History of Portrush Town Hall

The Town Hall in 1998

 

Portrush Town Hall was designed by Lanyon, Lynn & Lanyon, and built by Thomas Stewart Dickson of Larne. It is an excellent example of high Victorian municipal architecture in a very prominent location - one of the best buildings in Portrush, and in many ways a symbol of the town. But local reporter Hugh McGrattan in the Coleraine Chronice in 1998 placed the building in the context the people of Portrush see it:

The staircase in 1998

"No one who has lived in Portrush within the past 30 years can fail to have had some contact with the old red brick Town Hall at the junction of Kerr Street and Mark Street. For at one time just about everything of any importance that happened in the town - accidents and natural disasters excepted - happened in there.

"It was where local councillors were elected (or rejected), where they debated and argued several times a month and made decisions that affected the entire community.

"It was where politicians and prospective politicians sought election, and also debated and argued, and talked about the decisions they would make if given the chance.

"It was where musical evenings were presented, plays performed, lectures given, exhibitions staged and even, in days long ago, grand balls enjoyed and fine dinners consumed.

The stage in 1998

"It was where justice was dispensed (on the first Wednesday of each month at 10.30am, as I recall) and was seen to be dispensed by a small but eager local audience; where talent contests for the talented were held; and where suitably qualified young ladies vied for beauty titles.

"Here rousing meetings of ratepayers bayed for the blood of their local representative. And bareheaded townspeople paid homage each November to relatives and comrades, fellow citizens and no one in particular, whose blood had been spilled in nobler causes."

 

How did it come to be built?

Plans exist in the PRONI for a more straightforward hall by Samuel Close (D/2977/37/1/2/4), but fortunately it was not proceeded with, and today the striking building with its curved end and turret roof dominates the seafront of Portrush.

It appears that the Earl of Antrim (who at that time owned much of the town) provided the land for the building to the Portrush Town Hall and Assembly Rooms Company, as that organisation entered into a 99 year lease with him in November 1871, paying an annual rent of £15 (PRONI D/2977/3A/3/2). Although they must have had some capital in the form of gifts and subscriptions, they had to raise more money and held a fund-raising Bazaar as soon as the building was finished. Even so, in March 1873 they still owed Mr Dickson £500 of his £1800 contract, and were obliged to enter into a mortgage agreement with him by which he took possession of the building provided that "the said premises should be used for public purposes only". As Mr Dickson was a builder rather than an entrepreneur this arrangement was probably not ideal for him, and in November 1874 the debt was paid to Dickson by a Dublin solicitor, Arthur Blessington Crookshank.

The Coleraine Chronicle of 1 June 1872 records a visit to Portrush to see "the finishing touches... being bestowed upon the internal fittings of this really handsome public building", which was then known as the New Assembly Rooms. It is described as being "built of hard red brick... relieved by dark parallel courses, with similar breaks round the arches and sides of the windows." Noting his "feelings of pleasure and satisfaction", the writer describes "the East front being supported by a circular, cone-capp'd turret enclosing a fine staircase leading from the basement to the gallery" and internal arrangements in which "beauty, utility, and perfect convenience being happily combined." The first floor Assembly-hall, entered by two doors off a wide corridor, was "really of noble proportions, and, with a gallery railed off on the right hand side, [and] is capable of affording comfortable accommodation to about 500 people." On the ground floor he found the circular Reading-room or "Round-room" and an adjoining room "to be devoted, we believe, to the uses of 'the Brethren of the mystic tie'", the first "commanding magnificent views of the bay, and waters and shores of Lough Foyle" and the second "looking out upon the railway station, and the coast-lines as far as Downhill." A passage led to the "carefully constructed water-closets". The large windows were "filled with immense sheets of plate glass, those in the South end of the building having been especially manufactured to suit the graceful curve in the walls". There was a distinct set of apartments for the care-taker; and the kitchen was "replete with every appliance to render the promoters of any entertainment of a festive nature which may be held in the Hall, independent of extern[al] help." The cost was expected to be "considerably over £2,000, the building contract alone being £1,800". [Coleraine Chronicle, 1 June 1872].

