The Down Arts Centre, formerly Downpatrick Town Hall and also Downpatrick Assembly Rooms, is a municipal structure in Irish Street in

Downpatrick Downpatrick () is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is on the Lecale peninsula, about south of Belfast. In the Middle Ages, it was the capital of the Dál Fiatach, the main ruling dynasty of Ulaid. Its cathedral is said to be the bu ...

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to the ...

, Northern Ireland. The structure, which was the meeting place of Down Urban District Council, is a Grade B1

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

The first municipal building in Downpatrick was a market house which was a gift to the town from

Wingfield Cromwell, 2nd Earl of Ardglass Wingfield Cromwell, 2nd Earl of Ardglass, DCL, (12 September 1624 – 3 October 1668) was an English nobleman, son of Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Ardglass and Elizabeth Meverell. He held the subsidiary titles of 2nd Viscount Lecale and 5th Baron ...

and was completed in 1660. It was arcaded on the ground floor, so that markets could be held, with an assembly room on the first floor. After the building became dilapidated in the 1870s, the local

member of parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

, John Mulholland, offered to pay for a new building on the same site. The new building was designed by William Batt in the

Gothic Revival style Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

, built in red brick by Dixon & Co. and completed in 1882. The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto Irish Street; it featured a prominent three-stage clock tower on the corner with Scotch Street; there was an arched doorway on the ground floor of the tower, a gothic window flanked by

colonette A colonnette is a small slender column, usually decorative, which supports a beam or lintel. Colonettes have also been used to refer to a feature of furnishings such as a dressing table and case clock, and even studied by archeologists in Roman ce ...

s on the first floor and a clock face on the second floor. The façade facing Irish Street featured a series of narrow gothic windows on the ground floor and four wider gothic windows flanked by colonettes on the first floor. At roof level there was a

modillion A modillion is an ornate bracket, more horizontal in shape and less imposing than a corbel. They are often seen underneath a cornice which it helps to support. Modillions are more elaborate than dentils (literally translated as small teeth). All ...

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

and a central chimney. Internally, there were two halls, the larger hall, located on the first floor, accommodating 800 people and the smaller hall, on the ground floor, accommodating 200 people. After significant population growth, the area became 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 ...

with the building as its meeting place in 1925. It was also used as an events venue and the singer,

Gracie Fields Dame Gracie Fields (born Grace Stansfield; 9 January 189827 September 1979) was an English actress, singer, comedian and star of cinema and music hall who was one of the top ten film stars in Britain during the 1930s and was considered the h ...

, performed in the building during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The building continued to serve as the meeting place of Downpatrick Urban District Council for much of the 20th century, but ceased that role after the enlarged

Down District Council Down District Council was a Local Council in County Down in Northern Ireland. It merged with Newry and Mourne District Council in April 2015 under local government reorganisation in Northern Ireland to become Newry, Mourne and Down District Cou ...

was formed with offices in Stangford Road in 1974. It was badly damaged in a fire in 1983 but was restored in 1984: it was then converted for use as the Down Arts Centre in 1989 and the local

rock band A rock band or pop band is a small musical ensemble that performs rock music, pop music, or a related genre. A four-piece band is the most common configuration in rock and pop music. In the early years, the configuration was typically two guita ...

Ash Ash or ashes are the solid remnants of fires. Specifically, ''ash'' refers to all non-aqueous, non- gaseous residues that remain after something burns. In analytical chemistry, to analyse the mineral and metal content of chemical samples, ash ...

, held one of their earliest performances there in the 1990s. A programme of refurbishment works costing £1.4 million supported by the

Arts Council of Northern Ireland The Arts Council of Northern Ireland (Irish: ''Comhairle Ealaíon Thuaisceart Éireann'', Ulster-Scots: ''Airts Cooncil o Norlin Airlan'') is the lead development agency for the arts in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1964, as a successor to ...

Tourism Northern Ireland Tourism Northern Ireland, also known as Tourism NI, is a non-departmental public body of the Department for the Economy. Its primary objective is to promote Northern Ireland as a tourist destination to domestic tourists, from within Northern Irela ...

and Down District Council started in February 2011. The works, which were undertaken to a design by Kriterion Architects, included modernisation of the facilities as well as the creation of some additional creative space and were completed in June 2012.

References

{{Government buildings in Northern Ireland Government buildings completed in 1882 City and town halls in Northern Ireland Downpatrick Grade B1 listed buildings