Assembly Rooms, Belfast
54°36′03.2″N 5°55′41.1″W / 54.600889°N 5.928083°W
The Assembly Rooms is a
Exchange and Assembly Rooms
The structure was built in 1769 by
In 1786 a meeting at the Assembly Rooms rejected a plan to establish an Ulster-based slave trading company. In July 1792 the building hosted the Belfast Harp Festival. After the Irish Rebellion of 1798 rebel leader Henry Joy McCracken and others were court-martialled and sentenced to death in the Assembly Rooms.[2] The building is located on the "four corners" from which road distances to Belfast were once measured.[1]
Bank branch
In 1845 the Assembly Rooms were extended and converted by Charles Lanyon for use as a bank branch by the Belfast Banking Company, this included rendering the exterior in stucco.[2] The structure was extended in 1875 by William Henry Lynn and further alterations made by Lynn in 1895 removed much of the original classical-style features. Local architects Tulloch & Fitzsimons extended the building again in 1919 and G. P. & R. H. Bell carried out a further extension in 1956-59.[1]
In 1969 the Assembly Rooms was named the "Best Kept Large Building in the city of Belfast". The structure was granted statutory protection as a
Dereliction
The Assembly Rooms have been on the Northern Ireland Buildings at Risk register since 2003.[2] Since the bank left the site it has been used only occasionally, for cultural events such as music concerts and art shows. Since 2016 the building has been owned by London-based company Castlebrooke Investments as part of their land holding for the Tribeca Belfast regeneration scheme in the recently branded Cathedral Quarter.[2][1] The company proposes to demolish the 1875 extension and replace it with a 5-storey modern structure as part of a conversion of the building into a 50-bedroom hotel.[3][1] Whilst the structure has lain largely disused it has been subject to vandalism.[2] A harp meeting was held at the site in July 2022 to draw attention to its derelict state.[4]
The structure is sometimes considered to be the oldest public building in Belfast, though P. Larmour in his 1987 Belfast, An Illustrated Architectural Guide thought that too little was left of the original structure to qualify.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Assembly Rooms". Ulster Architectural Heritage. Retrieved 24 August 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Nooks and Corners". Private Eye. No. 1579. 12 August 2022. p. 22.
- ^ Mulgrew, John (5 September 2019). "Belfast's listed Assembly Rooms could become hotel in £500m revamp". Belfast Telegraph. Retrieved 24 August 2022.
- ^ "Council to hear calls to preserve Belfast's historic Assembly Rooms". The Irish News. 16 July 2022. Retrieved 24 August 2022.