The Markets

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Arched entrance with flanking pavilions and walls enclosing a square-shaped open former market yard in Coleraine town centre; constructed 1829 to designs by Alexander Mitchell and extended in 1877.

Pitched natural slate roof over arch and hipped over pavilions, with blue/black angled tiles to hips. Lead-lined parapet gutters with hopper and cast-iron downpipes. Walls are coursed basalt with sandstone coping, some with red-brick string-course to inner face; coursed sandstone to principal entrance at southwest with quoins to upper section. Round-headed multi-paned timber windows with projecting sandstone sills to pavilions; metal lattice window frames (glazing lost) with red brick voussoirs to warehouse incorporated into northeast wall.

Principal entrance to southwest comprises a pedimented semi-circular arched opening with keyblock flanked by hipped lean-to roof pavilion-style chambers. Chambers each have a corniced parapet and window set into a recessed niche (to northeast elevation also). Pediment has armorial stone carved in relief to tympanum; arch contains the original curfew bell, comprising bronze bell on timber struts with metal lever (rope lost), and tall iron gates with arrow heads.

The northwest boundary wall is concealed from view; to southwest face is a twentieth-century slated timber lean-to abutment and segmental arched opening to adjoining market space.

The northeast boundary wall is pierced with two sandstone elliptical arched openings each containing metal gates (as described at southwest). East side incorporates warehouse is gabled with seven metal lattice window openings at three heights; evidence of two further openings at right. Inscribed sandstone plaque reads “ERECTED / by the / WORSHIPFUL THE CORPORATION OF / COLERAINE / MSCCCXXIX / And opened as a public market space on the first day of January, / MDCCCXXX. / Hugh Lyle, Esq. Mayor / H. B. BERRESFORD, ESQ. CHAMBERLAIN. / MR ALEXR MITCHELL, ARCHT & BUILDER.’ Extended to west by a sand-lime brick wall.

The southeast elevation is concealed from view; inner face has a blind segmental arched opening.

Setting:

Situated in Coleraine town centre, and accessed via Lime Market Street to southwest and New Market Street to Northeast. The quality of the
setting, particularly the approach from Lime Market Street at southeast has been unfortunately degraded. Tarmacadam has replaced the original cobbles and the buildings lining the street have been significantly altered (see HB03/17/019A & B).

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Basalt and sandstone
Windows: Timber and metal frames
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

Coleraine Markets, a square enclosed market area located to the south of Coleraine’s town centre on Lime Market Street, was constructed in 1829. The following inscription, located on the north-east wall of the market, records that the markets were first opened on the 1st January 1830: ERECTED / by the / WORSHIPFUL THE CORPORATION OF / COLERAINE / MSCCCXXIX / And opened as a public market space on the first day of January, / MDCCCXXX. / Hugh Lyle, Esq. Mayor / H. B. BERRESFORD, ESQ. CHAMBERLAIN. / MR ALEXR MITCHELL, ARCHT & BUILDER.’ As the inscription records, Coleraine Market was designed by Alexander Mitchell, a local engineer who was contracted by Dr. John Boyd M.P. for Coleraine (of Dundooan House (HB03/07/017) and also constructed a hotel for Boyd in Portrush in 1935 (Dictionary of Irish Architects).

When originally completed, the markets also incorporated the pedimented arch gateway that provides the main entrance through Lime Market Street. The first edition of the Ordnance Survey map (1830) depicted the newly completed markets along the current rectangular-shaped layout; in that year the gatehouse, as well as stores and sheds to the north-west and south-east walls (now demolished), had been constructed. The contemporary Townland Valuations (c. 1830) valued the markets £18 14s. 11d., individually rating the gate house at £4 3s. 2d. , the north-western stores and sheds at £6 17s. 6d. and the south-eastern ‘flax store and butter house’ at £1 12s. 8d. The Ordnance Survey memoirs (1835) records that the markets were erected on land that was leased by Dr. John Boyd and measured 200ft by 157ft; upon completion a number of sheds and a weighbridge were installed to facilitate trade. Only one of a number of markets in Coleraine, the market off Lime Market Street was utilised as the town’s butter, potato, corn and flax market, each commodity was sold from the area on specific days each week (Ordnance Survey Memoirs, pp 59-61).

There had been little alteration to the market by the second edition of the Ordnance Survey map in 1849-50 which depicted the building along the same layout as 1830, with the sole exception that the market was now captioned as ‘New Market.’ Griffith’s Valuation greatly increased the value of the markets to £300 in 1858 (this huge increase from c. 1830 was due to the value of the trade duties and does not necessarily signify an alteration to the structure of the markets; the valuer noted that the markets were administered by the Town Commissioners of Coleraine. There was no change to the layout of the markets until 1877 when an extension was added to the north-west wall of the market; the third edition of the Ordnance Survey map (1904) shows that this extension included the construction of the two-storey building that currently extends inward from the north-western. The work also created a second enclosed area outside of the original market walls and facing onto New Market Street (it is not known what this square area was utilsied for; however it may have been an enclosure for holding animals and livestock as it was provided wide access from the street). The architect responsible for the extension of the markets is unknown, but Robert Maxwell, a local builder, was contracted to complete the design (Irish Builder, p. 133). Despite the extension of the markets, the value of the property was reduced to £255 in 1883 when the Town Commissioners took possession of the site from John Glenn, the previous owner.

