16 Crawford Square, Londonderry

16 Crawford Square, Londonderry

A three storey, two bay rendered Italianate terraced house built in 1875, most likely designed by Robert Collins. The building has a rectangular plan with a northeast-facing front elevation and a three storey rendered return to the rear, with an attached single storey outshot and two storey outbuilding accessed from the rear yard.

The house forms part of a terrace of sixteen buildings positioned on a sloping site to the southwest side of the tree-lined Crawford Square. It is paired with and symmetrical to the adjacent number 15 Crawford Square. The pitched natural slate roof is continuous with number 15, and a large rendered chimney with buff clay pots is shared with number 17.

The front elevation features timber fascia boards and a moulded soffit with paired block modillions. Half round cast iron guttering discharges to a circular cast iron downpipe on the number 15 side. A two storey three-sided canted bay with parapet projects from the front, with recessed panels between the first and second storeys and moulded cills and strings. Window openings have segmental arched heads with 1/1 double hung timber sash windows with moulded horns. The first floor window above the main entrance has a moulded architrave with stop blocks and a moulded cill shared with number 15.

The main entrance features a semi-circular arched doorcase with a hood mould and keystone, decorative console brackets, and is recessed with a moulded soffit. It is approached by a tiled step and has a glazed fanlight and a pair of panelled outer doors. An original inner glazed door has slender timber columns with decorative capitals either side, a rectangular fanlight, and a timber door with a glazed top panel and single moulded bottom panel. The space between the doors has a flat ceiling with cornice.

The rear elevation and three storey return are rendered with square headed window openings containing timber 6/6 double hung sliding sashes. The return has a hipped natural slate roof with blue-black hip and ridge tiles and a buff brick chimney with moulded corbel, shared with number 15's return. An attached single storey rendered outshot with a gabled mono-pitch natural slate roof and a timber top-hung casement at high level in the gable end does not extend the full width of the return. A low mono-pitched structure with artificial slate roof is attached to this. To the rear yard is a stone-built outbuilding, now rendered on the yard side, forming part of the stepped row of outbuildings associated with the Crawford Square houses which front onto Academy Road. The Academy Road elevation has been partially rebuilt in concrete brick and is partially cement rendered. The exposed roof structure consists of sawn rafters with collar ties; slating battens remain but no roof covering is present.

The house faces northeast over the tree-lined Crawford Square green. It is set back from the footpath and slightly elevated, approached by a path and a short flight of concrete steps shared with the adjacent property. The modest front garden has a concrete surface finish and is enclosed by a dwarf wall with a boot scraper adjacent to the doorway.