £34.

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, and Nos 1–23 Crawford Square were subsequently listed in 1979. General repairs to No. 3 were carried out in 1982. The building has remained in domestic use throughout, and appears to have been subdivided into flats.