61 Claredon Street

61 Clarendon Street, Londonderry

61 Clarendon Street is a mid-terraced Victorian townhouse of three storeys over basement, built in 1872 on the south side of Clarendon Street, near its junction with Princes Street. The architect is unknown. It forms one of a row of four terraced houses together with nos. 55–59, constructed as part of the outward expansion of the city beyond its historic walls, and shares group value with these adjoining properties. Now in use as an office, the building was originally constructed as a private dwelling. The listing extends to the house and its railings.

Architectural Character

The building is rectangular on plan, with its principal elevation facing north. It is three bays wide and rises three full storeys above a basement. The exterior is painted render to the ground floor, with Flemish bond brickwork above to the upper floors. Although built later than the predominantly Georgian-style terraces further down towards the lower end of the street, No. 61 respects their rhythm and proportion while introducing a number of distinctly Victorian details: round-arched windows at ground floor level, polychromatic brick detailing to the eaves, corbelled cast-iron gutter brackets, and ornate cast-iron railings to the front.

Principal (North) Elevation

The front elevation is bounded at low level by a painted rendered wall topped with a sandstone coping and painted decorative cast-iron railings. The entrance is formed by a round-arched doorway with a painted timber four-panelled door — the panels of diamond form — and a plain fanlight above. All windows are timber sliding sash in a 1-over-1 configuration. At ground floor level these are round-arched, with bull-nosed cills and a moulded apron panel below each; a shoulder course runs between the windows at this level. First-floor windows are square-headed with a sill-course, and second-floor windows are segmental-arched. Each opening at ground floor level also has a hood mould and flying keystone. A small duo-pitched dormer with a round-arched window sits within the roof slope. Galvanised steel steps descend from the front elevation to the basement, where there are three square-headed openings: two 1-over-1 sliding sash windows to the left and a door to the right, positioned below the main entrance step.

Rear and Side Elevations

The east and west flanks are abutted by the adjoining properties at nos. 59 and 63 Clarendon Street. The south elevation presents three storeys with a series of smooth unpainted rendered rear returns that step down in height towards the rear of the plot. An outhouse set at right angles spans the full width of the yard; this is one-and-a-half storeys, duo-pitched, smooth rendered and unpainted, with a slate roof, black clay ridge tile, clipped eaves, and uPVC guttering. A door in the east face of the middle return gives access to an external fire escape stair. A large duo-pitched dormer clad in horizontal timber boarding faces rearward on the south-facing roof slope, with a coupled modern casement window.

Roof and Materials

The main roof is pitched and covered in natural slate with black clay ridge tiles. A large red-brick chimney stack, rebuilt, rises from the east side, centred on the ridge and fitted with nine terracotta pots. Cast-iron guttering is supported on corbel brackets, with a cast-iron downpipe to the front elevation.

Interior

Despite some loss of original fabric internally, the exterior retains much of its original character.

Setting

No. 61 sits within a terrace of ten similarly scaled townhouses lining the south side of Clarendon Street, stepping down in a strong linear formation towards the River Foyle. It lies within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area, just above the junction with Princes Street. The front of the property is set behind the low rendered boundary wall enclosing the basement area. The intact terrace, set among several similar rows of neat townhouses, contributes significantly to the special architectural quality of the conservation area.

Historical Background

Clarendon Street was laid out in the early Victorian period as part of the planned expansion of Londonderry beyond its historic walls. The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1830 shows the Clarendon Street area — situated in the townland of Edenballymore — as rural hinterland, with the city's built fabric extending no further than Waterloo Place, Abbey Street, and William Street. The only major construction north of the walls prior to the Victorian period had been isolated institutional buildings, including the Londonderry Infirmary, the Lunatic Asylum, and Foyle College. The sole surviving domestic building in the area predating the Victorian development is Foyle Cottage, a Regency house of around 1815. Writing in 1847, Robert Simpson recorded in his Annals of Derry that the district later covered by Great James's Street, William Street, and Little James's Street had originally comprised "meadow ground without a house."

The development of this part of the city was driven by population growth and economic expansion during the mid-19th century, a period that John Hume characterises as seeing reconstruction within the walls alongside the first significant domestic development outside them at Bogside and Edenballymore. The laying out of Clarendon Street, Great James Street, and Queen Street followed a geometric street pattern characteristic of Georgian town planning, and has been described as the most ambitious urban planning exercise in Londonderry since the construction of the walled city itself between 1613 and 1619.

The street was originally known as Ponsonby Street, named after the Right Reverend Richard Ponsonby (1772–1853), Bishop of Derry and Raphoe. It had been renamed Clarendon Street by at least 1853, in honour of George Villiers, the Fourth Earl of Clarendon (1800–1870), Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1847 to 1852. Although a plan of Londonderry drawn in 1847 showed Clarendon Street extending from the quay to Francis Street, only the lower section between the Strand Road and Queen Street had been laid out by 1853. Griffith's Valuation of 1856 recorded only nine dwellings along the entire length of the street.

No. 61, along with the adjoining nos. 55–59, was constructed in 1872 — almost a decade after the majority of the Georgian-style terraces on the street had been completed. Nos. 59–61 were built for a Mr Patrick Murray, and in 1872 each was valued at £33. In 1901 No. 61 was occupied by a Ms Mary Morrison and was described in that year's census as a first-class dwelling of ten rooms. In 1905 ownership passed from Patrick Murray to Selina Gosselin, who remained the recorded owner in valuation sources until the 1970s. The rateable value rose to £41 under the First General Revaluation of 1935 but was subsequently reduced to £38 under the Second General Revaluation of 1956–72; the building remained in residential use throughout these periods.

In 1978 the Department of the Environment designated Clarendon Street and the surrounding streets a Conservation Area, defined as "an area of special architectural or historic interest, the character of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance." No. 61 was listed in 1979. Around 1988 the building was converted into a number of self-contained flats, a process that also included the installation of a new dormer window. In 1993 conservation works were carried out, comprising the reslating of the roof, the reconstruction of one of the chimneys, and the repointing of the façade brickwork. Writing in 2013, Calley described nos. 55–61 collectively as "rendered late-19th century terrace houses… three bays each, the ground floors rendered with round-headed bays linked by a shoulder course which creates an arcaded feel," noting that they "are treated as a single terrace, but are grouped in pairs to accommodate the change in street level." Few of the mid-Victorian townhouses on Clarendon Street remain in residential use; the majority were converted to offices for solicitors, dentists, and accountancy firms during the late 20th century. At the time of the most recent survey, No. 61 continued to be subdivided into residential flats.