Old Town Hall, Belfast

Old Town Hall
Old Town Hall
Location	Victoria Street, Belfast
Coordinates	54°35′52″N5°55′25″W / 54.5979°N 5.9236°W / 54.5979; -5.9236
Built	1871
Architect	Anthony Jackson
Architectural style(s)	Italianate style
Listed Building – Grade B1
Official name	Old Town Hall, 80 Victoria Street, Belfast
Designated	23 September 1977
Reference no.	HB 26/50/044
Shown in Northern Ireland

The Old Town Hall is a municipal structure in Victoria Street, Belfast, Northern Ireland. The structure, which has most recently been used as courthouse, is a Grade B1 listed building. ^[1]

History

Following significant population growth, largely associated with the linen and rope-making industries, the town became a municipal borough in 1842. Council meetings were initially held in a small rented building in Victoria Square which later became part of the premises of Cantrell & Cochrane. ^[2] By the mid-19th century the town council found this arrangement inadequate and decided to commission a purpose-built town hall. The site they selected was a former pork market in Victoria Street. ^[1] The new building was designed by Anthony Jackson in the Italianate style, built by a local contractor, James Henry, in red brick with red sandstone dressings at a cost of £33,000 and was completed in 1871. ^{[3] [4]}

The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with nineteen bays facing onto Victoria Street with the end blocks of three bays each projected forward as pavilions; the central section of five bays, which also projected forward, featured a central porch formed by two pairs of Ionic order columns supporting a gabled canopy. On either side of the central block, there were connecting blocks of four bays each. The building was fenestrated on both floors by round headed windows with voussoirs and, at roof level, there was a balustraded parapet across the whole frontage. The central and end blocks featured moulded pediments containing oculi and these blocks were surmounted by mansard roofs. Internally, the principal rooms were the municipal offices, the recorder's courtroom and the police courtroom. ^[1] The furniture was made of polished oak with green Morocco leather. ^[5]

After Belfast was awarded city status by Queen Victoria in 1888, the new city leaders formed the view that the Victoria Street building was not imposing enough and decided to commission a new building in Donegall Square which opened in August 1906. ^[6] The old town hall then became solely dedicated to the operation of the recorder's courtroom and the police courtroom. It briefly served as the premises of printers, David Allen & Sons, from 1910 to 1912, when it became the home of the newly formed Ulster Unionist Council: Sir Edward Carson presided over a meeting of the Ulster Unionist Council in the old town hall on 7 September 1912 at which it committed to signing the Ulster Covenant in protest at the Third Home Rule Bill. ^{[7] [8]} Carson also made the old town hall available for use as the barracks of the Ulster Volunteer Force under the command of Lieutenant General Sir George Richardson. ^{[9] [10]} Many members of the Ulster Volunteer Force were recruited for service in the 36th (Ulster) Division in the old town hall and were then deployed to the Western Front during the First World War. ^[1]

After the war, the building continued to serve as the headquarters of the Ulster Unionist Party and then became the home of Belfast Educational Committee in 1927. After suffering minor damage in the Belfast Blitz during the Second World War, it reverted to service as a courthouse, and briefly provided additional accommodation for Belfast Technology College between 1969 and 1977, before reverting to service as a courthouse again. It continued to be used as home to the local Youth, Family and Domestic Proceedings Court into the 21st century, ^[11] although, by 2020, it was vacant. ^[12]

References

1. "Old Town Hall, 80 Victoria Street, Belfast (HB 26/50/044)". Department for Communities. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
2. Owen, Sir David John (1921). History of Belfast. W. & G. Baird. p. 291.
3. "Old Town Hall, Belfast". Victorian Webb. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
4. "1870: Belfast Town Hall, County Antrim" . Retrieved 17 July 2022.
5. "Brew & Claris". British and Irish Furniture Makers Online. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
6. "History of Belfast City Hall". Belfast City Council. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
7. "Photograph of the meeting in the Old Town Hall". Lennon Wylie Collection. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
8. Strachan, John; Nally, Claire (2012). Unionism, Advertising and the Third Home Rule Bill 1911–1914. In: Advertising, Literature and Print Culture in Ireland, 1891–1922. London: Palgrave Macmillan. doi:10.1057/9781137271242_7.
9. "Ireland 1900-1925: Crisis, War and Revolution" (PDF). Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. 2021. p. 28. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
10. Wells, W. B.; Marlowe, N. (1917). A History of the Irish Rebellion of 1916 (PDF). New York: Frederick A. Stokes. p. 33.
11. "Belfast Combined Court". The Law Pages. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
12. "Current usage of the Old Townhall Building, Victoria Street, Belfast". Northern Ireland Assembly. 23 March 2020. Retrieved 17 July 2022.