14 De Burgh Terrace, Academy Road, Londonderry

14 De Burgh Terrace is a late-Victorian mid-terraced townhouse built in a Georgian style, constructed in 1893 as part of a uniform row of seventeen two-and-a-half-storey two-bay houses on the north side of De Burgh Terrace, Londonderry. It forms part of a group of listed buildings with significant 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 red brick in Flemish bond on a rectangular plan with a projecting rear return. The principal elevation faces south onto a long sloping raised garden. The roof is pitched and slated, with a wall-head dormer to the front, bracketed eaves, clay ridge tiles, and a large brick chimney stack rising from the east side of the ridge, fitted with six clay pots. Cast-iron guttering and a circular downpipe serve the front elevation.

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

The boundary wall to the south is dry-dash rendered with a concrete coping and sheeted timber gate. The east and west sides of the house abut the adjoining properties, No. 13 De Burgh Terrace and No. 15 De Burgh Terrace respectively.

The north elevation is rendered and painted. It incorporates a two-storey rear return and a large modern flat-headed dormer to the east side. The north elevation has a 2/2 timber sliding sash window at second floor and a modern timber casement window at ground floor and in the dormer. A single-storey lean-to with fibre cement slates, a sheeted timber door, and a fixed window abuts the north elevation of the return. Access to the rear yard is from a shared lane running the length of the terrace. The north boundary of No. 14 is defined by a concrete blockwork wall with a large opening fitted with double sheeted timber gates for vehicle access to the yard. Some original random schist stonework survives in the walls separating the yard from adjoining properties.

Despite the square dormer, flat-roofed extension, and uPVC windows to the rear, the exterior has largely retained its original character, style, and proportion. The plan form is substantially intact and some original internal fabric survives, making this a fine example of its period.

SETTING

De Burgh Terrace is situated immediately north-west of the town centre on the western side of the River Foyle, 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. The row of seventeen houses has long front gardens and small rear yards accessed from a rear alleyway.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The town plan valuation of approximately 1873 records that De Burgh Terrace was originally laid out in the 1870s, at which point the street was unnamed and had no buildings. The first houses were not constructed until 1889. The terrace was part of Londonderry's northward expansion, which followed the earlier establishment of Georgian-style terraces along Great James Street, Queen Street, and Clarendon Street in the 1830s to 1860s. That northward expansion was constrained by the walls of the Lunatic Asylum, prompting development on picturesque hill sites to the north-west, overlooking the River Foyle. The development of terraces around central gardens or squares has been described as the city's delayed response to Dublin's garden squares, creating a green oasis for wealthy residents near the city centre.

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 residing at Eccles Street in Dublin. Daly originally submitted plans for eighteen houses in 1888, but only seventeen were built. The terrace was constructed in stages between 1889 and 1894, with Nos 1 to 8 being completed first. The majority of the completed houses were subsequently leased by the Daly family. Annual Revisions record that Nos 13 and 14 De Burgh Terrace were constructed in 1893 and were valued at £14 each. The houses were designed as residences for the city's professional and merchant classes.

The first recorded occupant of No. 14 was a Mr Mackwood. By 1901 the house had passed to Richard Herons Malseed, manager of a local shirt factory. By 1911 the house was occupied by Margaret and Sarah Macaulay, both employed as National School teachers, who continued to reside there until the 1970s. The 1911 Census Building Return classified No. 14 as a first-class dwelling consisting of eleven rooms. The Daly family retained ownership of No. 14 until at least the end of the Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956 to 1972), by which time the rateable value had risen to £30.

Nos 1 to 17 De Burgh Terrace were listed in 1979. De Burgh Terrace was not included in the Clarendon Street Conservation Area when it was first designated in 1978, but in 2006 the conservation area boundary was extended 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.

ALTERATIONS

A renovation in 1985 included the reslating of the roof in European slate, the installation of a rear dormer, the repointing of the exterior brickwork, and the installation of new sliding sash windows throughout.