Old Town Hall, 80 Victoria Street, Belfast, BT1 3FA

Old Town Hall

A detached, symmetrical Romanesque town hall of 1869, designed by Anthony Jackson, located on the east side of Victoria Street in Belfast with its south elevation fronting onto Chichester Street. The building is constructed of machine-made redbrick laid in English garden wall bond with coursed rock-faced red sandstone ashlar, and comprises an irregular plan with a central block connected to two pavilions by recessed connecting wings. It was extensively renovated for use by the Courts Service around 1999.

The building is two storeys high with hipped natural slate roofs featuring lead ridges and rolled lead hip ridges. Mansard roofs crown both pavilions, decorated with iron cresting and finials extending to all three blocks. Profiled redbrick chimneystacks with terracotta pots and cast-iron rainwater goods punctuate the roofline. The roofs are set behind red sandstone arcaded parapet walls with moulded coping and squat piers resting on a crown cornice.

The central block features a gabled wall-head dormer to the parapet, surmounted by a poppy-head finial. This dormer has a decoratively moulded round-headed opening supported on paired squat columns framing a glazed oculus. Each pavilion is topped by a decorative round-headed panel centred on the parapet with poppy-head finial, nail-head mouldings, and a circular recessed panel bearing a raised monogram inscribed '1869'.

The walling rises from a coursed rock-faced red sandstone ashlar plinth course with moulded trim. Above this is a continuous sandstone blocking course surmounted by a continuous roll-moulded sill course. Flush red sandstone quoins at all corners contain embedded slender colonettes framing each floor. Continuous foliate impost mouldings run across both floors with frieze and deep moulded sill course to the first floor. The red sandstone frieze is embellished with trefoil carvings below the crown cornice and parapet, with an additional corbel course to the central block.

Window openings are round-headed with deeply set roll-moulded voussoired heads rising from continuous impost moulding. They are framed by slender colonettes, paired at ground floor level. Recessed red sandstone lattice-panelled window aprons appear beneath all ground floor windows and those of the first floor of the central block. The current windows are replacement single-pane timber sash windows throughout, with replacement timber Venetian arch windows to the first floor of the central block.

The front elevation comprises a central block five windows wide, flanked by recessed connecting wings four windows wide, terminated at each end by advanced pavilions three windows wide. The central bay forms a shallow breakfront topped by the dormer window and features an advanced gabled doorcase. Double-leaf hardwood panelled replacement doors with overpanel sit within a round-headed opening with roll moulding and billeted hood moulding, set deep into the masonry. The door opening is flanked by two pairs of banded squat columns on conical corbels with stiff-leaf capitals, supporting a decorative gabled hood with crocketed trim and a poppy-head finial. The carved panel above depicts the Belfast coat of arms with a ribbon banner inscribed 'PRO TANTO QUID RETRIBUAMUS'. The door opens onto a replacement paved platform and steps with a universal access ramp.

The north side elevation to the pavilion is two storeys high and four windows wide to the right, with a single-storey section three windows wide to the left, detailed as the front elevation. The central bay features an advanced gabled doorcase, similar to the principal elevation but with a glazed fanlight and double-leaf raised-and-fielded timber panelled doors, possibly original.

The south side elevation to the pavilion is symmetrical, two storeys high, and seven windows wide, with an advanced gabled doorcase detailed as the north side elevation.

The rear elevation presents an irregular, informal composition with a shallow gabled central breakfront forming the stairhall, abutted by a single-storey utility extension and a raised platform and steps. Segmental-headed window openings appear to the first floor, with round-headed openings to the ground floor. A single square-headed door opening to the central gable opens onto a platform with red sandstone surround featuring embedded colonettes and a shouldered lintel. The rear walls are rendered and painted.

The building sits within its own grounds enclosed by replacement steel railings and gates fronting a small forecourt area. A large bitumac car park occupies the rear of the site.