56 Northland Road, Londonderry, Co. Londonderry, BT48 0AL

56 Northland Road is an end-of-terrace three-storey townhouse with attic, built in 1869 to designs by architect John Guy Ferguson. It is rendered throughout in Italianate style with rendered dressings. The building forms part of a terrace of three similar properties (numbers 56, 58 and 60) situated on an elevated site on the west side of Northland Road, overlooking the River Foyle to the east.

The building has a rectangular plan form with a two-bay front elevation facing north-east. A three-storey rendered return is built at half-landing height and steps down to a single-storey extension at the rear, overlooking a long enclosed garden. A local schist outbuilding stands to the rear of the site.

The roof is pitched natural slate with a hip to the south-east side elevation. Two tall smooth rendered unpainted two-stage chimney stacks rise from the left side. Clay roll-top ridge tiles finish the ridge and hips. Half-round cast-iron guttering discharges to a circular painted cast-iron downpipe on the adjoining building, number 58.

The front north-east elevation displays three storeys with attic. The ground floor has channelled rusticated rendering; the storeys above have smooth painted plaster with corner stepped plaster quoins. A decorative cornice with narrow fielded panels and roundels is supported by paired corbel brackets at the eaves. The doorway contains three-panel timber double doors with roundels at mid-height, set within a shouldered arch and plaster architrave featuring rope-mould and vermiculated keystone and blocks. To the left of the doorway is a two-storey canted bay with hipped roof, crowned with cast-iron cresting.

Ground and first floor windows are square-headed 2/2 timber sliding sashes. The first floor window to the right side is an aedicule with foliate console brackets. Second floor windows are segmental arched 2/2 timber sliding sashes with slightly shouldered architraves on a continuous sill course. A roof dormer to the left side contains a round-arched 1/1 timber sliding sash window with decorative timber fascia and cast-iron finial at its apex. A small modern rooflight sits to the right side.

The south-east elevation facing Eden Terrace has smooth painted render at ground floor level, with strip quoins running from plinth to cornice under a continuous sill course at first floor, and stepped quoins to the upper floors. The ground floor has no fenestration. Tall narrow square-headed windows to far left and far right contain 2/2 timber sliding sash windows at first and second floors, with a continuous sill course to second floor level. Two symmetrical large chimney stacks centred on this elevation rise to the hipped roof with paired corbel brackets supporting the projecting eaves.

The rear south-west elevation is smooth render, unpainted. A three-storey return built to the left at half-landing level has strip quoins from the boundary wall to cornice under a continuous sill, with stepped quoins to upper floors. The rear return contains square-headed horizontally-split 2/2 timber sliding sash windows to ground and second floors, and a 2/1 timber sliding sash window to first floor level on the right side; a segmental-headed 2/2 timber sliding sash window sits at second floor level to the left, above the roof of the return. A smooth rendered buttress wall sits to the left of the rear return at first floor level with sloping slate clad top. A small roof dormer of matching style to the front dormer is present. The three-storey rear return on the left side has a pitched slate roof. Its gable elevation contains a single square-headed 2/2 timber sliding sash window with coloured margin panes at first floor landing level and a horizontally-split square-headed 2/2 timber sliding sash window above at second floor landing level. A replacement uPVC half-round gutter terminates in a circular uPVC downpipe at the gable elevation. The right-side cheek of the return has small square-headed 1/1 timber sliding sash windows at first and second floor landing levels. The three-storey return is abutted to the rear by a single storey return with modern slate pitched roof (not visible at time of survey). A long schist boundary wall extends from the rear corner of the house to the outbuilding at the rear of the garden. The north-west side abuts the adjoining property number 58.

The rear outbuilding is two-storey, constructed of local schist walling with redbrick dressed windows. The north-east elevation has louvred timber shutters to first floor level. The south-east gable elevation is blank with redbrick dressings to corners. The south-west elevation has timber vertically sheeted double doors to the left, a replacement single timber door to the right, and two square-headed window openings at first floor level. The pitched natural slate roof has clay roll-top ridge tiles, a small redbrick chimney mid-ridge, and replacement uPVC rainwater goods.

The building is now subdivided into flats. A small garden to the front is enclosed by a low rendered plinth wall with capping stone and metal railings above. The rear garden is enclosed by schist boundary wall and the schist outbuilding to the rear.