19 Crawford Square, Londonderry

19 Crawford Square is a mid-Victorian end-of-terrace former boarding school, built around 1881–82, most likely to designs by Robert Collins, though this remains unconfirmed. It forms the final building in a stepped terrace of sixteen structures on the southwest side of Crawford Square, a formal tree-lined garden square laid out in 1861 by civil engineer and architect Fitzgibbon Louch (1826–1911), set at an angle to the Northland Road on an elevated site overlooking the River Foyle. The building is now used as a recreational club at ground and basement level, with self-contained residential flats on the upper floors. It sits within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area.

The building has a rectangular plan form facing northeast, is rendered throughout, and rises five bays wide over three storeys above a basement, with an attic level. It is considerably larger than the neighbouring paired townhouses at nos. 3–18, which were designed by Collins and built by the firm of G. & R. Ferguson. Despite this difference in scale, no. 19 was clearly designed in a complementary style and was intended to integrate with its neighbours. A substantial three-storey-with-attic rear return runs the full length of the site, accessed from Academy Road; this was altered in 2007 to accommodate four floors in place of the original three.

The replacement pitched slate roof carries two large chimney stacks — one rising from the northwest gable end, the other from the southeast side — plus a smaller off-centred chimney to the left, all built in buff brick with buff clay pots. Timber fascia boards and a deep overhanging moulded soffit with small paired block modillions run along the eaves. Half-round cast iron guttering discharges to circular cast iron downpipes at either end of the elevation. Four single-bay semicircular roof dormers have slated cheeks and timber-framed 1-over-1 sliding sash windows set within leaded surrounds.

The principal northeast elevation features a three-sided canted bay with parapet, rising from basement to first floor level, with recessed panels between the ground and first storeys and moulded sills and string courses. To the left of the entrance steps at basement level, square-headed openings have moulded surrounds and segmental arched 1-over-1 timber sliding sash windows. To the right of the steps is a large square-headed shop front window with a metal roller shutter and fascia signage, topped by a hood mould on small decorative console brackets. At ground, first and second floor level, the bay openings are segmental arched with 1-over-1 double-hung timber sash windows with moulded horns and painted masonry cills; those at ground and first floor have moulded render architraves. The entrance doorcase is semicircular arched with a hood mould on decorative console brackets, and now contains replacement vertically sheeted modern timber double entrance doors with a plain glazed fanlight. A four-storey extension added in 2007 to the northwest gable end is stepped back from the main elevation and contains one square-headed uPVC casement window at each level, with moulded architrave surrounds to the ground, first and second floors.

The northwest gable end is abutted by a smooth-rendered stairwell extension, also stepped back from the front elevation, rising three storeys with an attic level. It has square-headed uPVC casements, one at each floor, directly above a square-headed door opening at ground floor level. A hipped-roof lift enclosure adjoins its southwest face.

The large southwest rear return, altered in 2007 to accommodate four floors rather than the original three, has a slate hipped roof with modern Velux windows. The walls are rendered with square-headed uPVC casement windows onto a painted sill course, all enclosed by a low rendered and painted boundary wall. The rear elevation to the extension faces onto Academy Road across the full width of the site, with two square-headed uPVC casement windows at each level, centred on the elevation, and a square-headed doorway at basement level opening directly onto Academy Road. The southeast elevation is abutted by the adjoining no. 18 Crawford Square.

The principal entrance is approached via a flight of concrete steps with red brick cheeks over a basement well, with a further flight of concrete steps to the right of the main entrance leading down to the basement. The site is bounded by low rendered walling with concrete copings topped by replacement metal railings, all painted.

Roofing materials include replacement slate with cast iron rainwater goods; walls are in painted render; windows to the northeast elevation are timber sash, with uPVC casements to the extension, northwest and southwest elevations.

Crawford Square was originally laid out in 1861 and named after Samuel Law Crawford, a local solicitor who owned the land, as recorded in the Dublin Builder. Fitzgibbon Louch laid out the square during his early career after establishing an independent practice in Londonderry in 1859; he was active in the city until the late 1860s and was also responsible for the Magazine Gate entrance to the city walls. The square followed the Georgian-style terraces of Great James Street, Queen Street and Clarendon Street built in the 1830s to 1860s, as the city continued its northward expansion with housing aimed at Londonderry's professional classes. When the first tenders for dwellings on Crawford Square were invited in the 1860s, the Northland Road was still described as a country road leading from the city towards Donegal. Nos. 1–2 Crawford Square were the first to be built, erected in 1865 for Samuel Knox, a building contractor, while the majority of the adjoining terrace was built for John McAdoo, a local seed merchant and landowner.

No. 19 was constructed in 1881–82 as the new premises of Victoria High School, a girls' boarding school operated by Jane McKillip, previously located at No. 11 Queen Street. The Ulster Town Directories noted that the school was run by Ms McKillip "assisted by a large class of highly qualified teachers." The 1911 Census recorded it as a first-class building of 35 rooms, with a coach house and laundry as its sole outbuildings, accommodating 76 pupils, the majority of whom boarded on site. The total rateable value was initially set at £60, rising to £75 in 1888 when the adjoining nos. 17–18 were constructed beside it.

In 1922 Victoria High School amalgamated with St. Lurach's School to form Londonderry High School, but continued to operate from No. 19 Crawford Square until the 1950s. The Londonderry Services Club acquired the building in 1950 and converted it into a social club, increasing the rateable value to £100. The club occupied the building until the 1970s, by which time the total rateable value had risen to £260 by the end of the Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956–72). The 1970 Ulster Architectural Heritage Society guide described nos. 1–19 Crawford Square as "a fine terrace of three-storey rendered buildings on a sloping surface overlooking a tree-lined grassy square. The houses are well modelled, with two-storey height bay windows." Crawford Square was included in the Clarendon Street Conservation Area in 1978, and nos. 1–23 were listed in 1979.

By around 2003 the Londonderry Services Club had vacated the site and the building was in use by the Derry Catholic Club. Between 2006 and 2007 the basement and ground floor were converted to a social club and bar; the double-gabled rear return was raised to accommodate four floor levels in place of the original three and covered with a single hipped roof; a single-bay extension containing a stairwell and lift shaft was added to the gable end; and the upper floors were divided into self-contained apartments. While alterations to the rear return and side extension detract from the building's architectural quality to some extent, the front elevation retains much of its original character, style and proportion. The building holds social importance to the local community as a former boarding school for girls, and is closely related in style to the neighbouring nos. 3–18 Crawford Square, a stepped row of fourteen paired townhouses of similar scale, all overlooking the tree-lined square.