Ash Villa, 43 Governor Road, Londonderry, BT48 7PL

Ash Villa is a two-and-a-half storey house with part basement, built around 1904 to 1905, and is a notable example of the Arts and Crafts style of architecture that was prevalent between the 1880s and 1910s. Several similar detached houses exist in the suburbs of Londonderry and further afield.

The house is thought to have been designed by R.E. Buchanan, the architect being more likely than Albert Forman who was no longer in the city at that time.

The building features an upper floor of half timbering and a gabled plain clay tile roof with smooth rendered and painted walls. The east elevation, which is at right angles to Governor Road, forms the entrance front. It has a projecting gable with the entrance door positioned on the north side. The ground floor displays a rectangular bay with three windows of three panes each on the front, and a narrower similarly-divided window on the flank walls. A skirt tiled roof covers the bay, extends and returns to form a canopy over the entrance door, and is supported by braced timber brackets. The entrance door is panelled without a fanlight, and the porch is lit by a vertical window in the gable. A pair of windows light the room flanking the entrance.

The first floor is half timbered with heavy posts rising from formidable bressumers with jetty spurs beneath. Another bressumer defines the attic floor level and the raking barges. Pairs of windows are formed between the posts, similar to those on the ground floor. The gable features half timber work with straight and curved braces forming patterns under the windows. A pair of windows in the gable is each divided into three panes. The barges are deep and bold with fillet mouldings, and this treatment is expressed on the other gables of the house, forming a dominant feature of the design.

The north elevation fronts onto Governor Road, extending beyond the width of the gable, with the roof sweeping down at a slightly lesser pitch. A balcony with balustrading, probably stone but unpainted, extends from the rear in line with the north side, with access from the first floor landing. The balcony forms a flat roof over the kitchen, scullery and rear porch. A small canted bay with three windows is set on the ground floor of the north elevation, topped with a skirt tile roof supported on pairs of timber brackets. The walls are smooth rendered and painted, with plaster infills on the upper walls also painted.

Two large chimney stacks are prominent features: one rises from the north gable while the other rises from the eaves with a short pitched roof behind. The stacks are in brick with boldly moulded double shouldering in what appears to be sandstone or possibly mass concrete. The roofs are covered with rosemary tiles with a crested ridge.

The house is sited at the junction of Governor and Duncreggan Roads with small garden areas on three sides. A screen wall extends from the kitchen across the site from north to south.

The property was occupied in the post-war period by a factory owner named Curran. It was purchased by the present owner in the late 1980s.