This large house stands on an elevated site overlooking the River Foyle. It is part of the historic core of the Ulster University’s Derry Campus. The house was built in the mid 1840s by David Watt and was first called Richmond. He was the owner of the Watts Distillery along with his brother Samuel, who lived at Foyle Hill above the Letterkenny Road. David Watt died in Richmond on the 22nd April 1876 and was buried in the graveyard of St. Columb’s Cathedral. The house was sold to a ship owners Bartholomew McCorkell, whose father William had built up the fleet of William McCorkell and Company founded in 1798.
Ceiling rose
Bartholomew McCorkell kept the name of Richmond but changed the plain house into what it is today by adding to it and redesigning it inside. After his death in 1887, Richmond passed to one of his daughters, Fannie Evelyn. She had been born in 1851 and had married Robert Corscadden from Boomhall. She died in 1922 and Richmond was passed to her nephew Lt Col Hugh Collum. On his death in 1929, Richmond was sold to Sir Basil McFarland who renamed it Aberfoyle.
Monogram on Northland Road gates.
During the Second World War the Aberfoyle was requisitioned by the Admiralty and leased to the US Navy. Thus Aberfoyle House was for the duration of the war part of the US Navy’s HQ for their naval operating base on the Foyle. The house was sold by Sir John McFarland to Bobbie Bell in 1986 who in turn sold it to the Derry City Council in 1987.
The partial demolition of the only surviving intact terrace of Old Waterside Street is a loss for the whole city.
The partial demolition of the only surviving intact terrace of Old Waterside Street is a loss for the whole city. The Inner City Trust, public agencies, community organisations and private owners are doing great work to conserve individual properties. However we all need to be more ambitious to stop the erosion of Derry’s historic streetscapes and public realm.
The direct value of built heritage is the cultural heritage, architecture, historic environment or originality of the buildings themselves, as well as the sense of identity and pride that people derive from living in an area with built heritage.
REALDANIA
Victoria Hall, Spencer Road
A postcard featuring the Victoria Hall.Victoria Hall just before demolition
January 2023 saw the completion of the Victoria Hall’s demolition and the laying of the foundations for its replacement. The loss of a striking building which has been part of the streetscape since 1913 drew attention to how much of the Spencer Road is being redeveloped, site by site.
Scar walls show that most of the buildings were constructed from locally quarried free stone, from when the new Street was laid out in 1863.
Site information boards show that much redevelopment in the historic core on the west and east banks is being driven by the Department for Communities under its social housing programme. The same department has responsibility for looking after Northern Ireland’s historic environment.
Redevelopment on the Victoria Hall site.Gap site on Spencer Road
Ashcroft, Belt Road
Ashcroft House was typical of many unlisted Victorian style villas located in the rural hinterland and along the main arterial approaches to the city.
Ashcroft was located on an elevated site adjacent to the Trench, and provided a heritage reference point when approaching the City on the Glenshane Road or travelling to the new housing estates along the Belt Road. It has been replaced by a petrol filling station and convenience store. An example of not allowing “ heritage to stand in the way of progress”.
Derry’s contribution to COP28?
Thompson’s, Duke Street
Old Waterside with Alexander Thompson’s premises in the centre of the photograph.
When in 2013, the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society published its ‘Historical Gazetteer to the Buildings of Londonderry”, its author noted the importance of Duke Street: “For a road of little architectural merit it unfortunately dominates the view from the cityside.” This should have focused efforts on consolidating what was left of Old Waterside Street, especially that single terrace between Lower Fountain Street and Spencer Road.
Robert C Malseed & Co. Ltd
The Malseed Wholesale Grocers group of buildings built after 1870 formed one bookend to terrace at the Lower Fountain Street. These were demolished in 2022 only to be followed last month by their next door neighbour, premises built around 1860 for Alexander Thompson and Co., hardware merchants and grocers. Also demolished was a fine stone built warehouse in the rear yard. The Irish Architectural Archive records that local architect, Daniel Conroy, designed some improvements to buildings in the rear yard in 1906 including stables and warehouses; all now demolished.
The Malseeds Building just before demolition.Ghost sign on the gable wall of the Thompson building, just prior to demolition.Environmental Improvement Scheme for Duke St & Spencer Road, November 1990Much redevelopment in the historic core on the west and east banks is being driven by the Department for Communities under its social housing programme.
Malseed and Thompson mercantile premises before demolition had fine detail, evidencing the buildings’ original purposes and the old street’s quayside location.
Saving Derry’s Streetscapes
2023 comes to an end with fresh news about Derry‘s built heritage:
Heritage Good News – Inner City Trust secures HLF funding for heritage buildings in the Walled City.Heritage Bad News? – DCSDC Planning Committee approves application for demolition of listed building on Foyle Street.
Let’s hope in 2024, we are all more ambitious about preventing any further erosion in Derry’s historic townscape and the public realm. Our special natural built and environmental heritage is a resource on which to build a prosperous future for the next generation.
Derry people are devoted to their City as a community rather than a place. There is hardly any environmental awareness in the City, no real pressure groups and practically no discussion or debate about major development proposals.
