Town Hall, Bangor Castle, Castle Park Avenue, Bangor, Co Down, BT20 4BN

Bangor Castle, Town Hall

Bangor Castle is a substantial Jacobethan-style country house dated 1852, built for Robert Edward Ward and serving since 1952 as the town hall and council offices for Bangor. It is a large, asymmetrical building of two storeys with attic level over a basement, set on an elevated site north of Ward Park in the centre of Bangor, at the end of Castle Park Avenue off Abbey Road. The authorship of the design is disputed: a foundation stone of 1848 names William Burn, who was also credited in his obituary, while Anthony Salvin is credited in his own obituary with a new house or substantial alteration for Ward. A third architect, William Walker of Monaghan, was consulted and produced plans that were never executed. The visible difference in style and stonework detailing between the main house and the stable block suggests that both Burn and Salvin may have been involved, with Burn perhaps responsible for the main house and Salvin for the stable yard. Both obituaries record the cost of the building as £9,000. The listing covers the town hall itself together with its terraces, fretted stone walls, gate, and steps.

Architectural Character and Materials

The building is constructed in ashlar buff-pink Giffnock sandstone imported from Ayrshire, with associated quoins, plinth, string courses, surrounds, decorative detailing, and chimney stacks in various states of survival. The roof is natural slate with clay ridge tiles and lead valleys, with replacement slates to the inner pitch. Cast-iron and lead rainwater goods include monogrammed hopper heads — bearing the initials REW — breaking through parapet level, with box-section downpipes. Windows are square-headed with transom and mullion surrounds in sandstone, fitted with single-glazed 1-over-1 timber sliding sash lights. Doors are Tudor-arched, timber-sheeted, with cast-iron ironmongery.

The building is arranged informally around a courtyard, adjoining the former stable yard.

Principal (East) Elevation

The principal elevation faces east and is asymmetrically composed. Reading from left to right: a three-storey castellated tower with a square corner turret rises at the far left, with a single window to each of the ground and first floors, and irregularly spaced narrow windows to the uppermost stage. Clock faces appear on all four faces of the turret, which is finished with a pyramidal stone roof and a filigree weather vane. To its right is a recessed section three openings wide, with steeply pitched wall-head dormers linked by a fretted stone parapet; at ground floor this section is abutted on the left by the entrance porch and on the right by a box bay, both matching each other in proportion and each topped by a balustraded parapet. The entrance door is reached by modern steps with modern handrails; the surround has architraves and a label moulding with indented spandrels, and a pediment with a carved monogrammed tympanum bearing the initials REW. Further right is a projecting M-profile section two windows wide, with a two-storey box bay to its right surmounted by a decorative stonework parapet, and skew-table gables with terminating finials.

South Elevation

The south elevation is abutted by a single-storey-with-attic double-pile range of secondary accommodation with more subdued detailing, wall-head dormers over ground floor openings, and a trenched basement level to the east face of the abutment. The south face of this abutment forms part of the courtyard shared with the adjoining listed stable yard. The west face of the abutment mirrors the east face in detail, with full-length basement windows set within a wider trench, and is fronted by a modern ramped access.

West Elevation

The west elevation is symmetrically arranged in its principal part, with gabled bays to either side of a recessed central bay. At ground floor, single-storey canted bays flank a central bowed bay; the central bay has a full-width tripartite window, with attic windows to the gables and a central wall-head dormer. This section is extended to the right by a two-storey subordinate wing of lower ridge and eaves level, matching the overall style but with more subdued detailing.

North Elevation

The north elevation is symmetrical, three storeys tall and three bays wide, with large dormers matching the style and proportions of the gables. A two-storey canted bay to the central section is surmounted by a decorative stone parapet and flanked by matching single-storey box bays with matching parapet detail, with paired first-floor windows above each box bay.

Interior

The principal rooms retain much of their original decorative plasterwork and joinery. Of particular note is the former music room, which was double-height and is now used as the council chamber. The large saloon where Ward held music recitals originally housed an organ, which has since been sold. Stained glass windows in the chamber include depictions of Edward III, from whom the Ward family claimed descent. Surviving photographs show the interior as it appeared when the house was in private occupation. According to historical accounts, the first floor contained bedrooms each with a tin bath painted to match the room's hangings; the basement housed the kitchens and servants' quarters; and the attic provided children's accommodation. Since conversion to council use, the character of the interior has been partly institutionalised, with offices occupying all floors, though the principal rooms remain largely intact in their decorative fabric.

Historical Background

A house belonging to the Ward family or their antecedents, the Hamiltons, has stood on this site since at least 1611, when Sir James Hamilton was first granted lands in Bangor. This first mansion appeared on Raven's map of 1625 and subsequently underwent several phases of rebuilding and remodelling, culminating in a late 18th-century Gothic castle depicted in at least two paintings dating from the 1830s. The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833 shows this substantial building captioned as Bangor Castle, and it was listed in the Townland Valuation of 1828–40 at £54, owned by Colonel Ward. Following Colonel Ward's death in 1837, his son Robert Edward Ward demolished the old castle — some accounts stating that he disliked it, others that it had been destroyed by fire — and commissioned the present building, which is first shown on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858.

Griffith's Valuation of 1856–64 lists Bangor Castle as a house, offices, steward's house, gate lodges, and land, valued at £230 and owned in fee by Robert E. Ward. By the first Annual Revision of 1866 the steward's house had been removed from the description and the whole property was valued at £200.

In the 1901 census, Robert E. Ward, then aged 82, described himself as a landlord and was presiding over a substantial household. His son-in-law Lord Clanmorris — who had married Ward's daughter in 1878 — was present, as were three of his ten grandchildren, their rank described as honourable. The household staff of sixteen comprised a groom, two nursemaids, a housekeeper, five housemaids, a cook, two laundresses, a butler, two footmen, and one further male domestic servant, the majority of Scottish or English extraction.

The property passed to Baroness Clanmorris in 1908 following the death of Robert Ward. By the time of the 1911 census the house was the home of Lord and Lady Clanmorris, whose children were all away from home. A staff of thirteen was employed, a noteworthy addition being a chauffeur alongside the retained groom. By this date the majority of staff were of local or southern Irish birth, with the exception of the English butler and housekeeper. Additional staff included laundresses, housemaids, a cook, a kitchen maid, a lady's maid, and an odd man.

The arms of both the Ward and Clanmorris families appear in the castle stonework. The entrance porch bears a plaque reading Erected by Robert Ward 1852, and Ward's monogram also appears on the rainwater hoppers. When Baroness Clanmorris died in 1941, much of the castle grounds were sold to Bangor Council and the demesne wall was taken down. In 1952 the castle became Bangor Town Hall; it is subsequent to this conversion that most of the chimney stacks were removed. At the time C. E. B. Brett was writing in 2002 the castle was undergoing an extensive programme of stonework restoration. The North Down Heritage Centre is housed in the former laundry building, opened in 1984, and a modern extension to the stable courtyard contains a restaurant.

Setting

The building occupies an elevated site north of Ward Park. The principal setting to the south and west is wooded landscape. To the east, a car park has compromised the immediate setting, though the landscaped gardens largely survive, with good sandstone and brick terraces, fretted stone walls, and stone steps to the north overlooking Bangor town centre. To the south is the adjoining former stable yard. The castle forms an important group with the former stable yard and the gate lodge. To the east of the car park entrance stand Bangor Leisure Centre, Glenlola Collegiate, and Bangor Academy.