Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB17/15/010 A

Address :
Town Hall Market Square Dromore Banbridge Co Down BT25 1AW

Townland:
Balleny

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Survey 2:
B1

Date of Listing:
25/10/1977 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Town Hall

Former Use
Market

Conservation Area:
Yes

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
202/4

IG Ref:
J2024 5332

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Owner Category

Local Govt

Exterior Description And Setting

A free-standing two-storey gabled red-brick former market house, now Town Hall, built 1886 and located at the centre of Market Square in Dromore town centre. L-shaped plan. Pitched natural slate roof with plain bargeboards to gables; red-brick chimneystack to north gable; south gable has square timber clock tower with pedimented roof surmounted by weathervane. Rainwater goods are concealed behind scaffolding. Walling is Flemish-bonded red-brick on a chamfered plinth with brick string-courses between floors. Windows are generally timber-boarded but are mainly round-headed with brick label moulds and projecting stone sills; south elevation has variety of round-headed timber-framed sliding sash. The principal elevation faces south; gabled front is three windows wide with glazed oculus and round-headed multi-paned mid-level window to centre flanked by a window to first floor left and right. Ground floor has a set of double-leaf bolection-moulded two-panel timber doors to left and right, surmounted by transom lights and hood moulds; narrow window opening to left of centre. The west elevation has projecting gabled bay to left; right bay is wider. The north elevation has gabled bay to left with two round-headed windows to first floor; multi-paned round-headed window and double-leaf timber door with louvred vents to ground floor right. Right bay is flush with gable and has round-headed window to first floor centre; two six-panelled timber doors with segmental-headed transom lights to ground floor. The east elevation is five windows wide to first floor; ground floor concealed by scaffolding. Setting Set on a large paved plinth to the centre of Market Square in the heart of Dromore town centre. Surrounded to four-sides by terraced commercial premises, largely dating from the early to mid-nineteenth century. Tarmacadam parking area to west with cast iron weighbridge inscribed with the name 'Avery'. Town stocks (HB17/15/010B) to south wall. Roof: Natural slate Walling: brick Windows: Timber RWG: Not seen