Building work completed on time, and the first public performance in the new halls was given by Mr Charles Du-Val, who displayed an "undivided sway" over the "attention and risible faculties" of his fashionable audience. [Coleraine Chronicle, 27 July 1872]

The building was formally inaugurated on Monday 12 August 1872, when "an amateur concert, on a grand scale, was given by a number of residents and other friends" before "a very large and really brilliant assemblage, including most of the elite of the neighbourhood". After a choir of thirty voices had sung the Marseillaise, two gentlemen sang duets by Bellini and others then Mr Welsford of Coleraine performed "a difficult fantasia arranged for the piano-forte" with "great executing power". Several ladies sang next, and the playing of a concert galop by a young lady was "a great treat". The concert concluded with several more choruses under the direction of Mr. Welsford, "who did his best to make the concert a success", and apparently succeeded [Coleraine Chronicle, 17 August 1872].

On the following Wednesday and Thursday the halls were thrown open again for the Bazaar held to raise funds towards the building, under the patronage of the Earl and Countess of Antrim. A military band was in attendance and "convenient trains" ran from "all Stations on the Northern Counties and Londonderry Railway". Contributions of "Money, or Fancy or Plain Work, Clothing for Poor Persons, &c." had been "thankfully received by the Ladies of Portrush, at the Assembly Rooms" [Coleraine Chronicle, 3 August 1872]. The urgency with which the "fair saleswomen... presented their wares to the attention of their bashful but easily persuaded customers" ensured busy trade, and it was presumed that the debts on the building "must have been very sensibly diminished", although sadly it would appear that they were not sufficiently diminished to avoid all debt [Coleraine Chronicle, 17 August 1872].

The hall continued to be used for concerts and other public gatherings. In August 1887 the pianist and violinist Herr Wilhelm Iff (from Glasgow, despite his name) gave a concert with three singers and another Herr Iff on viola and violin. Portrush Dancing Class held a Ball there in March 1898. (Coleraine Chronicle 26 September 1998).

The Town Hall was also an administrative centre, from whence edicts and public pronouncements were issued. In 1908 notices were sent out from the Town Hall hoping that "the display of bunting will be general" to mark a Viceregal visit to Portrush by the Lord Lieutenant; in 1910 posters required blinds to be drawn for the funeral of Edward VII. In 1911, water shortages meant the Council had to ask for baths not to be taken and stating that "Washing of Steps and Windows will be considered by the Council as Waste". In an early venture in waste recycling during the First World War, the council asked householders "not to burn or throw their Waste paper into the Ashbins, but to hand it to the Scavenger, who is provided with special bags for the purpose." During the last war ration books and gas masks were given out from the building.

In 1928 the hall was extended to provide the theatre which has made the building so well known in recent years. The plans in PRONI (LA.65/8JA/23) show how the extension was tacked on to the original building, using conventional cavity wall construction but managing to blend the new brickwork in neatly with the old. The staircase leading up to the first floor appears to have been considerably enlarged at that time, as a new gable was added to the inland elevation. At that time there was a resident caretaker, whose quarters in the basement included a kitchen, pantry and bedroom.

Originally the Portrush Urban District Council met in the main meeting room on the seafront elevation, and the 1928 extension provided the town clerk with offices in the ground floor under the theatre. In the early sixties the old Reading Room (by then the town Library) became the Council Chamber, but when the UDC was absorbed in Coleraine Borough Council in 1972 the building lost a major part of its historic function.

Following the provision of the proscenium arch and stage, amateur theatricals have provided the main bill of fare at the hall. The Ballywillan Parish Drama Group put on pantomimes, the Portrush Players more serious drama, and in 1962 the Portrush Music Society staged the musical Brigadoon. In 1997 the Summer Theatre moved to the St Patricks Hall in Causeway Street, and the building fell into disuse.

Coleraine Borough Council was advised to apply for listed building consent to demolish the Town Hall with a view to putting a larger "replica" on the site which could house a sports hall rather than a theatre. Not surprisingly, this met with considerable public opposition and a vigorous campaign was set in place to save the building. The application to demolish was turned down in 1999, and the Council appealed the decision. The planning appeal held in April 2000 and various third parties were present to make the case against demolition, including the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, the Historic Buildings Council, and Hearth representing the Association of Preservation Trusts, to suggest that a building preservation trust should be set up to restore the building if the Council was unwilling to do so.

When the Planning Appeals Commission confirmed the refusal of listed building consent to demolish, Coleraine Borough Council approached Hearth to discuss the way forward. They were reluctant to see a local trust set up in view of the local political sensitivity of the issue, and asked Hearth to undertake the restoration.

For the story of the restoration, click here.

 

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