Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB26/50/044

Address :
Old Town Hall 80 Victoria Street Belfast BT1 3FA

Townland:
Town Parks

---

Survey 2:
B1

Date of Listing:
23/09/1977 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Court House

Former Use
Town Hall

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

---

OS Map No:
130-13 SE

IG Ref:
J3424 7417

---

Owner Category

Miscellaneous

Exterior Description And Setting

Detached symmetrical multi-bay two-storey Romanesque redbrick and red sandstone former town hall, dated 1869, built to the designs of Anthony Jackson. Irregular on plan, facing west with a central block connected to two pavilions by recessed connecting wings. Set within its own grounds on the east side of Victoria Street with its south side elevation fronting onto Chichester Street and a large car park to the rear. Extensively renovated for use by the Courts Service c.1999. Hipped natural slate roofs with lead ridges and rolled lead hip ridges. Mansard roofs to both pavilions with decorative iron cresting and finials to all three blocks. Profiled redbrick chimneystacks with terracotta pots and cast-iron rainwater goods. Roofs set behind red sandstone arcaded parapet walls with moulded coping and squat piers resting on a crown cornice. The central block has a central gabled wall-head dormer to the parapet, surmounted by a poppy-head finial with a decoratively moulded round-headed opening supported on paired squat columns framing a glazed oculus. To each pavilion a decorative round-headed panel to the centre of parapet with poppy-head finial, nail-head mouldings and a circular recessed panel with raised monogram; ‘1869’. Machine-made redbrick walling laid in English garden wall bond with coursed rock-faced red sandstone ashlar plinth course and moulded trim. Over the plinth course is a continuous sandstone blocking course surmounted by continuous roll-moulded sill course. Flush red sandstone quoins to all corners with embedded slender colonettes framing each floor. Continuous foliate impost mouldings to both floors with frieze and deep moulded sill course to the first floor. Red sandstone frieze embellished with trefoil carvings below the crown cornice and parapet (with corbel course to the central block). Painted rendered walls to the rear elevation. Round-headed window openings with deeply set roll-moulded voussoired heads rising from continuous impost moulding, framed by slender colonettes (paired to the ground floor). Recessed red sandstone lattice-panelled window aprons to all ground floor windows and to first floor of central block. Replacement single-pane timber sash windows throughout, replacement timber windows to first floor of central block in the form of a Venetian arch. Front elevation comprises a central block five windows wide flanked by recessed connecting wings, four windows wide and terminated to either end by advanced pavilions, three windows wide. The central bay forms a shallow breakfront topped by the dormer window with an advanced gabled doorcase. Replacement double-leaf hardwood panelled doors and overpanel with shouldered lintel and carved stone panel set deep within a round-headed opening having roll moulding and billeted hood moulding. Door opening flanked by two pairs of banded squat columns on conical corbels with stiff-leaf capitals supporting decorative gabled hood having crocketed trim and surmounted by a poppy-head finial. Carved panel depicts a Belfast coat of arms with ribbon banner stating; ‘PRO TANTO QUID RETRIBUAMUS’. Door opens onto replacement paved platform and steps with universal access ramp. North side elevation to pavilion is two-storey and four windows wide to the right and single-storey three windows wide to the left, detailed as per front elevation. To the central bay is an advanced gabled doorcase, detailed as per principal elevation except for the glazed fanlight and double-leaf raised-and-fielded timber panelled doors, possibly original. The rear elevation has an irregular informal composition with a shallow gabled central breakfront (stairhall), abutted by a single-storey utility extension and a raised platform and steps. Generally segmental-headed window openings to the first floor, round-headed to the ground floor. A single square-headed door opening to the central gable opens onto a platform with red sandstone surround having embedded colonettes and shouldered lintel. Symmetrical south side elevation to pavilion is two-storey and seven windows wide with an advanced gabled doorcase, detailed as north side elevation. Setting: Located on the east side of Victoria Street with replacement steel railings and gates enclosing a small front area and a large bitmac car park to the rear. Roof: Natural slate RWG : Cast-iron Walling: Redbrick / red sandstone ashlar Windows: Replacement timber sash / fixed-pane

