38 Great James Street, Londonderry, Co. Londonderry, BT48 7DA

38 Great James Street, Londonderry

A mid-Victorian mid-terraced house of two bays and three storeys over basement, built in 1871–72. The building is rendered in smooth finish and styled in the Georgian manner. It forms part of a terrace grouping with Nos. 36 and 40 Great James Street on the north side of Great James Street, a steep hill running between St. Eugene's Cathedral to the west and Strand Road to the east. The building is located within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area.

The principal elevation faces south, accessed directly from street level by one step up. The walls are smooth painted render with square-headed window openings set on painted masonry sills. A continuous painted sill runs across the first-floor level. The ground, first and second floors all have 1/1 timber sliding sash windows, with the window bays on each floor aligned vertically. The basement level has a replacement 1/1 uPVC casement window. The entrance doorcase features timber panelled pilasters on plinth blocks with plaster console brackets displaying acanthus leaf detail on either side. The door itself is a four-panel raised and fielded timber door with moulded timber cornice, above which sits a plain elliptical glazed fanlight. The uPVC ogee guttering on rise and fall brackets terminates at a cast iron circular downpipe to the left of the entrance.

The pitched slate roof is laid with clay ridge tiles. A tall chimney stack rises to the east side, rebuilt in modern red brick with seven clay pots.

The north elevation to the rear is of three storeys in smooth painted render with a slated pitched roof incorporating three Velux rooflights. A three-storey rear return, built at half-landing height to the main house, has smooth rendered painted finish; its north elevation is of rough cast unpainted render. The fenestration pattern to the rear is irregular, with square-headed window openings on painted masonry sills. All windows to the rear elevation and rear return are replacement uPVC casement windows. A large unpainted chimney stack of smooth render stands on the north elevation of the return, topped with two clay pots.

A modern single-storey extension extends to the rear of the return, featuring an artificial slate monopitch roof with two Velux rooflights, uPVC casement window, timber door and uPVC sliding patio doors to the rear elevation. An internal courtyard lies between the rear wall of the main house and the rear of this extension.

A large garden occupies the space beyond, enclosed by schist and red brick boundary walls with timber gates to the rear. The east and west elevations are adjoined to the neighbouring properties Nos. 36 and 40 Great James Street. uPVC ogee guttering with rise and fall brackets and cast iron circular downpipes serve the front elevation, rear elevation and rear return.