Over the following decades there was little alteration to the markets, although the value of the site decreased gradually between 1883 and the cancellation of the Annual Revisions in 1931; over the following five decades the rating of the structure dropped from £255 to £170, however under the First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland its value declined further, standing at £100 in 1935. There was no further valuation of the site carried out for the following two decades due to the disruption caused by the Second World War, however by the second revaluation (1956-72) the market had been increased in value to £540. The contemporary Ordnance Survey map of 1967 records that the modern stand-alone shed (situated to the centre of the market) was erected in the mid-20th century at some point between the fifth edition map (1949) and 1967.

The construction of the New Markets in 1829 formed part of the development of Coleraine outside of the original ramparts of the Plantation town. Prior to the erection of the new market, grain, meal , potatoes and pork were traded at the Diamond in the centre of the town, however, at the urging of John Boyd M.P., the construction of the new markets allowed some of this trade to be carried out away from the municipal centre of the town. Coleraine’s town corporation erected the new market at a cost of £2,783 of which £1,500 was provided by Robert Conn of Limavady. Lime Market Street to the south entrance of the New Markets, was not named after the 1829 enclosure (which did not trade in lime), but was named after the Lime Market located off the Beresford Road (Mullin, pp 31; 81-82).

The southern entrance to the markets is through a tall pedimented archway which is flanked by single rooms; the design of this gatehouse is remarkably similar to the gate lodge at Beardiville House (HB03/05/014B) which is thought to have been designed by English Architect Richard Elsam in c. 1810; the earlier gate lodge may have been an inspiration for the gate house of the New Markets constructed approximately two decades later (Girvan, p. 19). The original town curfew bell currently hangs from the arch of the gate house (Brett, p.84).

The Markets were listed in 1977; Rowan, writing in 1979, described the Markets as a ‘large open area bounded by a coursed basalt wall with two segmental sandstone arches on the North and a vernacular pedimented archway flanked by single-bay pavilions on the South’ (Rowan, p. 208). Since the current edition of the Ordnance Survey map (1967) the majority of the sheds and stores, that lined the south-west, south-east and north-east walls of the markets, have been demolished; the buildings within the enclosure that have survived are the southern gate house, the two-storey extension of 1877, a number of single-storey slated lean-to sheds to the north-west wall, and the stand-alone corrugated iron shed which was erected in the mid-20th century. Despite the demolition of the majority of the retail shed and stores, the Coleraine Markets have been well maintained and retains all of its original walls and entrances.

References
Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/5/7/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey map 1830
2. PRONI OS/6/5/7/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey map 1849-50
3. PRONI OS/6/5/7/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey map 1904
4. PRONI OS/6/5/7/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey map 1923
5. PRONI OS/6/5/7/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey map 1949
6. PRONI VAL/1/B/542B – Townland Valuation c. 1830
7. PRONI VAL/1/D/5/8A – Townland Valuation map c. 1830
8. PRONI VAL/2/B/5/3A-E – Griffith’s Valuation 1858
9. PRONI VAL/12/E/156/3/4 – Annual Revisions Town Plan 1919
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/9A-P – Annual Revisions 1859-1931
11. PRONI VAL/3/B/6/3 – First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland 1935
12. PRONI VAL/4/B/5/2 – Second General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland 1956-1972
13. Ordnance Survey Memoirs, County Londonderry XII, Vol. 33 (c, 1837)
14. Irish builder, Vol. 19 (1 May 1877)
15. Ulster Street Directories (1852-1918)
16. First Survey Record – HB03/17/008 (1973)
17. First Survey Image – HB03/17/008 (1973)
18. Ordnance Survey map – 13-13NW3 (1967)

Secondary Sources
1. Brett, C. E. B., ‘Court houses and market houses of the province of Ulster’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1973.
2. Girvan, W. D., ‘Historic Buildings in Coleraine and Portstewart’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1972.
3. Rowan, A., ‘The buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster’ Yale: Yale University Press, 1979.
4. Mullin, T. H. ‘Coleraine in modern times’ Belfast: Century Services, 1979.

Online Resources
1. Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance

Evaluation

Arched entrance with flanking pavilions and walls enclosing a square-shaped open former market yard in Coleraine town centre; constructed 1829 to designs by Alexander Mitchell and extended in 1877. Sensitively restored in recent years, the walls and entrance gates are in good condition. The markets represent the first key development of Coleraine town centre during the first part of the nineteenth-century and are of significant historic interest in the context of the development of the town.

General comments

Listing Criteria R - Age; S - Authenticity and T - Historic Importance also apply.