Architects

Jackson, Anthony

Historical Information

The Old Townhall Courthouse, formerly utilised as Belfast’s first Town Hall, was constructed in 1869-71, the design was the result of an architectural competition held in 1869. The current building was the first town hall to be constructed in Belfast, however a municipal hall for the town had been proposed since the mid-19th century; in 1852 William Hastings designed a model of a Corinthian town hall which he proposed to be constructed on the west bank of the Lagan river near Queen’s Bridge. The town council agreed to provide £25,000 for its erection, however the design was not executed; similarly, in 1866 Thomas Turner submitted a proposal for the erection of a town hall on the site of the White Linen Hall (Turner’s design predated the opening of Belfast City Hall on this proposed site by 50 years) (Builder, p. 245; Dublin Builder, p. 21). The competition to design the Town Hall was held in January of 1869; entrants included some of the most important architectural firms of the mid-Victorian period including Lanyon, Lynn & Lanyon and Boyd & Batt. The winning design, however, was by Anthony Thomas Jackson whose two-storey red-brick plan incorporating red sandstone, won over the judges. Jackson (1838-1917) was a Belfast-based architect, the elder son of Thomas Jackson (1807-1890); known for designing the Old Museum on College Square North, and St. Malachy’s Roman Catholic Church on Alfred Street, Anthony Jackson had previously been a partner in his father’s firm but set up his own practice c. 1869 when he submitted the plan for the town hall (the work was his first independent contract). The cost of the design was estimated at £16,000, however the total expenditure on the building, including its fittings and furnishings, came to £33,000; the builder contracted to undertake Jackson’s design was a Mr. James Henry (Builder, p. 286; Dictionary of Irish Architects). The Town Hall, upon completion in 1871, was valued at £1,200 and consisted of the town’s municipal buildings, as well as a recorders and police court to the rear; the recorders and police court was detached from the value of the main block in 1895 when the value of the town hall was greatly reduced to £550. Belfast was elevated from a town to city status in 1888 at which time it was claimed that the town hall on Victoria Street was too simply ornamented and not grand enough for the expanding city; in 1898 construction was started on a replacement to the town hall, only 27 years after its completion, on the site of the former White Linen Hall in Donegall Square. In 1900 the Belfast Revaluation surveyed the Municipal buildings before the move; the valuer increased the value of the building to £827 despite it imminent abandonment. Upon the transfer of civic administration to Donegall Square in 1906 when the city hall was opened, the former town hall became solely used as a police and recorders court. During periods when the building has lain empty, it has been occupied by a number of organisations. In 1910 the two-storey redbrick building was occupied by David Allen & Sons Ltd., the foremost printing and bill posting producing company in Belfast (Belfast Street Directories). During the Home Rule Crisis the former town hall was utilised by the Ulster Unionist Council, which leased the building from Belfast Corporation in 1913; the building was converted from a warehouse back into offices; the value was subsequently decreased to £460 in that year. During the Home Rule Crisis the building was also utilised as the headquarters of the Ulster Volunteer Force which was established in 1913 and, after the outbreak of the First World War, was mostly reorganised into the 36th (Ulster) Division, a predominantly protestant army division that fought in the war in order to maintain the the Union. The Ulster Unionist Council continued to occupy the building on Victoria Street until after the partition of Ireland; in 1918 the Belfast Street Directory described the building as the Ulster Unionist Headquarters, the Vice President of which was Sir. Edward Carson, who had been the leader of Ulster’s Resistance during the Home Rule Crisis. The directory also noted that the future Minister for Home Affairs Sir. Dawson Bates possessed offices at the site, and that other organisations such as The Provincial Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland and the Ulster Women’s Unionist Council had their offices in the building (Belfast Street Directory - 1918). In 1927 the Belfast Educational Committee took charge of the building establishing one of their main offices there; once again the value of the building was reduced, this time to £253. The Irish Builder notes that in 1926 the committee’s preferred architect, Reginald Sharman Wilshere (1888-1961) carried out alterations to the building, making it suitable for its new use (Irish Builder, p. 718). The Belfast Educational Committee (established under the 1923 Education Act) continued to occupy the former Town Hall during the First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland which was carried out in 1935 and quadrupled the value of the building to £1,000. The building survived the 1941 Belfast Blitz only receiving superficial damage, despite the heavy bombardment of the surrounding area. In the aftermath of the conflict the building was included in the second general revaluation, at which time it was noted that the building had been occupied as offices for the Ministry of Home Affairs which re-established the building as a Petty Sessions Court; however the conversion was short lived and in 1969 the building reverted