Assembly Rooms, 42 Smith Street, Moneymore, Magherafelt, Co Londonderry, BT45 7PG

Assembly Rooms, Smith Street, Moneymore

A stone-built single-storey hall in white limestone designed in a Tudoresque manner by the Drapers' Company to designs of W.J. Booth in 1834, and extended recently in similar materials. The building contributes to the parish church environment and Smith Street streetscape, though its architectural content is substantial but somewhat stodgy.

The original building was erected as a Parochial Sunday School and later became the assembly rooms. It has been extended with gabled additions to front and rear designed by Manor Architects in 1993.

The main block measures 8 bays long by 3 bays wide, with gabled and slate-covered roofs of double pile form to front and rear. The principal Smith Street elevation features a central semi-circular arched opening with sandstone trim, chamfered reveals, and arched hood moulding, with double timber doors. On each side are arched two-pane windows centrally positioned in random rubble white limestone gables. The valley between the gables is centred over the entrance door, with a narrow arched window above it (with hood moulding) lighting the roofspace of the main hall. Set back behind this arrangement is the upper part of the former entrance gable with pitched roof and a small porch with doors in side gables. Stone barges with kneelers finish the gables.

The Fairhill Road elevation displays the 4-bay main hall with four 6-pane windows with sandstone trim. The lower bay at the south-east end carries a 1914-18 war memorial plaque at its centre. At the opposite end stands an arched doorway with wooden door and two arched windows, all with sandstone trim; the doorway and surround were probably transferred from the original entrance. The old and new walls at the south-east are built of coursed white limestone while the new walls at the other end are of random rubble white limestone. All gables have kneelers and bargestones.

The north-west elevation comprises two unequal gables with the valley between them centred on the ridge of the main hall. The smaller gable has a small window while the larger has a large square-headed rectangular window subdivided into 10 lights further subdivided into a total of 60 small panes. The walls are built of random rubble white limestone with quoins and heavy kneelers with occasional projecting kneelers between gables. The gable of the main hall has an arched window with hood, stone barges and heavy kneeler. A narrow passage between the north-east wall and the stone boundary wall is closed by a flat-roofed small extension at the Smith Street end, its walls smooth rendered.

The building has a small paved forecourt to Smith Street and is set slightly back from Fairhill Road. Both street boundaries feature metal railings and gates with cast-iron moulded gate piers. Elsewhere, low random walls form boundaries, with one at Smith Street terminating in a round pier with flat top.