1 West End Park, Londonderry

1 West End Park, Londonderry

A late-Victorian end-of-terrace townhouse built in 1896, designed in the Arts and Crafts style. The building is constructed of red brick and stone, standing two bays wide and three storeys over a basement, with a large projecting rear return. The rectangular plan sits on an elevated site on the west side of West End Park, set back from the pavement behind a low rendered boundary wall with decorative metal railings. It forms part of a terrace of twenty-two similar houses; numbers 1 to 7 were constructed first.

The principal elevation faces north and is accessed by a flight of steps from the east side. The pitched natural slate roof is continuous with a large red brick chimney stack shared with No. 2, featuring eleven pots. Timber fascia and soffit with exposed rafter tails support half-round uPVC guttering discharging to circular uPVC downpipes.

The east elevation is constructed of red brick in English Garden Wall Bond, with rock-faced block and sneck sandstone at basement level. A square-headed three-storey canted bay window rises from basement through to first floor level. Above this sits a slightly cantilevered box pedimented window on the second floor, resting on the bay below and supported by large timber brackets on either side. The pediment features half-timber treatment with a plain wide painted timber fascia board and a coupled 6/2 timber sliding sash window. The second floor incorporates half-timber detailing supported on small carved timber corbel brackets, returning the corner to the north elevation. Canted bay windows contain timber painted casement windows at basement level, 1/2 timber sliding sashes at ground and first floors, and the same on the first floor above a blind red brick window to the ground floor left of the bay. A 1/1 horizontally hung timber sliding sash sits on the second floor. Painted rendered bands mark the basement, ground, first and second floor window heads, with painted rendered surrounds to the canted bay window and painted sill-courses to ground and first floor windows.

The south side adjoins No. 2 West End Park.

The north elevation is of red brick over three storeys and basement, overlooking a small urban green area with allocated vegetable allotments. Sandstone finishes the basement level, with an entrance door accessed via a short flight of steps. The second floor features half-timber treatment supported on small carved timber corbel brackets, with three 6/2 timber sliding sash pedimented windows to the right side, each pediment having half-timber treatment and a plain wide painted timber fascia board. Basement and ground floor bays are slightly projected with a shallow lean-to roof of interlocking profiled concrete tiles. An Edwardian-style enclosed timber frame entrance porch is centred on the ground floor, featuring glazed and timber double doors, glazed lights and shouldered fanlights to each side, with frieze and dentilled cornice above and a felt roof finish. This porch sits above the basement level entrance doorway, accessed via steps from the east side. All windows are square-headed: paired casement windows flank the basement entrance, paired 1/2 timber sliding sash windows sit either side of the entrance porch at ground floor level, and paired 1/2 timber sliding sash windows to left and right of a central timber casement window occupy the first floor level.

The west elevation to the rear stands three storeys tall with a gable-end of smooth rendered unpainted finish. Timber casement windows light the ground and first floor levels, with two further timber casement windows at half-landing height. A step in the gable wall contains a fire brace with flue and clay pot rising to the slate roof, off-centred from the ridge. A small rear garden steps up to a blockwork high boundary wall. The pitched natural slate roof features black clay ridge tiles to both the main roof and rear return, with a small modern roof light on the south side of the rear return's double pitch. A large red brick shared chimney stack rises from the south side, centred on the ridge, with eleven terracotta clay pots. Rainwater goods throughout are uPVC.