4 West End Park, Londonderry

No. 4 West End Park is a late Victorian mid-terrace townhouse built in 1896, likely to the designs of Joseph Ballantine, a local architect and builder who owned Nos 1–7 West End Park and who also designed the similar Arts and Crafts red brick terrace at St. Columb's Court. It forms part of a terrace of twenty-two three-storey red brick dwellings lining the west side of West End Park, a street aligned north–south on the west side of the River Foyle at the southern end of Lone Moor Road, on an elevated site set back from the pavement. The house is rectangular on plan with a projecting rear return.

Nos 1–7 were the first phase of the terrace to be completed, built in a Tudor and Arts and Crafts style with distinctive half-timber detailing, while the remaining Nos 8–22 were constructed in a simpler Victorian manner between 1896 and 1905. Nos 1–7 have group value, and No. 4 is a fine example of the type, retaining much of its original external historic detailing.

The principal elevation faces east onto West End Park and is built in red brick laid in English Garden Wall Bond. The roofline is shared with No. 5, covered in natural slate with black clay ridge tiles, and there is a large rendered chimney stack with eleven terracotta or buff clay pots shared with No. 3. The timber fascia and soffit have exposed rafter tails; rainwater goods are moulded uPVC discharging to a square uPVC downpipe. All windows to the front elevation are timber sliding sashes. A two-storey canted bay window rises from ground to first floor level, with 1/2 sliding sash windows to both floors set within painted rendered surrounds and bands at window head level, and a painted rendered sill course to the first floor windows. Above the canted bay, at second floor level, a slightly cantilevered box window with a pedimented head rests on the bay below, supported by large timber brackets to either side. The pediment features half-timber treatment with a plain wide painted timber fascia board finish and a coupled 6/2 timber sliding sash window. The second floor level generally has half-timber treatment supported on small carved timber corbel brackets, continuous with No. 5. The entrance doorway is square-headed with two steps up, and contains an original raised-and-fielded pair of half-leaf full-height painted timber doors. A 1/2 timber sliding sash window sits at first floor level over the main entrance door. A timber casement window is present at second floor level. The north and south sides adjoin Nos 3 and 5 West End Park respectively.

The rear west elevation is finished in red brick across three storeys, with a three-storey rear return built at half-landing level. A small red brick chimney stack rises from the shared gable-end of the rear return, centred on the ridge. The fenestration is irregular, with replacement timber casement windows to both the rear elevation and the rear return. A red brick boundary wall with a painted rendered finish and a vertically sheeted timber door opens onto a rear passageway leading to Eastway Gardens. The rear roof is natural slate with black clay ridge tiles, and a large red brick chimney stack shared with the neighbouring property rises from the north side, centred on the ridge, with terracotta and buff clay pots. uPVC rainwater goods are used throughout to the rear.

West End Park was laid out as part of the broader development of housing in the area at the end of the 19th century, which also saw the construction of red brick terraces at Stanley's Walk, Laburnum Terrace and Elmwood Terrace. Lone Moor Road, above which the terrace sits, was in existence from at least the late 17th century. The terrace was first depicted on the Annual Revisions map of circa 1873–1910, on which a proposed plan for it was marked along its current layout. The rateable value of No. 4 was set at £23 in the Annual Revisions, which also record that the house was first occupied by John J. Doyle, a supervisor with the Inland Revenue. By the 1911 census, the house was occupied by William Hamilton, Londonderry's harbour master, and was described as a first-class dwelling consisting of twelve rooms. James Wiley, a local laundry proprietor, took possession of the house in the 1920s, and his family continued to reside there until at least the 1970s. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), the rateable value was increased to £30, and by the end of the Second Revaluation (1956–72) it had been further raised to £36.

A 1970 Ulster Architectural Heritage Society guide described Nos 1–7 West End Park as "rather massive in appearance, having strong modelled gables over the projecting bays finished in half-timbered work." Calley later noted that Nos 1–7 "have particularly wide and bold canted bays which are emphasised with wide smooth-rendered bands and surrounds… the attic storey is a massive conglomeration of half-timberwork giving the charming appearance of an Elizabethan village perched on an Edwardian terrace." Nos 1–7 were listed in 1979. No. 4 underwent an extensive renovation in 1986–87 that included the reslating of its roof, the repointing of its brickwork and the installation of new rainwater goods.