back to educational use when the Belfast Educational Authority reoccupied the site and established a College of Technology; by the end of the second revaluation in 1972 the value of the former town hall stood at £2,480. The town hall occupies the site of the former Pork Market which stood on Victoria Street and can be seen on the second edition of the Ordnance Survey map in 1858. Larmour states that the town council, first elected in 1842, originally met at premises in Victoria Square opposite the future site; the building was too small and in the mid-19th century proposals were welcomed for an alternative site. When originally designed the Town Hall on Victoria Street was not intended to possess a parapet, this decision provoked outrage, the public protest stated that ’it was not a public building, not having a parapet and so great was the agitation that the plans had to be submitted to the Treasury for consideration’ (Brett). Jackson’s original design was altered as a result to placate the townspeople who desired a more ornate representation than the subtle public building originally envisaged. Larmour states that the town hall not only consisted of a headquarters for Belfast Corporation, but also consisted of three court rooms, a police station, and a fire station (now demolished). The construction of the town hall was a short-sighted venture in light of the rapid growth of Belfast as an urban centre: ‘the expansion of Belfast continued to be so rapid during the later-nineteenth century, with ever rising population levels to match its industrial and commercial growth, that only a decade or so later this new building was found to be inadequate for its municipal function, being so cramped that it could not accommodate all the councils officials’ (Larmour, p. 12). Patton notes that further ornamentation was added to the building in c. 1890 in the form of a fish-scale glass entrance canopy (now removed), however this did not prevent the inevitable replacement of the municipal building initiated upon Belfast receiving city status in 1888 (Patton, p. 324). As mentioned, upon being substituted by Belfast City Hall in 1906 the former Town Hall was occupied by a variety of organisations including the Ulster Unionist Council, a printing company, and the Belfast Educational Committee. The building was listed in 1977 when it was once more being utilised as a Petty Sessions Court; as a result of its importance as a former municipal and judicial building and the political significance of its history as a headquarters of the Ulster Unionist Council and the Ulster Volunteer Force, the old town hall was frequently targeted by bomb attacks during the Troubles and protective screens were installed around the building. In 1983 the former town hall was converted from a technical college into a recorders court and ancillary offices; however in July 1985 the building was severely damaged in yet another bomb attack (Brett, p. 55). In c. 1999 the interior of the former Town Hall was extensively renovated for use by the Courts Services and is currently utilised as Belfast’s Youth, Family and Domestic Proceedings Court. References Primary Sources 1. PRONI OS/6/1/61/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1858 2. PRONI OS/6/1/61/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1901-02 3. PRONI OS/6/1/61/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1931 4. PRONI OS/6/1/61/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1938 5. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/A/2-11 – Annual Revisions 1862-1897 6. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/C/19-42 - Annual Revisions 1897-1930 7. PRONI VAL/7/B/9/32 – Belfast Revaluation 1900 8. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/13 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935 9. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/42 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-1972 10. Builder, Vol. 10. (17 Apr 1852) 11. Dublin Builder, Vol. 12. (15 Jun 1870) 12. Irish Builder, Vol. 9. (15 Jan 1867); Vol. 68. (18 Sept 1926) 13. First Survey Record – HB26/50/044 (1971) 14. First Survey Image – HB26/50/044 (1976) 15. Ordnance Survey Map – 130-13SE (1959) Secondary Sources 1. Brett, C. E. B., ‘Buildings of Belfast: 1700-1914’ Belfast: Friar’s Bush Press, 1985. 2. Larmour, P., ‘Belfast: An illustrated architectural guide’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1987. 3. Larmour, P., ‘Belfast City Hall: An architectural History’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2010. 4. Patton, M., ‘Central Belfast: An historical gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 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 H-. Alterations detracting from building J. Setting

Historic Interest

X. Local Interest Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance V. Authorship

Evaluation

Detached symmetrical multi-bay two-storey redbrick and red sandstone former town hall, dated 1869, built to the designs of Anthony Jackson. Irregular on plan, facing west with a central block connected to two pavilions by recessed connecting wings. Serving as Belfast’s town hall before the construction of Belfast City Hall, this building employs an eclectic array of architectural motifs with a Palladian front composition and Lombardo-Romanesque carved detailing. It is a major work of an architect of note. Although compromised by the heavily altered and modified interior, much fabric and fine detailing survive, its change of use is of interest and it is of significant historical importance to the City.

General Comments

Date of Survey

18 October 2012