Ardcaien, 10 Ardcaien, Culmore Road, Derry, Co Londonderry

Ardcaien is a detached, three-bay, two-storey late Victorian house with a large two-storey side return and outbuildings, built around 1880 to 1899 on the west side of Culmore Road, Derry. It is a good example of the Victorian villas that populated the fast-growing suburbs of the city during a period of trade and prosperity driven by shirt manufacturing, shipbuilding, distilling, bacon-curing, and the arrival of the railway in 1845. Ardcaien was one of several such villas built along the Culmore Road during this era. Much original detailing survives, though this has been compromised by subsequent alterations. The house's original extensively landscaped grounds, as recorded on the Third Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1904–05, have been largely lost to the surrounding Ardcaien and Griffith Park housing developments. The original entrance off Culmore Road remains, retaining its original gates and gate piers, and gives access to what appears to be the original gate lodge at number 92 Culmore Road, now refurbished and extended. A new vehicular access was created from Culmore Road when the housing development was built. The house is now approached via a tarmac driveway to the south, which also serves the enclosed yard and outbuildings to the north-east, and the remainder of the site is maintained as gardens.

The building is rectangular on plan. Its roof is pitched and hipped, finished in a mixture of natural slate and artificial slate with blue-black clay ridge tiles, lead hip rolls to the bays, and corbelled yellow facing brick chimneystacks topped with yellow clay pots. The overhanging eaves have timber fascia and soffit boards, with cast-iron ogee gutters and rectangular rainwater pipes to the main building. Walls are smooth rendered throughout. Windows are generally square-headed timber 1-over-1 sliding sashes with projecting masonry cills, alongside timber casement windows with false horns, though a significant number of windows have been replaced with uPVC units. Rainwater goods are a mixture of cast iron, extruded aluminium, and uPVC.

The principal south-east elevation is dominated by a full-width, single-storey raised veranda with a canted, slate-covered roof. The veranda is reached by five stone steps and is constructed in timber with turned posts, chamfered lintels, and spindles and handrails running between the posts. At the centre of the veranda rises a moulded, scroll-topped Dutch gable surmounted by a ball finial; this gable contains an ocular window with a raised surround and keystone details at the cardinal points. The entrance to the house sits centrally within the veranda as a timber porch with a half-glazed timber panelled door, side lights, a glazed overlight, and panelled cheeks, all containing geometrically designed leaded glass. Above the porch is a central single 1-over-1 timber sliding sash window. To the left of the entrance is a semi-circular, full-height bay with three 1-over-1 timber sliding sash windows with curved glass at each floor level. To the right is a canted, full-height bay with three 1-over-1 timber sliding sash windows at ground floor level and three replacement uPVC casement windows at first floor level.

The south-west side elevation is abutted along its entire length by a four-bay, single-storey, hipped, slate-roofed sunroom. The sunroom windows are uPVC, segmentally headed, set within square-headed timber openings between turned timber posts with chamfered lintels. Access from the veranda into the sunroom is via glazed uPVC French doors with side lights and an overlight. The south-east elevation of the sunroom is two bays wide and detailed in the same manner as the south-west elevation. The north-west elevation of the sunroom is also two bays wide and similarly detailed, but with tapered glazed uPVC panels above each bay, and is abutted by a small lean-to store at ground level. At first floor level on the south-west elevation, there is a canted bay to the left containing three replacement uPVC casement windows, with two further replacement uPVC casement windows to the right of this bay.

The rear north-west elevation is four windows wide. The right bay has a replacement uPVC casement window at each floor level. The next window to the left is a 1-over-1 timber sliding sash window surmounted by a replacement uPVC casement window. The far left bay is abutted at ground floor by a single-storey extension with two uPVC casement windows above. This extension is timber-framed on a smooth rendered plinth with a lean-to slate roof that is partly glazed with cresting at the change of pitch. It is abutted to the north-east by a two-storey return; the exposed section of the return has two 1-over-1 timber sliding sash windows at first floor level. The north-west elevation of the extension is five lights wide, each with filleted corners, and the south-west elevation has central glazed French doors flanked by two lights with filleted corners.

The north-east side elevation is abutted to the left by a single-storey, flat-roofed extension whose north-east elevation is blank and whose south-east elevation is curved, containing three uPVC casement windows. The exposed section of the main elevation above this extension is blank. The remainder of the north-east elevation is abutted by a two-storey, hip-roofed return running parallel to the north-east elevation. The south-east face of this return abuts the single-storey extension at ground floor level; the exposed section above contains a single 1-over-1 timber sliding sash window to the left with a satellite dish to the right. The north-west face is blank with a central projecting chimney. The north-east face of this two-storey return is four bays wide: the left bay has a single timber casement window at each floor level; the adjacent bay to its right has timber French doors with exposed red brick quoins at ground level and a single timber casement window over; the next bay to the right has a single timber casement window at each floor level; and the rightmost bay is abutted by a long further return with an arched entry at the junction, with the exposed section containing a single timber casement window.

This long two-storey roughcast return has, on its north-west elevation, a segmentally headed entry at the far right with an exposed red brick surround, two small timber casement windows above it, and five variously sized timber casement windows spaced along the ground floor, with two wall-head dormers at first floor level each containing a timber casement window. The north-east elevation of this return has a central timber and glazed door with side lights surmounted by a small timber casement window. The south-east elevation has a segmentally arched headed entry at the far left with an exposed red brick surround surmounted by two small timber casement windows; five timber-sheeted stable doors with glazed openings in their top leaves are spaced along the elevation, with timber-sheeted doors surmounting the second and fourth doors from the left, and a rectangular timber-glazed opening positioned between the fourth and fifth doors from the left just above head level.

To the north-east of the house stands a single-storey, hipped, slate-roofed outbuilding which, together with a garden wall, encloses a yard. This yard is partly covered by a curved corrugated tin roof supported on painted curved lattice trusses, which is specifically noted as a feature of interest. The north-east elevation of the outbuilding has a central four-light timber casement window. The south-east elevation has four small six-light timber windows spaced along it. The south-west elevation contains a central 1-over-1 timber sliding sash window. The north-west elevation is three bays wide: the left bay contains a timber-sheeted door, the central bay contains a large square-headed opening with timber-sheeted doors, and the right bay contains a timber-sheeted stable door with a glazed opening in the top leaf.