Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB24/07/004

Address :
Former Town Hall 24 High Street Donaghadee Co Down

Townland:
Donaghadee

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Survey 2:
B+

Date of Listing:
20/12/1976 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Office

Former Use
House

Conservation Area:
Yes

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
132/4

IG Ref:
J5908 7988

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Owner Category

Exterior Description And Setting

The former town hall is a large three storey gabled Georgian house of the later eighteenth century which is situated in the centre of High Street, dominating High Street. The front facade has a symmetrical arrangement. In the centre of the ground floor is a magnificent doorway with sandstone Ionic half column/pilasters, on sturdy block plinths, supporting an unadorned entablature and pediment. All this encases a panelled door with v-jointed (rusticated) sandstone dressings, voissoirs and keystone. This entrance is now in poor order the column capitals are now badly worn and broken as are sections of the dressings. To the left of the entrance are two windows with sliding sash frames and Georgian panes, both encased with plain pilasters, entablature and shallow ‘pediment’ block. Two similar windows to right of entrance. To the first floor are five slightly smaller windows with similar frames but with shallow plain surrounds with segmental arch heads and keystones. The surrounds to the ground and first floor windows were added c.1900. To the second are much squatter sash windows with Georgian panes. The front facade is finished in lined (cement) render and unpainted. The render to the ground floor section is much lighter in tone than the upper floors. Only the very top portion of the NW gable is exposed and this is blank and finished in lined render. A two storey shop is attached to the rest of this gable. The SE gable is blank with similar render. The rear has a slightly right of centre full height hipped roof stairwell projection. With windows, much as front (but of varying size) to each floor. To the right of this projection (on the rear of the main building) are two similar windows to the first and second floors. To the right on the ground floor is a small-ish flat roofed boiler house projection (which is also attached to the NE face of the ground floor of the stairwell projection). To the right of the ‘boiler house’ (on the ground floor main building) is a window, much as before and above the level of the ‘boiler house’ (and set at an intermediate level) is a small six pane window) which appears to have been inserted in fairly recent times. Partly attached to the very right hand side of the rear of the main building (but mainly the rear of No.22 High street is a long row of one and a half storey outbuildings, mainly rubble built. The stairwell projection and the right hand side of the rear of the main building are unrendered, revealing rubble construction. The left hand side of the rear has two very small six pane windows set at a high level to the first floor with two larger windows (much as second floor on right hand side of rear) to the second floor. To the far left at ground floor level is a small extension with a mono-pitched roof. This extension is also attached to a high rubble wall to the SE which encloses the large yard to the rear of the main building. The left hand side (beyond the stairwell projection) is finished in lined render. Upon this render is the outline of a gabled building which appears to have been demolished in the 1960s. The main roof is gabled and has rendered parapets and two rendered gable chimney stacks. Eaves course with corbels to front facade. All roofs have Bangor blue slates.

Architects

Historical Information

This building is depicted in Samuel Louis De la Cherois’s drawing of Donaghadee of 1817 and D. Kennedy’s water-colour of 1834. A map of the town dating from some time between 1771-1790 (probably 1780) indicates a large building on this site, so it is possible that this house could date from the 1770s. The valuation records of c.1836 state that the ‘house offices and yard’ were at that time in possession of a Samuel Cochrane and had a rateable value of £16. Little is known of the history of the building during the later nineteenth century, but in 1914 it was sold for £800 to a Mr. and Miss Pritchard who ran a boarding house on the premises. For most of the middle decades of the twentieth century (?until the local government reforms of 1974?) the property was used as the town hall for Donaghadee Urban District Council. At present some rooms within the building are used as the offices for a local employment scheme. Photographic evidence suggests that the decoration to the ground and first floor windows was added c.1900 or shortly afterwards. The Georgian panes to the sash windows were restored some time after 1977. References- Primary sources 1. ‘A map of the town of Donaghadee...’ [c.1771-90]. [This map was prepared for Daniel De la Cherois, who inherited much of the town and its hinterland in 1771. As Daniel died in 1790, the map can thus be dated to some time between 1771-90. At some point someone has written on the map ‘about 1780’, a date which may be accurate.] 2. Drawing of Donaghadee harbour by Samuel De la Cherois 1817 (This drawing is in possession of Mrs. Stone of the Manor House, High Street, Donaghadee). 3. Water-colour of Donaghadee Harbour by D. Kennedy, 1834. [Sections of this painting are reproduced in Hugh Dixon et al Historic buildings, groups of buildings, buildings of architectural importance in Donaghadee and Portpatrick (UAHS 1977)]. 4. PRONI VAL 1B/32 p.3 1st valuation, Donaghadee parish, Donaghadee., c.1836. [See also accompanying town plan.] 5. PRONI OS Maps 1st rev. 1858-60, Co. Down 3. 6. PRONI 2nd (‘Griffith’s’) valuation Donaghadee parish, Donaghadee, 1863. [The town plan for the 2nd valuation is not available at PRONI and therefore it is difficult to match the properties listed in the valuation with actual buildings.] Secondary sources 1. Archaeological Survey of County Down (HMSO 1966), 396-7. 2. Hugh Dixon et al Historic buildings, groups of buildings, buildings of architectural importance in Donaghadee and Portpatrick (UAHS 1977), pp.16-17. 3. W.G. Pollock Six miles from Bangor: The story of Donaghadee (Belfast 1975). [This book contains many photographs dating from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, some of which show High Street.]

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation D. Plan Form I. Quality and survival of Interior

Historic Interest

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

Evaluation

Impressive three storey Georgian house of perhaps c.1770-80, with decorative Ionic columned and pedimented doorway.

General Comments

Date of Survey

08 May 1998