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

56 Northland Road, Londonderry

This is a substantial end-of-terrace three-storey-with-attic, two-bay rendered Italianate-style townhouse, built in 1869 to designs by John Guy Ferguson (c.1830–1901), one of Londonderry's most prominent Victorian architects. Ferguson was a partner in the practice of Frazer, Ferguson & Frazer from 1861, was appointed architect to the Church of Ireland diocese of Derry and Raphoe in 1868, and was responsible for many of the city's best-known buildings, including St. Augustine's Church, the Apprentice Boys' Memorial Hall, the extension to St. Columb's Cathedral, and the design of the first Guildhall. The terrace of three houses — Nos. 56, 58, and 60 Northland Road, collectively known as 'Edenbank' — was built by prominent local contractor Alexander McElwee for James McNeill, a steamboat agent whose company operated from Shipquay Street. The Irish Builder, reporting in November 1869, described the terrace as possessing "pleasing Italian elevations" with "deeply recessed doorways with crested bays rising two storeys." Together, the three houses — Nos. 58 and 60 also being listed — have group value, and the listing extends to the boundary wall and mews building. The property is now subdivided into flats and falls within the Magee Conservation Area.

The house sits on an elevated site on the west side of Northland Road, at its junction with Eden Terrace, with the River Foyle visible below to the east. The plan is rectangular, facing north-east, with a three-storey rendered rear return built at half-landing height, which steps down to a single-storey extension overlooking a long enclosed garden. A local schist outbuilding stands at the rear of the site. The north-west side abuts the adjoining No. 58 Northland Road.

Exterior — Front (North-East) Elevation

The front elevation retains much of its original character, style, and proportions. The ground floor is finished with channelled rusticated render; the upper floors are painted smooth plaster with corner stepped plaster quoins. A decorative cornice runs along the top, featuring narrow fielded panels and roundels, with paired corbel brackets supporting a projecting eaves line.

The doorway is a particular highlight: three-panel timber double doors with roundels at mid-height, set within a shouldered arch within a plaster architrave decorated with a rope mould and a vermiculated keystone and blocks. To the left of the doorway is a two-storey canted bay with a hipped roof, surmounted by cast-iron cresting.

Windows to the ground and first floors are square-headed with 2-over-2 timber sliding sashes. The first-floor window to the right is treated as an aedicule with foliate console brackets. Second-floor windows are segmental-arched 2-over-2 timber sliding sashes with slightly shouldered architraves sitting on a continuous sill course. A roof dormer to the left has a round-arched 1-over-1 timber sliding sash window with a decorative timber fascia and a cast-iron finial to the apex. A small modern rooflight sits to the right side of the roof.

The roof is pitched natural slate with a hip to the south-east side elevation. There are two tall, smooth rendered, unpainted two-stage chimney stacks to the left side, with clay roll-top ridge tiles to both the ridge and hips. Half-round cast-iron guttering discharges to a circular painted cast-iron downpipe on the adjoining No. 58.

Exterior — Side (South-East) Elevation

This elevation faces Eden Terrace and is of smooth painted render to the ground floor, with strip quoins running from the plinth to the cornice and a continuous sill course at first-floor level, and stepped quoins to the upper floors. There is no fenestration at ground level. Tall, narrow square-headed windows to the far left and far right at first- and second-floor levels contain 2-over-2 timber sliding sashes, with a continuous sill course at second-floor level. Two symmetrical large chimney stacks are centred on this elevation to the hipped roof, with paired corbel brackets supporting a projecting eaves.

Exterior — Rear (South-West) Elevation

The rear elevation is of smooth unpainted render. A three-storey return is built to the left at half-landing level, with strip quoins from the boundary wall to the cornice under a continuous sill course, and stepped quoins to the upper floors. Windows to the right side of the main rear elevation are single square-headed horizontally-split 2-over-2 timber sliding sashes to the ground and second floors, and a 2-over-1 timber sliding sash to the first floor; a segmental-headed 2-over-2 timber sliding sash window sits at second-floor level above the roof of the return. There is a smooth rendered buttress wall to the left of the rear return rising to first-floor level, with a sloping slate-clad top. A small roof dormer of matching style to the front dormer also appears on the rear roof slope.

The three-storey rear return has a pitched slate roof. Its gable elevation has a single square-headed 2-over-2 timber sliding sash window with coloured margin panes at first-floor landing level, and a horizontally-split square-headed 2-over-2 timber sliding sash above at second-floor landing level. Replacement uPVC half-round guttering terminates in a circular uPVC downpipe on the gable of the return. The right-side cheek of the return has small square-headed 1-over-1 timber sliding sash windows at first- and second-floor landing levels. Abutting this return to the rear is a single-storey extension with a modern slate pitched roof, which was not visible at the time of survey.

Outbuilding

A two-storey outbuilding stands at the rear of the site, constructed in local schist walling with red brick dressings. The north-east elevation has red brick-dressed window openings at first-floor level containing louvred timber shutters. The south-east gable is blank with red brick dressings to the 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 roof is pitched natural slate with clay roll-top ridge tiles, a small red brick chimney positioned mid-ridge, and replacement uPVC rainwater goods.

Setting and Boundary

The front garden is enclosed by a low rendered plinth wall with a capping stone and metal railings above. A long schist boundary wall extends from the rear corner of the house to the outbuilding at the rear of the garden, and the rear garden is enclosed by this wall. The front elevation forms part of a terrace row of three three-storey-with-attic rendered buildings at the junction of Northland Road and Eden Terrace.

Historical Context

The terrace was built during a period of northward expansion of Londonderry, facilitated by economic growth from the 1860s onwards and prompted in part by the opening of Magee College in 1865. The surrounding area, including Edenballymore and the Northland Road, had been essentially rural in character when earlier Victorian terraces such as Crawford Square were under construction nearby. No. 56 was initially valued at £35 in the Annual Revisions of 1870, when James McNeill was recorded as residing there while leasing out the adjoining Nos. 58 and 60. McNeill remained at No. 56 until his death in 1891, after which the property passed to his brother Andrew McNeill; the 1911 Census recorded McNeill and his sisters living there and described the house as a first-class dwelling with 13 rooms and a stable and coach house. By the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), ownership had passed to a Mr. James Mitchell, who leased the building to a Ms. Violet Miller, and the rateable value had been increased to £38; the owner, occupant, and value remained unchanged through the Second Revaluation (1957–72).

An outline planning application was submitted in November 2004 for a 70-bed hotel on the site of Nos. 56–60 Northland Road; this was withdrawn in July 2006. In 2006, the terrace was included within the Magee Conservation Area. The subsequent Magee Conservation Area Baseline Audit identified the three houses as buildings at risk, describing them as "very fine three-storey houses" of "undoubtedly very high architectural quality" that "differ considerably in their detailing from other terraces either in the Magee or Clarendon Street Conservation Areas," and noting that they "appear to be the only plastered and painted terrace in the city with horizontal astragal divisions in the sash windows."