16 Great James Street, Londonderry, County Londonderry, BT48 7DA

16 Great James Street, Londonderry

This is a three-storey, three-bay Georgian-style terraced townhouse, built in mottled brown brick around 1853, forming part of an early Victorian terrace on the north side of Great James Street in the Clarendon Conservation Area. It is rectangular on plan, with a principal elevation facing south onto Great James Street and a two-storey rear return. The building was constructed as one of a terrace of three similarly scaled houses and is one of the earliest surviving examples of domestic architecture within the conservation area.

Exterior

The south-facing principal elevation is built in Flemish bond brick, repointed around 1987. The entrance is set in an elliptical-arched opening flanked by Doric columns, with a four-panelled painted timber door case accessed via a single step. Windows throughout were replaced around 1987: the ground and first floors have 6/6 painted timber sliding sash windows, while the second floor has 6/3 sliding sash windows; all have rendered reveals and square-headed openings on the south elevation. The east and west elevations abut the adjoining No. 14 and No. 18 Great James Street respectively.

The pitched slate roof has two metal conservation rooflights to the south slope. A large red brick chimney stack rises from the west end of the building, centred on the ridge and carrying seven clay pots, with a header-course brick corbel at the eaves. The clay ridge is black.

The north elevation faces the rear yard and has irregular fenestration consisting of 6/6, 6/3, and 3/3 timber casement windows. The rear walls are rendered, and the rear return has a lean-to slate roof. Rainwater goods are aluminium to the south and uPVC to the north.

Setting and Group Value

The building sits on the pavement in the middle of its terrace, with an enclosed yard to the rear accessed from Patrick Street. It shares group value with No. 18 Great James Street. Despite replacement windows to the rear and commercial signage to the front, much of the exterior character and historic fabric has been retained, along with the original plan form.

Historical Background

Great James Street was originally laid out around 1833, with the first buildings appearing by 1835 to 1837. The street was part of a significant expansion of Londonderry northwards beyond the city walls during a period of economic and population growth in the mid-19th century. As John Hume records, in the period 1825 to 1850 reconstruction within the walled city occurred alongside the first development of housing outside the walls at Bogside and Edenballymore. Great James Street was the first major new street in this area; Queen Street followed around 1847 and Clarendon Street around 1853.

The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1830 records the Great James Street area as rural hinterland, with the city's built development extending no further than Waterloo Place, Abbey Street, and William Street. The only significant structures north of the walls in the early 19th century were isolated public buildings such as the Londonderry Infirmary, the Lunatic Asylum, and Foyle College, with virtually no domestic architecture. The sole building in the conservation area predating the early Victorian development is Foyle Cottage, a Regency house constructed around 1815. Robert Simpson, writing in his Annals of Derry (1847), noted that the entire district had originally been meadow ground without a house.

The geometric street pattern of Great James Street, Clarendon Street, and Queen Street was characteristic of Georgian town planning and represented the most ambitious planning project in Londonderry since the construction of the walled city between 1613 and 1619. The uniform rows of neat three-storey townhouses quickly became the preferred residence of the city's merchant and professional classes.

No. 16 was built between 1847 and 1853. O'Hagan's plan of Londonderry (1847) shows the street partially developed but records no building on this site at that date; by the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1853, a small terrace had been built on the north side of the street. The terrace originally comprised four identical Georgian-style buildings, Nos. 16 to 22 Great James Street, each with a rear return and a single outbuilding. No. 22 was rebuilt in 1903 and is now significantly different from the rest of the terrace.

Griffith's Valuation of 1856 records that Nos. 16 to 22 were constructed for Andrew Thompson, a local surgeon who also operated an apothecary on the Strand Road. No. 16 was originally valued at £27. Thompson continued to own the terrace until his death around 1870, when his widow Margaret Thompson took over. The first recorded occupant, a Mr. William Holmes, was a grocer with business premises on Shipquay Place. By 1911 the building was the home of William Patterson, a local dentist and anaesthetist; the census building return for that year describes it as a first-class dwelling of eight rooms with no outbuildings, suggesting the outbuilding shown on the 1853 map had been demolished by that time. Patterson continued to reside there until at least 1931, when the rateable value stood at £21.

By 1907 ownership had passed to a Mrs. McKee, and by the First Revaluation of 1935 a Mrs. Carnwath had taken over, with the value rising to £27. By 1956 Carnwath had converted the dwelling into a private medical surgery, and the value had risen to £36 by the end of the Second Revaluation in 1972.

In 1978 the Department of the Environment designated the mid-19th century streets and terraces as the Clarendon Street Conservation Area. Nos. 16 and 18 Great James Street were listed in 1979. No. 20 was not listed at the same time due to rendering of the ground floor and the incorporation of uPVC glazing.

Alterations and Recent History

A restoration carried out around 1987 included reslating of the roof, repointing of the brickwork, and replacement of the sash windows. A further refurbishment of the front façade was undertaken in 2010, when the interior floorplan was reorganised to provide additional office accommodation. In 2013, Calley described Nos. 16 to 20 Great James Street as a fine small terrace of three mottled brown brick houses, mostly in commercial use, noting their three-storey, three-bay form with rendered reveals. As is the case with the majority of Georgian-style townhouses along Great James Street, No. 16 is now used as office space rather than a residential dwelling, having been converted in the later 20th century along with much of the surrounding terrace.