67 Clarendon Steet

67 Clarendon Street is a mid-terraced, three-storey, two-bay Victorian townhouse built in 1863 in the Georgian style, located on the south side of Clarendon Street in the Clarendon Street Conservation Area, Londonderry (townland of Edenballymore). The architect is unknown. The building was originally constructed as a private dwelling and has since been converted to office use, though the original plan form and much of the historic fabric, style, and character survive largely intact throughout the interior. It was listed in 1979.

ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION

The building is rectangular on plan with its principal elevation facing north. It is built in red brick to the front in Flemish bond, with a smooth, unpainted rendered finish to the rear south elevation. The roof is pitched slate — not identifiable as natural slate from street level, though the rear outhouses are covered in natural Bangor Blues slates — with black clay ridge tiles. A large red brick chimney stack rises from the east gable, centred on the ridge and topped with seven octagon-shaped clay pots.

The principal north elevation is distinguished by chamfered polychromatic brick detailing to the window and door surrounds, alternating single and paired corbel brackets to the eaves, and the chimney — features it shares with the adjoining No. 69. The windows are square-headed: a single 8-over-8 timber sliding sash at ground floor left, and two 6-over-6 timber sliding sashes at first and second floor levels. The entrance doorway has a segmental arched opening with a moulded cornice supported on decorative scrolled console brackets and moulded pilasters, with a painted timber four-panelled door and plain fanlight above. To the right of the main entrance is a second, smaller segmental arched doorway with similar treatment to its surround; this door is of sheeted timber with a plain openable fanlight over. A single pitched roof dormer sits above eaves level, containing coupled 1-over-1 timber sliding sash windows flanked by timber pilasters and surmounted by a pedimented gable. Two replacement conservation rooflights are set on the front slope at either side of the dormer.

The front of the property is set behind a low red brick wall with a double cant coping stone and decorative painted wrought-iron railings above. The railings are replacements — the coping stone has been filled where the original railings formerly slotted in. The front door is set two steps above pavement level, with the uppermost step being stone.

The south elevation is three storeys with a two-storey rear return to the left, rendered in smooth unpainted finish, with a door opening onto a rear courtyard. The fenestration is irregular, comprising a combination of 4-over-4, 6-over-3, and 6-over-6 timber sliding sash windows. The rear dormer repeats the coupled 1-over-1 timber sliding sashes with the same pilaster and pediment detail as the front dormer. A single rooflight sits on the rear slope. A single-storey red brick outbuilding to the rear has both timber sliding sash and casement windows.

Cast-iron guttering supported by corbel brackets serves the front elevation, with cast-metal downpipe and guttering supported by iron out-and-up brackets to the rear. The east and west sides are abutted by the adjoining No. 65 and No. 69 Clarendon Street respectively.

To the rear, the yard is bounded by local schist rubble stone walls.

RELATIONSHIP TO ITS PAIR AND TERRACE

No. 67 was built as a pair with No. 69 and shares group value with it. Although constructed in 1863, both houses adhere to the Georgian scale and form of the earlier houses on Clarendon Street, built in the same coloured brick towards the lower end of the street. The polychromatic brick dressing to the window and door surrounds sets this pair apart within the terrace of ten houses, illustrating the historic development of architectural detailing along the street. As architectural historian Calley observed in 2013, the pair are notable in that "for such severe Georgian style facades they have polychromatic brick windows and door surrounds." The terrace of ten lines the south side of Clarendon Street between Princes Street and Francis Street.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Clarendon Street was laid out in the early Victorian period, with the first dwellings constructed from around 1853. The area had previously been rural hinterland — the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1830 for the townland of Edenballymore shows no significant development, and by that date the expansion of the city's streets had extended no further than Waterloo Place, Abbey Street, and William Street. Prior to the Victorian expansion, the only major construction north of the walls comprised isolated institutional buildings: the Londonderry Infirmary, the Lunatic Asylum, and Foyle College. The sole domestic building predating the early Victorian development in the area was Foyle Cottage, a Regency house constructed around 1815. Writing in 1847, Robert Simpson noted in his Annals of Derry that the entire district later covered by Great James's Street, William Street, Little James Street, and the surrounding lanes had originally comprised "meadow ground without a house."

Growth in the economy and population of Londonderry during the mid-19th century drove the development of uniform rows of three-storey townhouses on Clarendon Street, Great James Street, and Queen Street. These streets followed a geometric pattern characteristic of Georgian town planning, and the project represented the most ambitious exercise in planned urban development in Londonderry since the construction of the walled city between 1613 and 1619. The new streets rapidly became the residence of the city's merchant and professional classes.

The street was originally known as Ponsonby Street, named after the Right Reverend Richard Ponsonby (1772–1853), Bishop of Derry and Raphoe, as shown on O'Hagan's 1847 plan of Londonderry. By the 1850s it had been renamed Clarendon Street in honour of George Villiers (1800–1870), the Fourth Earl of Clarendon and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland between 1847 and 1852. The second edition Ordnance Survey map records the new name in use by at least 1853. Although the 1847 plan depicted Clarendon Street extending from the quay up to Francis Street, only the lower section between the Strand Road and Queen Street had been laid out by 1853. Development progressed slowly through the 1850s; Griffith's Valuation recorded only nine dwellings along the entire length of the street by 1856, and in that year additional leases were advertised for building ground on the northern side.

No. 67 was constructed in 1863 as part of the second phase of development on the street. It was originally valued at £26 and built for a Mr Robert Alexander, who also owned the adjoining No. 69. By 1901 the house was occupied by a Ms Catherine Moore, and the census of that year described it as a first-class dwelling consisting of ten rooms. By the 1930s ownership had passed to a Selina Gosselin, who owned a number of other buildings along the street; by the 1950s the building had passed to a Mr B. Desmond. The Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956–72) recorded its value at £36. In 1978 the Department of the Environment designated Clarendon Street and the surrounding streets a Conservation Area, defined as "an area of special architectural or historic interest, the character of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance." No. 67 was subsequently listed in 1979.

By the time of the most recent survey the building was occupied by a local solicitors firm, reflecting the broader pattern by which the majority of mid-Victorian townhouses on Clarendon Street were converted into professional offices during the late 20th century. The building is of special architectural interest for the unique quality it contributes to the Clarendon Street Conservation Area, particularly through its style, proportion, ornamentation, plan form, quality and survival of interior fabric, setting, and group value with No. 69.