Band Stand in the Town Park, Warrenpoint, Newry, Co Down, BT34 3NZ

An attractive early twentieth-century bandstand retaining its original character and appearance, located in the town park where it serves as a focal point and relates well to the pavilion and public toilets also within the park.

The bandstand is octagonal in plan, constructed of cast iron, and positioned in the middle of the public park. It features a metal-sheeted chatri roof surmounted by an ornate lantern with a swept apex terminating in a highly decorative ball finial. Both the roof and lantern are decorated with cast-iron crestings, each with smaller ball finials at the corners. The lantern has fretted cast-iron cheeks. The verge to the main roof contains a gutter, with the downpipe returning down one of the columns. On the main roof, positioned over the access steps, is a cast-metal plaque reading "Warrenpoint Urban District Council / Erected / 1907" and depicting a sunburst and two rabbits to the centre. Each segment of the roof underside is horizontally sheeted in timber with a foliated centrepiece and a hatch into the roof at the north-west.

The roof is supported on eight slender painted cast-iron columns with Corinthian capitals. Each column bears the foundry's name "W. Macfarlane & Co / Glasgow" and features decorative applied dado work and lily-of-the-valley applied ornamentation to each shaft. Decorative metal brackets link the tops of the columns and support the eaves. Ornate cast railings enclose the bottom sections of the columns. A front gate on the south-east side, accessed by five concrete steps, matches the railings and is topped with ball-finished posts. The bases of the columns are fixed to dressed granite blocks set into a painted and rendered base, which also forms the floor of the bandstand. Two bronze plaques affixed to the gate commemorate Newry & Mourne District Council's success in the 'Ulster in Bloom' competition in 1985 and 1993. The floor is of painted concrete with a circular metal track, and a similar track on the ceiling from which glazed timber wind break screens hang during the summer months.

The creation of a town park was under consideration by Warrenpoint District Council as early as 1900 and was laid out to a design by Thomas Smith of Daisy Hill Nurseries. The bandstand, whose construction began in December 1906, was manufactured by W. Macfarlane of Glasgow and cost £222, with an additional £27 to erect the base. The park opened in 1907. The elaborate front gates to Seaview, designed by Bayliss, Jones and Bayliss of Wolverhampton, were removed for the war effort during the Second World War.