The former market house in Carrrickfergus, which served as the local council offices until 1935
The site selected for the town hall had previously been occupied by a Franciscan friary, which was established in 1248 but disestablished during the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1540s.[2] The site was then occupied by a manor house known as Joymount, which was commissioned by the then Lord Deputy of Ireland, Lord Chichester, in 1618.[2] In the 1760s, the Grand Jury of County Antrim, who were based at Castle Worraigh, an ageing stone tower in the middle of the High Street,[3] decided to procure a new courthouse for the county and the old manor house was demolished in 1768 to make way for the new building.[1]
The new building was designed by Richard Drew in the Georgian style, built in brick with white stucco and was completed in 1779.[1][4] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with seven bays facing onto the street; the central section of three bays, which slightly projected forward, featured a doorway flanked by Doric order columns supporting an entablature and a pediment with the date of completion in the tympanum.[1] The other bays contained aediculedsash windows and, at roof level, there was a modillionedcornice and, in the middle, a shaped gable containing a clock.[1]
The building served as the venue for some important judicial hearings including the trial of United Irishman, William Orr, for a breach of the Insurrection Act on 14 October 1797; despite extensive evidence of his innocence, he was found guilty and hanged.[5]
The courthouse was extended in 1819: the structure to the north which was accessed through an entrance known as the Hanging Gate was used as a prison.[4] Executions took place at the Hanging Gate: the last person to be hanged there was a soldier, Private John Cordery of the 66th Regiment of Foot, who, at a trial in the courthouse in 1844, was found guilty of murdering a sergeant, who had apparently been bullying him.[6][7] In the late 19th century the prison was converted for use as a militia barracks.[4]
The borough council, which had previously met in the market house in the Market Place, acquired the courthouse and converted it for use as its town hall in 1935:[8] the interior of the building was remodelled in an Art Deco style at that time.[1] The building continued to serve as the meeting place of the enlarged Carrickfergus Borough Council after it was formed in 1973.[9] During the flag protests in December 2012, angry loyalist protesters disrupted a meeting of the council and threatened councillors.[10] The building ceased to be the local seat of government following the formation of the enlarged Mid and East Antrim Borough Council at Ballymena in April 2015.[11] The exterior of the building was comprehensively redecorated to a scheme designed by Consarc Architects in 2020.[12]
^"...the Charter of the Corporation of the Borough of Carrickfergus shall have effect in relation to the District of Carrickfergus" "No. 2922". The Belfast Gazette. 7 September 1973. p. 578.
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