Ballyclare Town Hall is a municipal structure in The Square,

Ballyclare Ballyclare () is a small town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 9,953 according to the 2011 census, and is located within the Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council area. It sits on the river Six Mile Water. The town ...

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, ) is one of six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and has a population o ...

, Northern Ireland. The structure, which is primarily used as an events venue, is a Grade B2

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

In the mid-19th century, the

Lord Lieutenant of Antrim A list of people who have served as Lord-Lieutenant of County Antrim, Antrim, located in Northern Ireland. There were lieutenants of counties in Ireland until the reign of James II of England, James II, when they were renamed governors.George Edw ...

, the

Marquess of Donegall Marquess of Donegall is a title in the Peerage of Ireland held by the head of the Chichester family, originally from Devon, England. Sir John Chichester sat as a Member of Parliament and was High Sheriff of Devon in 1557. One of his sons, Sir ...

, donated a site, which had previously been used as a

rubbish dump A landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the disposal of waste materials. Landfill is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of the waste ...

, for the purpose of erecting a market hall. A single-storey wooden structure, which was financed by

public subscription Subscription refers to the process of investors signing up and committing to invest in a financial instrument, before the actual closing of the purchase. The term comes from the Latin word ''subscribere''. Historical Praenumeration An early form ...

, was erected on the site in 1855, and an upper floor was constructed to create a forum for public meetings in 1873. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with three bays facing onto the northeast side of The Square; the central bay, which slightly projected forward and was gabled, featured a wide archway on the ground floor and a round headed window on the first floor; the outer bays were fenestrated by

mullion A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...

ed windows on the ground floor and a round headed window on the first floor. After the area was advanced to the status of an

urban district Urban district may refer to: * District * Urban area * Quarter (urban subdivision) * Neighbourhood Specific subdivisions in some countries: * Urban districts of Denmark * Urban districts of Germany * Urban district (Great Britain and Ireland) (hist ...

in 1899, the council leaders decided to take ownership of the building and to enlarge it. The enlarged structure was designed in the

neoclassical style Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The pr ...

, built by W. H. and R. J. Beggs with a

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...

finish and was officially opened by the

Lord Lieutenant of Belfast The Lord Lieutenant of Belfast is the official representative of The King for the 'County Borough of Belfast', Northern Ireland. The current Lord Lieutenant is Dame Fionnuala Mary Jay-O'Boyle, DBE, who was appointed in July 2014. The position ...

Sir Thomas Dixon Sir Thomas James Dixon, 2nd Baronet, PC (NI) (29 May 1868 – 10 May 1950), was a Northern Ireland politician. Dixon was the eldest son of Sir Daniel Dixon, 1st Baronet, Lord Mayor of Belfast, and his wife, Eliza (née Agnew). He succeeded his f ...

, on 23 October 1935. The design involved an additional

castellated A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interva ...

bay on the left, an additional bay containing a three-stage tower on the right and another additional castellated bay beyond that. The tower, which slightly projected forward and was high, contained a doorway flanked by banded

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

s supporting an

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

and a

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...

in the first stage, a stone

balcony A balcony (from it, balcone, "scaffold") is a platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade, usually above the ground floor. Types The traditional Maltese balcony is ...

supported by

brackets A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. Typically deployed in symmetric pairs, an individual bracket may be identified as a 'left' or 'r ...

with a French door in the second stage and a clock tower with a

pyramid A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilat ...

-shaped roof in the third stage. Internally, the principal rooms were the new council chamber for the urban district council on the ground floor and the main hall, which had a sprung dance floor, on the first floor. The building continued to serve as the meeting place of the urban district council for much of the 20th century, but ceased to be the local seat of government after the enlarged

Newtownabbey Borough Council Newtownabbey Borough Council was a Local Authority in County Antrim in Northern Ireland, on the north shore of Belfast Lough just immediately north of Belfast. The Council merged with Antrim Borough Council in April 2015 under local government ...

was formed in 1973. The town hall continued to be used as an events venue for concerts and theatrical performances, and one of the rooms was fitted out for use as a cinema. The buildings also became an approved venue for wedding and civil partnership ceremonies. A plaque to commemorate the life of the locally-born Irish

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

, Archibald McIlroy, was installed on the wall of the town hall in October 2011.

References

{{Government buildings in Northern Ireland Government buildings completed in 1855 City and town halls in Northern Ireland Grade B2 listed buildings Ballyclare