22 Clarence Avenue, Londonderry

22 Clarence Avenue, Londonderry, is a late-Victorian end-terrace townhouse built in 1900 to designs by R. E. Buchanan. It is a two-bay, three-storey brick building executed in the Arts and Crafts style. The house is rectangular on plan with a projecting rear return constructed at half-landing level. It forms part of a terrace of eleven similar properties lining the north side of Clarence Avenue, set back from the pavement behind a low red-brick wall with painted metal railings above, within the Magee Conservation Area on sloping ground.

The principal elevation faces south onto Clarence Avenue and is built in Flemish bond brickwork. It is two bays wide, featuring a two-storey canted bay to the right surmounted by a rectangular gabled bay at second-floor level, cantilevered on large timber brackets with carved timber corbels to either side. The gable displays vertical half-timber panelling with a plain wide painted timber fascia board. The entrance doorway is square-headed, raised two steps, with a moulded cornice supported on console brackets and moulded pilasters flanking timber double doors with glazed panes and a stained-glass fanlight above. All windows to the principal elevation are square-headed, timber sliding sashes. Those to the canted bay at ground and first-floor levels have 1/1 panes with stained-glass upper lights; the same configuration appears above the first-floor door opening. The box window at second-floor level has 8/2 panes, while the single sliding sash above the entrance door at second-floor level has 4/2 panes. Painted rendered band courses mark the window heads at ground and first-floor levels, with painted sill courses to first and second-floor windows.

The east elevation is a brick gable end. A single 1/1 sliding sash window with stained-glass upper light sits at ground-floor level; two identical windows appear at first-floor level. Second-floor windows comprise a 4/1 and an 8/2 sliding sash. Sill courses appear to windows on all three levels, with painted belt courses to window heads at ground and first-floor levels. The upper section of the gable features diagonal half-timber work with a plain wide painted timber fascia board finish.

The west side is abutted by the adjoining property. The north elevation is three storeys, blank, with a cement-rendered unpainted finish. A small red-brick chimney with dog-tooth corbelling rises from the gable-end of the three-storey rear return. The rear elevation to the main house is blank. Beyond the rear return is a single-storey structure with duo-pitch natural slate roof and red clay ridge tiles, containing from left to right a flush door with glazed top panel, a sliding sash window with 1/1 panes, and a sheeted timber door, with all heads extending to eaves level. A further blockwork lean-to with corrugated metal monopitched roof, painted white, abuts the gable end.

The rear return is three storeys, smooth rendered and unpainted, retaining timber sliding-sash windows throughout. The north face has 2/2 pane windows; the east face has 1/1 panes to ground, first and second floors, plus a 6/1 pane window at ground-floor level.

The main roof and rear return are pitched natural slate with terracotta clay ridge tiles. A large red-brick chimney stack with dog-toothed corbel rises from the east side, centred on the ridge with clay pots. Cast-iron guttering and circular downpipes serve the front; a mixture of cast iron and uPVC serves the north side.

The rear yard is bounded to north and east by concrete-block walling, with a boarded timber gate and vertically sheeted fold-back door to a monopitched garage. A shared alley to the north backs onto the University campus. The house has a small front garden and side garden.