Former Town Hall, Church Street, Warrenpoint, Newry, Co Down, BT34 2AU

Former Town Hall, Church Street, Warrenpoint

A mid-19th-century two-storey building of three bays, originally constructed as a Savings Bank around the 1840s. The building is set back from Church Street, unlike neighbouring properties, and stands detached with a public hall abutting its rear.

The main front elevation faces north and is rendered in painted cement with band rustication. The central bay projects slightly forward and is topped by a low stepped parapet with a plain cornice at eaves level and a recessed panel bearing the painted inscription "TOWN HALL". Stepped stucco quoins mark each corner of the middle bay and each corner of the front elevation. Both end bays feature half-round rainwater goods on plain advanced eaves. The pitched roof is covered in natural slate without chimneys, these having been removed before the building's original listing.

The central bay contains the main entrance: a modern timber door with transom set within a finely dressed granite doorcase with plain pilasters supporting an entablature with an ashlar blocking course. The door jambs have matching pilasters rising to the transom bottom rail, making the transom slightly wider than the door. Ground-floor windows to the flanking bays are single openings with run-moulded stucco architraves and unpainted dressed granite cills, each containing a reproduction 6/6 sliding sash window with horns and thick glazing bars. The first floor has three similar window openings, one to each bay, aligned with those below.

The left gable is of unpainted cement render with banded rustication. A modern 4×3-paned window occupies the ground-floor opening (with concrete cill), while the first-floor window is narrow and infilled (granite cill). The side wall extending left from the gable features 6/6 sliding sash windows to both ground and first floors, both with granite cills.

Two-storey returns extend from the rear of the main block, with natural slate roofs hipped on exposed gables and smooth rendered walls. The exposed gables are now abutted by a link block connecting to the public hall. The right gable of the main block is finished similarly to the left gable but is blank. At ground floor of the right return, to the left of the extended section, is a reproduction six-panel timber door; to its right is a pair of 6/3 sliding sash windows in a common opening with a shared cill. The first floor contains two 3/3 sash windows; the right is in a new opening and both have concrete cills.

The front area is enclosed by thin modern railings with ball finials resting on a rendered and coped dwarf wall. A pair of gates at centre provides access with steps up to the front entrance, while a further gateway to the right accesses a disabled ramp.

Historical Development

The building first appears on the 1861 Ordnance Survey map as a Savings Bank, founded in the early 1840s. The 1863 Valuation book records that the premises also accommodated a dispensary and court house, with bank trustees receiving rentals of £8 and £10 respectively for these uses while paying £20 per annum themselves. A late-19th-century Lawrence photograph shows chimneys on each gable and a louvred ventilator set in the middle of the front roof ridge, with pairs of round-headed louvres on each side and a swept leaded pagoda roof.

In 1884, Warrenpoint Town Commissioners purchased the premises. A public hall was subsequently erected behind the building to designs by W.J. Watson, the bank apparently continuing to function. The building's present appearance likely dates to the early 20th century.

Condition and Status

The building now retains little of its original interior fabric. Replacement windows lack fine detailing, and the loss of historic fabric led to its removal from the listing register on 26 March 2004.