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

Dromore’s town hall and former market house, a two-storey redbrick Victorian public building, was erected in 1886, replacing a previous Georgian market house from the early-18th century. The Irish Builder records that the proposed construction cost was £854 and, although the architect is not known, the builder contracted to carry out the design was a Mr. J. H. Burns (Irish Builder, p. 106; Dictionary of Irish Architects). The original market house can be seen on the first and second editions of the Ordnance Survey maps (1833; 1859) which depict the building as a rectangular-shaped structure situated on the exact position of the current town hall. The Townland Valuations (1830s) originally valued the market house at £10. The contemporary Ordnance Survey Memoirs (1837) noted that ‘the court house, with a market place underneath, is situated in Market Square. It is a very plain and dirty looking building, 50 feet long and 35 feet broad’ with attached shambles. Lewis, also writing in 1837, noted that the town’s market was held each Saturday and was ‘well supplied with all sorts of provisions, farming stock, and linen’ (Ordnance Survey Memoirs, p. 75; Lewis). By the 1860s the value of the market house had greatly increased, although it is not clear why this increase occurred between c. 1830 and 1861. Griffith’s Valuation split the value of the site into two records; the market house and its tolls were valued at £12, whilst the petty session’s house (where the local magistrates deliberated) was exempt from valuation for tax purposes but was rated at £6. A detailed valuation map of the original market house (dated from c. 1861) records that the town stocks which adjoin the current building also stood alongside the original market house prior to its demolition; at that time the stocks were located on the west-side of the building but were relocated with the construction of the current structure (for Dromore Stocks see HB17/15/011). With the erection of the new market house in 1886 the value of the site was increased to £100, the building itself valued at £40 whilst the market tolls were rated at £60; the Annual Revisions also noted that the market house was administered by the Town Commissioners of Dromore. The third edition of the Ordnance Survey maps records that the new market house, a rectangular-shaped structure, was constructed on the exact position of the former building. Brett states that Dromore’s current redbrick town hall was one of the last market houses to be built in Ireland and replaced a Georgian market building which had been erected in 1732. No picture of the original structure, which was described as ‘a substantial edifice,’ has survived (Brett, Historic Buildings, p. 25). It is not known why the original Georgian building was replaced, however it is possible that it had fallen into a state of disrepair or was no longer adequate for magisterial or commercial use (in 1837 it had been described as ‘a very plain and dirty looking building.’) Crosbie suggests that the new edifice was erected in order to enliven the Market Square stating that ‘Victorian town planners were not always conservationists or improvers’ of earlier edifices (Crosbie, p. 20). In 1973 Brett described the market house as a ‘most curiously anachronistic building, Georgian in spirit and design, late Victorian in execution, texture and materials (Brett, Court Houses and Market Houses, p. 67). The wooden pedimented cupola, which Brett described as ‘hardly appropriate, but very attractive’ houses the town’s four-faced clock. The clock was installed in the cupola in 1891 and was a gift of Mr. William Cowan Heron to the people of Dromore; Cowan Heron resided at his residence of Altafort in Skeagh (HB17/14/004) and also founded the Cowan Heron Hospital (HB17/12/028). Brett stated that the wooden cupola was probably modelled upon the one atop Banbridge’s market house on Bridge Street (Gibson; Brett, Historic Buildings, p. 25). The adjoining town stocks were remounted at Dromore’s market house in December 1910 and since that time continue to be located at the south-side of the building. Photographs from the turn of the century, as well as the fourth edition Ordnance Survey map (1919-20), show that little discernible alteration was made to the building in the early part of the 20th century; however at sometime prior to the current edition of the Ordnance Survey map in 1973 a sympathetic two-storey extension was added to the building giving it its current L-shape layout. Throughout its history Dromore’s market house has been utilised as a commercial space and a workplace for local magistrates, however it was also used for public functions and from the 1930s until the mid-1970s frequently acted as Dromore’s main cinema (Gibson). Dromore’s market house and town hall was listed in 1977; in the mid-1970s repairs to the building’s clock system were carried out after a delay between the times displayed on the four faces was noticed (Gibson). In recent years the building has been converted into the town’s public library; however at the time of the survey the town hall is undergoing a project of restoration after which point the library will resume its occupation (Dromore Leader). References Primary Sources 1. PRONI OS/6/3/21/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey map 1833 2. PRONI OS/6/3/21/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey map 1859 3. PRONI OS/6/3/21/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey map 1903 4. PRONI OS/6/3/21/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey map 1919-20 5. PRONI VAL/1/D/3/13 – Townland Valuation map c. 1834 6. PRONI VAL/1/B/342 – Townland Valuations c. 1830 7. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/38A – Griffith’s Valuation 1861 8. PRONI VAL/12/E/122/1/5 – Annual Revisions Town Plan c. 1861 – c. 1906 9. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/10A – Annual Revisions 1864-1878 10. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/10B – Annual Revisions 1879-1891 11. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/10C – Annual Revisions 1892-1898 12. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/11A – Annual Revisions 1899-1910 13. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/11B – Annual Revisions 1911-1919 14. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/11C – Annual Revisions 1920-1930 15. Ordnance Survey Memoirs, Co. Down III, Vol. 12 (1837) 16. Lewis’ Topographical Dictionary (1837) 17. Irish Builder (Vol. 28, 1 Apr 1886) 18. Dromore Leader (21 December 2011) 19. First Survey Record – HB17/15/010 (1969) 20. Ordnance Survey map – 202-4SW (1973) Secondary Sources 1. Brett, C. E. B., ‘Court houses and market houses of the province of Ulster’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1973. 2. Brett, C. E. B., ‘Historic buildings, groups of buildings, areas of architectural importance in the towns and villages of Mid Down: Hillsborough, Dromore, Dromara, Ballynahinch, the Spa, Drumaness and Saintfield’ Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1974. 3. Cosbie, J. E. M., ‘A tour of Mid and South Down: 1910-35’ Belfast: Friar’s Bush, 1992. 4. Bibson, H., ‘Dromore and district local historical group journal, Vol. 2: Days of the silver screen in Dromore’ Dromore: Review Press, 1992. 5. Gibson, H., ‘Dromore and district local historical group journal, Vol. 3: The town hall clock’ Dromore: Review Press, 1993. Online Resources 1. Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation D. Plan Form J. Setting

Historic Interest

X. Local Interest Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance R. Age S. Authenticity

Evaluation

A free-standing two-storey gabled red-brick former market house, now Town Hall, built 1886 and located at the centre of Market Square in Dromore town centre. Victorian detailing is well-preserved. Prominently sited at the centre of the town, its quality and character survive. Historically, It is a surviving example of the commercial development of the Market town of Dromore in the second half of the nineteenth-century.The original setting survives, including the weighbridge to the west and open town square. This is a good example of a Victorian market building, with much character and fabric surviving.

General Comments

Please note this record has been renumbered is was previously recorded as HB17/15/010 New listing criteria R & S to be added when available - NO'R 02.10.13

Date of Survey

26 January 2012