Rock Bakery, Strand Road, Londonderry

Rock Mill is a five-storey former quayside flour mill constructed in 1846, with a similarly-sized store added in the 1870s. It was converted to apartments in the 1980s. The mill is five storeys high by 17 openings wide and built throughout of random rubble construction.

The building exhibits two phases of construction. The nine-opening section at the north was erected first as a mill. The southern eight-opening section was erected as a store approximately 30 years later. Both phases have pitched natural slate hipped roofs, probably re-slated, over advanced yellow-brick corbelled eaves. Fire-break gables project above the roof between openings 9/10 and 10/11 (counting from the north end). The earlier northern phase has a slightly higher roofline and a truncated hipped return. Rainwater goods comprise ogee metal and half-round plastic gutters. All doors and windows are timber-framed. Windows are one-over-one, top-opening, double-glazed casements with concrete cills.

The northern mill section has an original return at its north end, truncated when converted to apartments. The shortened gable is finished with smooth render and stucco quoins, with modern window openings to all floors and a vented timber door to ground floor. Six openings at the right-hand end are completely abutted by a modern accommodation block serving as a stairwell on the east elevation. The exposed section of the west elevation is two openings wide, with a window and door to ground floor and two windows to each upper floor. All openings have segmental yellow-brick heads and jambs, except ground-floor openings which have splayed split-stone heads and smooth-rendered reveals.

The north elevation of the mill has a single window opening to each floor with segmental yellow-brick heads and smooth-rendered jambs. A second flat-headed window at top floor is probably a modern insert. The east elevation faces the Foyle. Its third opening from the left is abutted by a modern brick stairwell with yellow-brick quoins and openings. The exposed original section has windows to all floors, left of centre. Ground-floor openings have flat stone heads and jambs; upper floors have segmental yellow-brick heads and jambs, except for a wide segmental yellow-brick doorway at the left-hand ground floor, probably a modern insert.

The southern store section is eight openings long. A single-opening-wide section at its north end is set back from both east and west elevations. This section rises seven storeys, above the eaves line, and was probably originally a stairwell serving both mill sections. Its east elevation has a wide segmental-headed yellow-brick doorway to ground floor. Upper floors have window openings with flat yellow-brick heads and jambs; the first floor has a single-pane window, while upper floors are infilled and rendered over. The west elevation has been substantially altered and is now smooth-rendered, with a flat-headed doorway to ground floor, circular brick windows to the first, second and third floors, and a segmental yellow-brick window to the top floor; only this last opening is likely original.

The remaining seven bays of the store form a single entity, largely identical on both east and west elevations. Walls are random rubble with yellow-brick quoins. Running across both elevations is a moulded yellow-brick cill course to each floor, with concrete cills and corner pieces. Below each upper-floor cill course is a decorative platband comprising three rows of yellow brick underlined by a single course of purple engineering brick. The one-opening-wide middle section of both elevations is slightly advanced, with yellow-brick quoins and pedimented gable trimmed in yellow brick. Ground-floor openings comprise wide segmental yellow-brick apertures; the east is infilled with two modern window inserts, while the west gives access to a modern doorway.

The south gable of the store is largely abutted by a modern five-storey stairwell. Its east gable extends beyond the original mill line, with the original mill gable exposed only at its left-hand end. Yellow-brick cill courses continue to all but ground floor, and a pedimented gable is trimmed in yellow brick. There are no external openings.

Rock Mill is aligned north-south, set back parallel with the quayside with which it was formerly functionally associated. The quayside is now a public amenity area, separated from the former mill by a steel fence with semi-mature trees. South of the mill is a modern housing and retail development. The area between the mill and Strand Road has been redeveloped for housing, with a substantial extension added as a return to the west elevation of the mill, connecting to new housing via a four-storey link bridge; the old and new together surround a tarmaced courtyard and car park. At the north end of the mill is a second tarmaced car park, beyond which lies cleared derelict ground on the site of Rock Bakery.