34 Great James Street, Londonderry, County Londonderry, BT48 7DA

34 Great James Street is a mid-Victorian mid-terraced former dwelling, built around 1874, located on the north side of Great James Street in Londonderry — a steep hill running between St. Eugene's Cathedral to the west and Strand Road to the east. The building is three storeys over a basement, with an attic, and is rectangular on plan. It forms part of a continuous terraced row and is included within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area. The listing covers the house together with the plinth wall and railings to the front.

EXTERIOR

The principal elevation faces south and sits behind a low rendered plinth wall with painted metal railings above. The entrance doorway is one step up from pavement level, with access steps to the right leading down to the basement. The lower two storeys of this south-facing elevation are finished in smooth painted render, while the upper storeys are in red brick laid in Flemish bond with cement pointing. Window openings have cut brick flat arches set within painted cement reveals on painted masonry sills, with a continuous painted sill running across the first floor. Windows to the ground, first, and second floors are 2/2 timber sliding sashes, with the ground-floor bays aligned with those above. At basement level there is a replacement 1/2 timber casement window and a modern replacement door.

The entrance doorcase is a particular feature of the building: rendered bands on plinth blocks support plaster console brackets to either side of recessed three-panel double timber doors with a moulded timber cornice, all beneath an elliptical glazed fanlight with timber glazing bars. At eaves level, a continuous string course carries timber carved coupled corbel brackets, with three corbel brackets to each end. Rainwater goods consist of a cast iron half-round gutter terminating at a swan neck circular downpipe to the right. There is a small red brick chimney to the west side with three clay pots, and a larger chimney stack to the east side with seven clay pots. The tall chimney stack rising to the west has been rebuilt in modern red brick.

The rear elevation, to the north, is three storeys of smooth unpainted render overlooking a large yard area. The fenestration is irregular, with windows to the west side positioned at half-landing height. There is a small replacement timber casement at ground floor level, original 2/2 timber sliding sashes at all other levels, and two replacement Velux rooflights in the rear roof slope. The rear also has a replacement flush timber door.

The east and west sides of the building are attached to the neighbouring properties at No. 32 and No. 36 Great James Street respectively. The east elevation rises above the adjoining property and has replacement timber casement windows to either side of the gable at attic level.

The roof is a pitched slate construction. The front slope retains natural slate with black clay ridge tiles and a cast iron half-round gutter terminating at a swan neck circular downpipe, along with two replacement Velux rooflights. The rear slope has been re-covered in artificial slate. Two further replacement Velux rooflights are present to the rear.

INTERIOR

Much of the original plan form survives internally. Some historic detailing on the upper levels has been lost, but the building retains a good degree of interior integrity overall. The timber inner porch door and sidescreens are considered more Edwardian than Victorian in style and are thought likely to have been introduced by John Howatt, a veterinary surgeon who occupied the house from around 1911 until his death in 1929.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Great James Street was first laid out around 1833, with the earliest buildings appearing by 1835–37, including the Londonderry Third Presbyterian Church. The street's development, along with the neighbouring Queen Street (laid out around 1847) and Clarendon Street (around 1853), was driven by a period of significant economic and population growth in Londonderry during the mid-19th century. As John Hume has noted, the period between 1825 and 1850 saw reconstruction within the city walls alongside the first development of housing outside them at Bogside and Edenballymore. The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1830 records the Great James Street area as rural hinterland, and by that date the city's streets had extended no further than Waterloo Place, Abbey Street, and William Street. Robert Simpson, writing in The Annals of Derry (1847), recorded that the entire district had originally comprised meadow ground without a house. The only building in the Clarendon Street Conservation Area predating the early-Victorian development was Foyle Cottage, a Regency-style house constructed around 1815.

The development of uniform three-storey townhouses along these new streets created a new affluent district that became the preferred residence of the city's merchant and professional classes. The geometric street pattern followed was characteristic of Georgian town planning, and the scheme has been described as the most ambitious planning project in Londonderry since the construction of the walled city between 1613 and 1619.

No. 34 itself was constructed around 1874, following the building of the adjoining Nos. 36–40 in 1871–72. It was first recorded in the Annual Revisions in 1874, at which point it was valued at £29 and leased by George Skipton — a local landowner who held many of the plots on the north side of the street — to Samuel Boarland, a local coachmaker. Boarland lived there until his death in 1885, when the building passed to Hugh Price, a local hardware merchant. The Annual Revisions Town Plan of around 1873–1910 depicted No. 34 as a simple rectangular terraced building with no return and no outbuildings.

By 1911 the house was occupied by John Howatt, a veterinary surgeon. The census building return for that year described it as a first-class building of ten rooms with a stable as its sole out-office. Howatt remained there until his death in 1929. His widow was still resident at the time of the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), by which point the valuation had risen to £37 and ownership had passed to a Mr. James Hamilton. In 1947 a Ms. Matilda Porter occupied the house and continued to do so until at least the 1970s. By the close of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72) the value had risen further to £41.

In 1978 the Department of the Environment designated the area as a Conservation Area, described as one of special architectural or historic interest whose character it is desirable to preserve or enhance. During a later survey, No. 34 was recorded as being used as office premises by An Gaelaras around the year 2000. Following the construction of the Cultúrlann Irish Culture Centre at No. 37 Great James Street, the building had been taken over by the North West Baptist Church by 2010.

SETTING

The building sits within a terraced row of houses lining the north side of Great James Street and is well seen in context with its neighbours and the wider run of dwellings built along the street during this period. To the rear is a large yard enclosed by a red brick and schist wall with timber gates to the north boundary.