Courthouse, High Street, Omagh, Co. Tyrone, BT78 1DU

Courthouse, High Street, Omagh

An attached five-bay two-storey-over-raised-basement stone Palladian courthouse built between 1814 and 1822 to designs by John Hargrave of Dublin, extended in 1863 to designs by William Joseph Barre of Newry. The building is L-shaped in plan and faces east.

The main block features a full-height pedimented prostyle tetrastyle portico to the east front, flanked by Doric pilasters. The five-bay three-storey extension projects to the south. The roof is hipped with natural slate, lead ridge and hip caps, and rendered chimneystacks. Ogee-profile cast-iron gutters run throughout.

The walling is ashlar limestone with rustication to the ground floor and basement, separated by a dressed stringcourse. The first floor has a simple entablature at the eaves with a sill-course. Windows are painted timber 6/6 sashes; those on the ground floor are round-headed with incorporated fanlights, whilst first-floor windows are square-headed with lugged moulded stone architraves. The principal east elevation includes ground-floor windows with metal grilles and a round-headed varnished timber raised-and-fielded three-panel double-leaf door, fitted with a replacement multi-light fanlight and moulded archivolt on impost mouldings.

The portico rises on a twelve-step-raised platform with wrought and cast-iron railings. It carries an entablature, triangular pediment with clock face, and royal heraldic cipher with Edwardian Crown flanked by lion and unicorn at the apex. The soffit panels are painted timber diamond-sheeted.

The extension to the left mirrors the principal elevation detailing, though ground-floor windows extend to square-headed basement windows with moulded panel soffits. The basement level has a square-headed replacement painted timber multi-light double-leaf door at the centre, flanked by Doric pilasters with blind side and overlights, enclosed in a Roman Doric distyle portico with full dentilled entablature. The south elevation of the extension is blank with smooth rendered finish.

The rear north elevation is abutted at its left end by No. 6 George Street; the exposed section shows various projections with smooth-render finish. This elevation is single-storey over raised basement, seven openings wide, with smooth rendered walling and rusticated basement featuring a continuous sill-course. Round-headed window openings have painted timber 12/12 sashes with intersecting tracery incorporated into fanlights. Gibbsian blocking jambs, moulded archivolts with keyblocks are enclosed in a distyle prostyle portico with Doric columns, triangular pediment, and access by stone steps with cast-iron railing. A square-headed door opening displays a painted timber raised-and-fielded eight-panel door with beaded muntin, stone architraves, and peacock-fanlight. A square-headed niche with moulded surround to the left contains a statue of a wigged male Justice figure. The basement walling is random rubble with two square-headed painted timber vertically-sheeted and studded doors.

The courthouse sits on an elevated site at the top of High Street, enclosed by decorative wrought-iron railings including sweeping steps with rusticated stone piers aligned to both entrances.