The Old Town Hall is a municipal structure in Castle Street,

Lisburn Lisburn ( ; ) is a city in Northern Ireland. It is southwest of Belfast city centre, on the River Lagan, which forms the boundary between County Antrim and County Down. First laid out in the 17th century by English and Welsh settlers, with t ...

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, County Antrim, Antrim, ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, located within the historic Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the c ...

, Northern Ireland. The structure, which is used as a

constituency office A constituency office, also called an electorate office, is an office operated by a local political officeholder, such as a Member of Parliament (MP), within the area they represent. It may be used to have meetings with constituents, or adminis ...

by the

Democratic Unionist Party The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is a Unionism in Ireland, unionist, Ulster loyalism, loyalist, British nationalist and national conservative political party in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1971 during the Troubles by Ian Paisley, who ...

, is a Grade B2

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

History

The building was commissioned by

Sir Richard Wallace Sir Richard Wallace, 1st Baronet (21 June 1818 – 20 July 1890) was a British Aristocracy (class), aristocrat, art collector and Francophile. Based on the Return of Owners of Land, 1873, Return of Owners of Land 1873, he was the 24th richest m ...

as an office from which to administer the tenancies of the Hertford Estate. Wallace had inherited the unentailed tenancies from his father,

Richard Seymour-Conway, 4th Marquess of Hertford Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic language">Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'st ...

, and had significantly expanded the estate. The rents from the estate were used to finance Wallace's extensive art collection. The site Wallace selected had formerly been occupied by a French

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...

church which had been completed in the early 18th century. The building was designed in the

neoclassical style Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassici ...

, built in red brick with stone finishings and was completed in 1884. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto Castle Street. The central bay featured a doorway with a rectangular

fanlight A fanlight is a form of lunette window (transom window), often semicircular or semi-elliptical in shape, with glazing (window), glazing bars or tracery sets radiating out like an open Hand fan, fan. It is placed over another window or a doorway, ...

, which was flanked by

pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

s and

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. They come in four main pairs of shapes, as given in the box to the right, which also gives their n ...

supporting a segmental

pediment Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...

; there was a

sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double glazing) of glass. History ...

with an

architrave In classical architecture, an architrave (; , also called an epistyle; ) is the lintel or beam, typically made of wood or stone, that rests on the capitals of columns. The term can also apply to all sides, including the vertical members, ...

and brackets 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 triangular pediment on the first floor. The other bays were fenestrated by sash windows with architraves on the ground floor, and by sash windows with architraves, entablatures and

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

s on the first floor. At roof level, there was a

balustraded A baluster () is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its c ...

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...

. The building was subsequently extended by one bay extended to the east; the extension featured a carriageway arch on the ground floor and a tri-partite window with architrave, entablature, and cornice on the first floor. The local estate manager, Walter Stannus, administered the Hertford estate from this office:

speaking tube A speaking tube or voicepipe is a device based on two cones connected by an air pipe through which speech can be transmitted over an extended distance. Use of pipes was suggested by Francis Bacon in the ''New Atlantis'' (1672). The usage for te ...

s were used to communicate between the different offices in the building and Wallace's London agent, Frederick Capron, used a secret staircase to avoid angry tenants. The office became redundant after the tenants exercised their rights to buy under the Irish Lands Acts and the estate was broken up in the late 19th century. After the area was advanced to the status of an

urban district An urban district is a division generally managed by a local government. It may also refer to a city district, district, urban area or quarter Specific urban districts in some countries include: * Urban districts of Denmark * Districts of Germa ...

in 1899, the council leaders decided to acquire the building and to establish their own council chamber in it. The building continued to serve as the headquarters of the urban district council for much of the 20th century but ceased to be the local seat of government after the council was advanced to

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English language, English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History ...

status and moved to new offices in The Square in Hillsborough in 1964. The town hall then served as a sub-office for Lisburn Borough Council until 2001. It was converted for use as a constituency office for the

in the early 21st century.

References

{{City and town halls in Ireland Government buildings completed in 1884 City and town halls in Northern Ireland Grade B2 listed buildings Lisburn