Lisburn Courthouse is a judicial facility in Railway Street in Lisburn,

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 Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. It is home to the

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judic ...

's and

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

courts.

History

In the late 19th century and in much of the 20th century judicial matters were considered in the old courthouse which had been designed by John MacHenry and completed in 1884. It was built at the personal expense of the local landowner and

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 o ...

for Lisburn

Sir Richard Wallace, 1st Baronet Sir Richard Wallace, 1st Baronet (21 June 1818 – 20 July 1890), of Sudbourne Hall in Suffolk, Hertford House in London, and of the Château de Bagatelle in Paris, was a British art collector and Francophile. Origins and youth Richard i ...

, of Antrim Castle, and demonstrated his significant financial and political commitment made to the town. The design was based on a largely un-executed design by

Andrea Palladio Andrea Palladio ( ; ; 30 November 1508 – 19 August 1580) was an Italian Renaissance architect active in the Venetian Republic. Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture, primarily Vitruvius, is widely considered to be one of ...

for the ''Villa Ragona Cecchetto'', in Ghizzole, Montegaldella, Veneto, Italy, for his client Girolamo Ragona, a deputy of the nearby City of

Vicenza Vicenza ( , ; ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region at the northern base of the ''Monte Berico'', where it straddles the Bacchiglione River. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and east of Milan. Vicenza is a thr ...

. It involved a symmetrical main frontage which featured a

tetrastyle A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...

portico with Corinthian order columns supporting a

frieze In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...

and a heavily carved

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 pedim ...

, on which was sculpted the Wallace

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...

and his motto "Esperance" (English: "hope"). However, after it was not adequately maintained, its condition deteriorated and it was, ultimately, demolished in 1971. The demolition took place in the face of strong local opposition from local heritage groups and the author, Charles Brett, said shortly after the demolition that "the building was by no means beyond restoration when it was demolished." It was replaced by a modern facility on the same site which was designed in the Brutalist style and was completed in around 1980. The design involved a central section which featured a glass entrance on the ground floor and a row of glazing on the first floor with black panels above and below; the left and right sections were left as bare concrete: it has been described by one of the local councillors as "one of the city's ugliest buildings". In May 2012 the justice minister, David Ford, said that he accepted an inspection report recommending that the Lisburn Courthouse should close in a proposed rationalisation of the court system.

Cases

Lisburn was initially used by

magistrates The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judici ...

before it was opened to county legal matters. Two sessions were regularly held each day by twelve staff in 2005.

References

{{reflist Buildings and structures in Lisburn Courthouses in Northern Ireland Government buildings completed in 1980