Orange Hall, 18 Hamilton Road, Bangor, Co Down, BT20 4LF

Orange Hall, 18 Hamilton Road, Bangor

A semi-detached three-bay two-storey Orange Hall built in 1872 to designs by the local architect Francis Stirrat. The building represents a robust municipal style and is notable for its innovative sound insulation between floors, which allowed band practice and meetings to take place simultaneously—a distinctive feature that enabled the Lambeg drum to be used downstairs while Orange Society meetings were conducted upstairs.

The hall is rectangular on plan with a two-storey gabled porch projecting to the front. The pitched tiled roof has raised stone skews and kneelers to the gable, and rectangular rendered chimneystacks with plinth and terracotta pots. Half-round cast-iron rainwater goods are mounted on drive-in brackets. The exterior walling is smooth ruled-and-lined render.

The principal south-facing elevation is dominated by the large projecting porch. The porch features a stained glass central lancet window to the first floor with gothic hood moulding, sharing hood-moulding with blind niches to either side. Label moulds are present to the ground floor windows. At ground floor level, a sheeted timber door stands to the right and a replacement timber door to the left, with a diminutive paired window between them featuring chamfered surrounds. These window openings are exposed sections of the projecting porch. To either side of the porch, the main rectangular block has two window openings to the ground floor with chamfered surrounds, and large single pointed-headed windows to the first floor. A date-stone in the gable records "Bangor Orange Hall AD 1872".

Windows are predominantly 2/2 timber sliding sashes to the front (replacement), and 6/6 timber sliding sashes to the rear. The west gable has a timber door with transom light to the left. The north rear elevation is four openings wide and is abutted by a small single-storey lean-to with a simple timber door.

Historically, the site was donated by Robert E Ward, DL, and the foundation stone was laid by Miss Ward on 17 June 1872. The hall was opened on 6 April 1874 at a cost of £600. The building first appears in the valuation field book of 1872–82 as an Orange Hall occupied by the Orange Society, leased from Robert E Ward, and valued at £28. It was first shown on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1901.

The hall is located to the north of Hamilton Road in Bangor town centre, enclosed to the front by a smooth render wall with painted chamfered plinth. Access to the rear is by way of a small laneway, with the rear elevation completely enclosed by a rubble stone wall. Although alterations have been made over time, the hall remains a good example of civic architecture of small scale by a local architect.