Former Manse, 17 Queen Street, Londonderry, Co.Londonderry, BT48 7EQ

Former Manse, 17 Queen Street, Londonderry

This is a former manse built around 1862 to serve the adjacent Reformed Presbyterian Church on the corner of Queen Street and Clarendon Street. It is a mid-Victorian painted rendered building of stepped height — two-and-a-half storeys on the left side and two storeys on the right — and sits within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area, north of Londonderry's historic walled city. The building is notable for its unusual proportions and decorative detailing, particularly the blind pointed arched window heads with trefoil ornament on the principal elevation, and it retains much of its original internal and external historic fabric despite some minor alterations to the rear. It has group value with the adjoining former church, and its original setting remains largely unaltered.

Architectural Description

The building is rectangular in plan with a projecting rear return and is oriented with its principal elevation facing north-west onto Queen Street. The roof is hipped natural slate with clay ridge tiles and three smooth rendered chimney stacks set mid-ridge, each with circular vented terracotta pots. Half-round cast-iron guttering is carried on a wall bracket on the left side, while ogee-profile guttering runs on the right, both terminating to circular cast-iron downpipes on the front elevation.

The principal north-west elevation is finished in smooth painted render. The left portion rises to two storeys with an attic-level gabled dormer on the left side; the right portion is two storeys with two small wall-head dormers. On the ground floor, the window openings are slightly shouldered and square-headed but are set within blind pointed arched surrounds with trefoils above, sitting on painted masonry sills with a painted plaster band to the reveals. On the first floor of the left block, the windows have blind geometric-shaped heads with a plain circular detail and shouldered openings. The right-hand bays on the ground floor align with those on the floor above. All windows throughout the principal elevation are one-over-one timber sliding sash; those to the first floor of the right block and to the attic level of the left block have chamfered heads. The entrance door is a sheeted and braced painted timber door opening directly onto the ground-level threshold.

The north-east elevation abuts the neighbouring property at No. 1 Bayview Terrace. The south-west elevation abuts the former Reformed Presbyterian Church. The south-east rear elevation is finished in smooth painted render with an irregular fenestration pattern; window openings are square-headed, set on painted concrete sills, and fitted with one-over-one timber sliding sash windows. A modern stained glass window is present on the left side of the right block. Two single-storey modern rear returns have been added, with pitched slate roofs, PVC rainwater goods, PVC windows, and a single two-panel timber door with a glazed top section. Cast-iron half-round guttering terminates to circular cast-iron downpipes on the rear elevation proper.

Historical Background

The manse was built to serve the congregation of the Reformed Presbyterian Church — known as the Covenanters — whose adjoining church was constructed around 1856–57. The Covenanter denomination was formed in the late 17th century when a minority broke away from the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. Following the Williamite War, the Irish Covenanters refused to subscribe to the Westminster Confession of Faith, which they argued failed to recognise Christ's kingship, and subsequently established their own denomination.

Prior to moving to Clarendon Street, the Covenanters of Derry had worshipped at an earlier meeting house on Fountain Street under the leadership of the Reverend Robert Nevin, who later served as Moderator of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Ireland. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1837 record that this original meeting house was built in 1810–11 and seated 300 persons. The congregation's relocation to the new church on Clarendon Street followed the broader mid-19th-century trend in which Londonderry's professional and merchant classes moved away from the walled city in favour of the new Georgian-style terraced streets to the north. The Reverend Nevin coordinated the move.

The Annual Revisions first record the manse at No. 17 Queen Street in the valuation book covering 1862–63, giving a construction date of around 1862. The architect is unknown. The valuer noted that the building was constructed on land leased by John W. Johnston and was valued at £30. The Reverend Robert Nevin occupied the manse until his death around 1894, at which point the valuer reduced its assessed value to £22, noting the building had fallen into a state of disrepair. Its occupation over the following two decades is uncertain: the next minister, the Reverend Robert Hawthorne Davidson, is recorded as boarding at other addresses in both the 1901 and 1911 Census of Ireland. The manse continued to be recorded as vacant until the cancellation of the Annual Revisions in 1931.

The adjoining former Reformed Presbyterian Church was listed in 1979. Both buildings were included within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area designation in 1978, which the Department of the Environment described as representing an area of special architectural or historic interest whose character it was desirable to preserve or enhance. By 1993 both the church and the manse had ceased their original religious use and were converted into modern office premises.

In 2013, Calley described the former manse as a "mildly Tudoresque manse… in two sections with a continuous wall surface. That on the left is two-and-a-half-storey and that on the right two-storey. There are a total of six bays on the ground floor and four on the first floor. Ground floor bays have blind pointed Saxon arches containing trefoils above the slightly shouldered openings."

Setting

The building is accessed directly from the footpath on Queen Street. It is attached to the former Reformed Presbyterian Church, which occupies the corner of Queen Street and Clarendon Street, and its original setting remains largely unchanged.