6 De Burgh Terrace, Academy Road, Londonderry

6 De Burgh Terrace is a late-Victorian mid-terraced house built around 1889, situated on the north side of De Burgh Terrace within an elevated row of seventeen similar houses. It fronts onto a long sloping raised garden and forms part of a uniform terrace developed for Londonderry's professional and merchant classes. Despite the loss of some original windows and doors to the rear, the exterior has largely retained its character, style and proportion, making it a fine example of its period. The plan form is largely intact and some original interior fabric survives. Together with the adjoining listed buildings in De Burgh Terrace, it has group value and is among the most important buildings within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area.

Architectural Description

The house is two-bay, two-storey with a dormer attic, built in a Georgian style using red brick in Flemish bond. It is rectangular on plan with a projecting rear return. The pitched slate roof is finished with clay ridge tiles and features a wall-head dormer to the front. A large brick chimney stack rises from the east side, centred on the ridge and fitted with six clay pots. Bracketed eaves run along the main roof, and decorative bargeboard is applied to the dormer. Cast-iron guttering and a circular downpipe serve the front elevation.

The principal south-facing elevation has a painted rendered plinth beneath the Flemish bond brickwork. At ground floor level, a canted bay contains square-headed painted 2-over-2 sliding sash windows with horizontally divided panes and ogee horns. The entrance doorway sits within a segmental arched opening; its moulded cornice is supported by scrolled console brackets with acanthus leaf detail on pilasters, and the doorway contains a painted timber four-panelled door with a plain fanlight above. At first floor level, the windows are segmental-headed painted 2-over-2 sliding sash, with coupled windows positioned above the bay and a single light above the doorcase. A continuous projecting sill course runs across the first floor. In the second floor dormer, above the bay, there is a pair of round-headed painted 1-over-1 sliding sash windows.

The east and west sides of the house abut the adjoining properties, No. 5 and No. 7 De Burgh Terrace respectively. The north elevation is rendered and features a small attic dormer to the east side with a 2-over-2 sliding sash window; a replacement timber casement has been fitted at first floor level. To the rear there is a three-storey rendered return — notably a full storey higher than the returns of the adjacent properties on either side — fitted with replacement timber casement windows where visible. Modern single-storey flat-roofed glazed lean-to structures abut the rear of the building.

The boundary wall to the south is of red brick with an undulating concrete coping and a modern timber gate. To the rear, a rendered wall spans the full width of the north boundary of the rear yard, with access to the rear alleyway via a modern black-painted roller shutter.

Materials

The main roof and front dormer are covered in natural slate with clay ridge tiles. Rainwater goods are cast iron to the front and uPVC to the rear. The south-facing walls are red brick in Flemish bond; the north elevation and rear return are rendered. Windows to the principal elevation are timber sliding sash; the rear extensions have timber casements.

Historical Background

The c.1873 valuation town plan of Londonderry records that De Burgh Terrace was originally laid out in the 1870s, though the street was unnamed and had no buildings at that time. The first houses were not constructed until 1889. De Burgh Terrace was part of Londonderry's northward expansion during the 19th century. Following the establishment of Georgian-style terraces along Great James Street, Queen Street and Clarendon Street in the 1830s to 1860s, the city continued to grow northward to accommodate the professional and merchant classes moving out of the Walled City. This expansion was constrained by the walls of the Lunatic Asylum, which directed new development — including Crawford Square and De Burgh Terrace — towards picturesque hillside sites to the north-west, overlooking the River Foyle. As architectural historian Calley observed, the development of large terraces around a central garden or square can be seen as the city's delayed response to Dublin's garden squares, creating near the city centre a green oasis for its wealthier residents.

Following the laying out of Crawford Square in the 1860s to 1870s, Nos. 1 to 17 De Burgh Terrace were developed by Ulick James Daly, a civil servant and gentleman resident at Eccles Street in Dublin. Daly originally submitted plans in 1888 for eighteen houses, though only seventeen were ever built. The terrace was constructed in stages between 1889 and 1894, with Nos. 1 to 8 completed first. The majority of the houses were leased by the Daly family following completion. Annual Revisions confirm that Nos. 1 to 8 were constructed in 1889 and individually valued at £14.

The first recorded occupant of No. 6 was a Mr. James Donnell. By 1911 the house was occupied by Walter Nichol, an agent for a local underclothing manufacturer; the census building return described the property as a first-class dwelling consisting of eleven rooms. By the 1930s, ownership of Nos. 5 and 6 had passed to R. J. Edwards, a local house and land agent, as recorded in the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936 to 1957). In 1936 No. 6 was occupied by James McCleery, whose family continued to reside there until at least the 1970s. By the end of the Second Revaluation (1956 to 1972), the building was valued at £34.

Nos. 1 to 17 De Burgh Terrace were listed in 1979. De Burgh Terrace was not included within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area when it was first designated in 1978, but the area was extended in 2006 primarily to incorporate the terrace, designating it an area of special architectural or historic interest, the character of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance. Writing in 2013, Calley described De Burgh Terrace as "quite simply delightful," noting in particular that "what makes these particularly fine are the long sloping raised gardens to the front of the houses, which are generally very well maintained with some fine trees."

Setting

De Burgh Terrace lies immediately to the north-west of the town centre, on the western side of the River Foyle, and is accessed from Academy Road, which runs between Rosemount Avenue to the north-west and Northland Road to the south-east. Brooke Park lies to the south-west of the terrace. The row of seventeen houses has long front gardens and small rear yards, the latter accessed from a rear alleyway running the full length of the terrace.