Claremont, 40 Northland Road, Londonderry, BT48 7ND

Claremont was a mid-Victorian merchants house in a restrained classical style, built between 1860 and 1879 and now demolished. It stood set back from Northland Road in Londonderry within its own grounds, creating a garden setting that contrasted with the busy urban surroundings of the main road, an adjacent former Presbyterian church, Magee University College, and terraced streets to the rear and sides.

The building was a two-storey, three-bay house with a square plan and truncated pyramidal roof. It was rendered with sandstone detailing and a natural slate roof. The roof rose from the sides to a lead flat roof at the centre of the plan.

The entrance elevation faced south east and featured a central door with a rectangular fanlight beneath a projecting sandstone canopy detailed as a classical entablature supported by two Doric columns and Doric pilasters. Flanking the door were two tall sash windows with straight heads and simple projecting plaster architraves, each with two horizontally divided panes. Above these were three equally spaced one-over-one sash windows with segmental heads and similar architraves. Quoins, cills and plinth course were in sandstone. The eaves finished flush with the walls and were supported on a sandstone dentil course with a projecting cast iron ogee gutter.

The north east façade facing Northland Road was the same length as the entrance façade and was divided into four window bays with matching window details. At the centre of this façade at roof level was a timber dormer window with tripartite one-over-one pane sash glazing and a shallow hipped roof, with narrow single panes lighting the sides. Sandstone chimneys to the rear were arranged symmetrically about this façade.

The north west façade recreated the arrangement of the entrance façade without the entrance canopy, comprising three bays wide with matching window, quoin and plinth design. The rear south west façade of the main building was blank except for a small two-pane sash at first floor centred on the return. Two tall sandstone chimneys rose from the top of the wall on either side of the return, simply detailed with a string course 600mm below the head alluding to a classical entablature.

A return parallel to the entrance façade was constructed in rubble stone and stepped back into a link block with flat roof and pyramidal roof light before stepping out again to a small low two-storey building with two four-pane sash windows with brick trims to the first floor and a large arched window at ground floor. This rear building's roof presented a hip to the main building and a gable surmounted by two tall brick chimneys to the rear garden.

The property was approached by a gravelled drive from an entrance at the south eastern end, which curved around to the door before curving away to a discrete stable block at the rear boundary. The stable block consisted of three parallel gabled brick buildings with small courtyards between each, an exit to the rear, and a screen wall to the garden. Mature trees within the site lined the boundary with Northland Road. The boundary to the road was a small hedge with a rendered concrete block wall and galvanised railings of modern construction at the entrance.

The building does not appear on the 1850 Ordnance Survey map. Slater's Trade Directory of 1870 refers to Mrs Eleanor Graham at 'Clare Mount'. The building is indicated on the 1873 Ordnance map largely as it existed until 2003, with an orchard noted in the south west corner near the stables and a square pleasure garden to the rear of the house. The boundary of the site extended in a straight line to Northland Road and included the site of the present Claremont Presbyterian Church. The Derry Almanac of 1878 records Mrs Graham residing at Claremont. In 1904 the foundation stone of the Presbyterian Church was laid in the grounds, and a portion of the garden near the university was cut off for this purpose, with a professor Graham recorded at the ceremony. The church served the largely Scottish shipbuilding population in the nearby streets. Miss Graham is listed as occupier in the Derry Almanac of 1918. The source of wealth of the original Mr Graham has not been established, though he was likely involved in the shipbuilding or grocery trade in the city. The building functioned as the Manse of the Presbyterian Church throughout most of the twentieth century.

The first survey of buildings of architectural and historic interest in this area in 1970 did not record the building, though the nearby church was listed. In late 2002 the building and grounds were put up for sale. It was purchased in January 2003 at a reported price of 1.4 million pounds and was demolished in July 2003. The site is currently vacant.