Orange Hall, Redburn Square, Holywood, Co. Down

Orange Hall, Holywood

A free-standing two-storey three-bay polychromatic brick Orange Hall built c.1880, located on the junction of Sullivan Place and Hibernia Street in the centre of Holywood. The hall is rectangular on plan with a single-storey flat-roof modern brick extension to the rear.

The pitched natural slate roof has corbelled brick gable verges and red brick chimneys with yellow brick dressings. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods sit on dentilled brick eaves. The walling is English Garden wall bonded red brick with yellow brick dressings; rubble stone and brick to the rear; smooth render to the south side. A yellow brick string course runs at first floor level; an ovolo moulded and pierced string course is positioned at ground floor level.

Windows are segmental-headed 2/2 timber-framed sliding sash with horizontal glazing bars. First floor windows have continuous yellow brick sills, decorative yellow brick arches and label mould. Ground floor windows feature yellow and blue brick voussoirs in pointed relieving arches.

The principal west elevation is three openings wide. At ground floor centre is an entrance door in a recessed brick surround with a modern timber door, sidelight to the left, and segmental-headed transom light above. The north elevation displays three windows to the ground floor and two segmental-headed windows to the first floor, with a decorative polychromatic roundel containing a fixed wrought-iron star in the upper gable. The east rear elevation is partially concealed by a neighbouring building and has a modern timber entrance door with masonry steps to first floor and a window to the left. The south elevation is blank.

The setting is corner-sited with a large modern building to the rear and a single-storey flat-roof modern building to the south. Decorative gates and iron railings on a low stone wall front the building. The setting has been affected by roadworks and adjacent development.

Historical records show conflicting dates of attribution. The Holywood Old School Preservation Trust attributes the design to William Batt, though the basis for this attribution is not documented. However, the Belfast Newsletter credits architect Fitzgibbon Louch, with the foundation stone being laid on 15 July 1872 and the hall formally opened in 1879. The Orange Hall first appears in the valuation fieldbook dated 1867 to 1879, marked as "in progress" with no valuation given. By 1882 the hall was completed and valued at £18, leased from John Harrison to the Trustees Orange Hall. By 1887 Thomas Scott served as caretaker. The 1884 Belfast and Ulster Street Directory described it as a "plain but substantial building". The building of the lodge was promoted by Holywood Royal Standard (LOL 1906), founded in 1868, which previously met in what is now the Heasley Hall in Church View.

The hall accommodates multiple Orange Order lodges and related organisations, including McCammon's True Blues (LOL 1687), Crozier Memorial Temperance (LOL 1362), two Royal Black Preceptories (Holywood RBP 177 and Joshua's Chosen Few RBP 174), Holywood Women's Lodge Number 4, and the Apprentice Boys of Derry Holywood Baker Club. The Orange Order has granted use of the hall to various bodies including the Petty Sessions Court and the local Social Security Agency.

The building received major refurbishment in 1964 when a main entrance was opened onto Redburn Square and the entrance onto Sullivan Place was closed up.

The hall is of interest as an unusual and idiosyncratic composition, remarkable for its decorative polychromatic brick detailing to the façade, which is uncommon in a hall of this type and period.