10 Crawford Square, Londonderry

10 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. It forms part of an impressive continuous terrace of sixteen buildings on a sloping site overlooking Crawford Square, a grassed and tree-lined mid-Victorian park square. The exterior has retained its character, style and proportions, the internal layout is substantially unchanged, and the detailing is largely intact. The house has group value with the other listed buildings in the terrace.

Architectural Overview

The building has a rectangular plan form facing north-east, with a three-storey rendered return to the rear, an attached single-storey kitchen outshot, and a two-storey outbuilding accessed from the rear yard. It is paired with, and symmetrical to, the adjacent No. 9 Crawford Square. The pitched natural slate roof is continuous with No. 9, and a large rendered chimney with buff clay pots is shared with No. 11.

The eaves have timber fascia boards and a moulded soffit with paired block modillions. Half-round cast iron guttering discharges to a circular cast iron downpipe on No. 9.

Front Elevation

The front elevation features a two-storey, three-sided canted bay with a parapet to the right of the entrance door, recessed panels between the first and second storeys, and moulded cills and string courses. All window openings have segmental arched heads and 1-over-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. 9.

The recessed arched doorcase has a moulded soffit and a tiled 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.

Rear Elevation and Return

The rear elevation is rendered with square-headed window openings containing 6-over-6 double-hung timber sliding sash windows at first and second floors, and a 1-over-1 sash to the ground floor. The three-storey return has a hipped natural slate roof with blue-black hip and ridge tiles and a rendered chimney with moulded corbel, shared with the return of No. 9. The return has square-headed window openings with 6-over-6 timber sashes to the upper floors, and a timber sheeted door with a glazed upper panel leading to the rear yard.

An attached single-storey rendered outshot, which does not extend the full width of the return, has a gabled monopitch natural slate roof, replacement timber windows, and replacement gutters on rise-and-fall brackets.

Outbuildings and Academy Road Elevation

From the rear yard, five stone steps lead to a stone-built outbuilding, now rendered, with painted timber windows and door and a pitched roof with corrugated fibre cement covering. This outbuilding forms part of the stepped row of outbuildings associated with the Crawford Square houses that front onto Academy Road. The Academy Road elevation is roughcast rendered and has a single painted door for access, with the remaining openings blocked up.

Setting

The house faces north-east over the tree-lined Crawford Square green. It is set back slightly from the footpath and modestly elevated, approached by a path and a short flight of stone steps shared with the adjacent property. A modest front garden is enclosed by a dwarf wall and painted metal railings.

Historical Context

Crawford Square itself was originally laid out in 1861 by civil engineer and architect Fitzgibbon Louch (1826–1911) during his early career in Londonderry, where he had established an independent practice in 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 part of the northward expansion of Londonderry following the establishment of Georgian-style terraces along Great James Street, Queen Street and Clarendon Street during the 1830s to 1860s. At the time the first tenders were invited for new dwellings on Crawford Square 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 characterised as the city's delayed 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 houses on the square, Nos 1 and 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. 10, together with the adjoining Nos 3–9, was constructed in 1871. The Irish Builder records that these eight dwellings were designed by Robert Collins and constructed by the building firm of G. & R. Ferguson. On completion, the total rateable value of No. 10 was set at £36.

Throughout its history the occupants of Crawford Square were predominantly from the city's professional and merchant classes. By 1911 ownership of No. 10 had passed to Dr John Gillis, a local dentist who used the house as his personal dwelling. The 1911 Census Building Return described it as a first-class dwelling consisting of 12 rooms, with a stable and coach house as its sole outbuildings. The rateable value was reduced to £34 by the end of the Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956–72), and Dr Gillis retained ownership of the building until at least the 1970s.

In 1970 the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society guide for Londonderry 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." In 1978 Crawford Square was included within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area, designated as an area of special architectural or historic interest, the character of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance. Nos 1–23 Crawford Square were subsequently listed in 1979.