10 Princes Street, Londonderry, Co. Londonderry, BT48 7EY

No. 10 Princes Street is a Victorian mid-terrace three-storey townhouse with basement, built in 1863 in a Georgian style. It is constructed of hand-made red brick and forms part of a terrace of eight similar street-fronted houses lining the east side of Princes Street, a narrow street connecting Great James Street and Asylum Road on the west side of the River Foyle. The houses step gently in height from two to three storeys from south to north along the terrace. No. 10 was built as one of a pair with No. 12 next door, and together they sit between the lower two-storey houses to the south and the taller three-storey No. 14 to the north, forming a distinct group. The house lies within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area.

EXTERIOR

The building is rectangular on plan, with its principal elevation facing west onto Princes Street. The roof is pitched natural slate with terracotta clay ridge tiles, and a red brick chimney stack — rebuilt, but capped with clay pots — rises from the south side. Cast-iron guttering is carried on iron rise-and-fall brackets.

The west-facing principal elevation is three storeys high, built in hand-made red brick laid in English Garden Wall bond with cement pointing. All window openings are square-headed, set on painted masonry sills with painted plaster bands to their reveals. Notably, the bays on the ground floor are not aligned with the window bays on the floors above. On the ground floor, a single window to the right of the entrance doorway contains a six-over-six timber sliding sash. The entrance doorway is slightly recessed and has an elliptical arched head, flanked by engaged fluted columns of the Doric order. The door itself is a raised-and-fielded four-panel painted timber door, surmounted by an entablature and a modest glazed fanlight with timber glazing bars. Two concrete steps lead up from the pavement to the threshold. On the first floor there are six-over-six timber sliding sashes, and on the second floor six-over-three timber sliding sashes. Two iron grates set into the footpath beneath the ground floor window provide light to the basement level.

The north and south sides of the house adjoin the neighbouring properties, No. 8 and No. 12 Princes Street. A small section of the south elevation protrudes above the adjacent property and has a smooth rendered unpainted finish.

The rear elevation faces east and reads as four storeys, finished in smooth plain unpainted render. There is also a three-storey rear return, also rendered, with a slated pitched roof built at half-landing height. Window openings to the rear are square-headed on painted masonry sills, with an irregular fenestration pattern. The original six-over-six timber sliding sash windows survive at first, second, and landing levels, with a six-over-three timber sliding sash at third-floor level. The rear return has replacement timber casement windows. The rear roof has terracotta clay ridge tiles and a red brick chimney stack with seven terracotta clay pots. Cast-iron half-round guttering on iron rise-and-fall brackets terminates at a circular downpipe to the front elevation; replacement uPVC rainwater goods serve the rear.

SETTING

The house fronts directly onto the pavement of Princes Street as part of the continuous terrace of eight similar properties. To the rear is a long narrow yard enclosed by a rendered wall, with the three-storey rear return forming one side.

HISTORY

Princes Street follows the course of the old Lower Road, which is recorded on maps as early as 1689 and which historically extended from the Walled City to Pennyburn Mills. The road was first recorded by the name Lower Road in 1847, and was renamed Princes Street in 1862 following the death of Queen Victoria's consort, Prince Albert, on 14th December 1861.

The development of this part of Londonderry arose from a period of significant economic and population growth in the mid-19th century. The First Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1830 records the area — in the townland of Edenballymore — as rural hinterland with few significant structures. At that time, the city's built-up streets extended no further than Waterloo Place, Abbey Street, and William Street. As Robert Simpson noted in his 1847 survey The Annals of Derry, the whole district now covered by Great James Street, William Street, Little James Street and their surrounding lanes had originally been meadow ground without a house. In the early 19th century, the only substantial buildings north of the walls were isolated institutional structures such as the Londonderry Infirmary, the Lunatic Asylum, and Foyle College. The only building in the Clarendon Street Conservation Area that predates the early Victorian development is Foyle Cottage, a Regency-style house constructed around 1815. From the late Georgian period onward, uniform rows of neat three-storey townhouses were built in the area, establishing it swiftly as the preferred residence of the city's merchant and professional classes.

No. 10 Princes Street was built in 1863, together with the adjoining No. 12, on land owned by William Scott — the occupant of the neighbouring Foyle Cottage and founder of Londonderry's shirt industry. Scott leased No. 10, initially valued at £16 and 10 shillings, to Charles McAnulty, a local grocer and spirit dealer with business premises on Rossville Street. McAnulty remained at the house until 1867, when it was taken over by a Mr. William Morton. The Annual Revisions Town Plan of around 1873 to 1910 shows that the current layout of the building, including the two-storey rear return, has not been altered since the late 19th century. In 1881–82, Thomas McCready, a local pawnbroker and piano dealer, took over ownership of Nos. 10 and 12 and built No. 14 as his private dwelling. In 1879, No. 10 was occupied by William Little, described in the 1901 Census as a Master Mariner. The 1911 Census building return classified No. 10 as a second-class dwelling consisting of six rooms. By the 1930s, ownership of Nos. 10 to 14 had passed to Mr. John J. Madden, a merchant who resided in the adjoining No. 16 Princes Street, and the Madden family retained ownership until at least the 1970s. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), the rateable value of No. 10 was increased to £24, at which it remained at the close of the Second Revaluation (1956–72). Princes Street was included in the Clarendon Street Conservation Area in 1978, designated as an area of special architectural or historic interest, the character of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance.