Court House, 2-4 Chapel Street, Cookstown, Co Tyrone, BT80 8QD

Court House, 2-4 Chapel Street, Cookstown

A detached two-storey rock-faced sandstone courthouse built around 1900 to designs by architect Vincent Craig, with County Surveyor J.W. Leebody. The contractors were Messrs Stewart of Belfast, and construction cost £3,500. The building replaced an earlier Police Barrack and Court House that had stood on the south side of Molesworth Street.

The building is an unusual and attractive example of late nineteenth-century civic architecture. It displays an eclectic Freestyle incorporating an Italianate tower with medieval castle detailing, notably different from the Art Nouveau style for which Craig is best known. The external expression is enlivened by robust detailing displaying good quality masonry.

The courthouse is roughly rectangular in plan with a square tower to the northwest corner. A two-storey pitched return extends to the rear east, with a single-storey lean-to extension to the north and a further single-storey glazed lean-to to the south. Behind this is a further single-storey hipped return, and a single-storey boiler house extension to the rear. A single-storey hipped roof security sanger stands to the front. External walls are rock-faced stone with cut-stone quoins to the edges, set on a chamfered cut-stone base. The main building roofs are natural slate with pierced clay ridge tiles. A projecting chimney with profiled stepped capping and clay pots rises from the gable-end.

The front east elevation is street-fronted, with a hipped two-storey tower to the left and a pitched two-storey composition to the right. The tower's ground floor contains a square-headed door and overlight set within a later single-storey projecting squared bay. Carved stone cornicing runs along the bay's eaves, continuing as a string-course around the elevation. The upper level has a segmental-headed paired window with chamfered sill, cut-stone surrounds, and 1/1 timber sash frames. A blind roundel with cut-stone surround sits above the first-floor windows. The upper corners of the tower feature bartizan-like elements supporting projecting overhanging eaves, with a projecting carved stone arched dentilled course to the eaves. The main façade to the right displays square-headed windows to the ground floor with chamfered cut-stone sills and surrounds. The upper floor has segmental-headed paired windows with matching sills and surrounds, all with 1/1 timber sash frames. A dormer at the centre contains a blind roundel. A string-course of carved stone cornicing continues around this elevation.

The north elevation divides into three sections: the turret and hipped bay to the right, the side of the main return and ground-floor lean-to to the centre, and the side of the single-storey hipped return to the left. The turret and hipped bay section has two square-headed windows set within a recessed round-headed window bay to the right, with cut-stone surrounds. A further square-headed window stands to the left. The upper floor has a paired segmental-headed window to the right and a further square-headed window to the left. The central section features a square-headed doorway to the ground-floor lean-to extension, with the main building's side elevation visible behind it, displaying segmental-headed long narrow rectangular windows with timber casement frames. The single-storey return's side elevation is visible to the left.

The rear east elevation is gable-ended and largely obscured by the returns and extensions, with a central chimney stack rising above the roofs.

The south elevation has a single-storey glazed modern extension to the ground floor set on a rendered wall. The upper level displays segmental-headed windows with timber frames.

The two-storey hipped L-shaped return to the rear has an integral timber window and door to the ground floor on its east elevation, with square-headed 1/1 timber sash windows to the first floor and artificial slate roof with pierced clay ridge tiles. The west elevation abuts the main building, with a square-headed doorway to the left accessed via steps behind a stone wall. The north elevation is blank. The single-storey hipped return is ruled-and-lined render with painted 1/1 timber sash frames on cut-stone sills and an artificial slate roof.

The single-storey boiler house extension to the rear is ruled-and-lined render.

The building is set within a mixed terrace on the eastern side of Chapel Street at the southern edge of Cookstown's commercial centre, set back from the pavement behind a high-rise security fence. The mixed terrace comprises mainly two and three-storey Victorian buildings dating from the early to late nineteenth century.

The interior is plain and was modernised in the mid-twentieth century, compromising the building's significance.