Omagh District Council

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

The town hall has been demolished and was replaced in 2008 with the Omagh District Council Public Services Centre.

The First Survey card records:

3/sty building. Roof slated. Chimneys yellow brick. Walls rendered, lined & painted. Mld. eaves cornice. Quoins Gr/FL. 4 - 2nd/FL - 4 F/FL D/H windows. Georgian panes & mld. architraves. Gr/FL has 3 D/H windows and off-centre doorway all with elliptic arch heads & bevelled keystone. Upper sashes have horizontal astragals. Door panelled with plain fanlight. Bldg. protected from footpath with low wall& c/I railing. Frontage about 45ft.
18/5/70

The front destroyed by bombs - inside remains the assembly room. To seat about 500 with gently (sic) coved panelled ceiling + 3 lantern lights. The two side walls behind the stage is (sic) modelled in the form of a blind arcade (ionic). The gallery has a beautifully curved front with curved iron balusters. Rather spoilt by a modern proscenium.
(no date)

Historical information

The OS map editions of 1833, 1854 and 1905-6 show a previous building on the site. The Valuation Revisions Town Plan (1882-1909) shows a building captioned ‘Ulster Bank’, which is slightly different in plan .

The previous building is recorded as a ‘House, office and yard’, The occupier is the ‘Ulster Banking Company’ and the building is valued at £60. This entry is deleted in 1910, and revised in 1916 to a new property; a ‘recreation hall and rooms’, leased from the ‘Ulster Banking Company’ whilst the occupier is the Urban District Council of Omagh.

An article on the Town Hall notes that the ‘first elected Urban district council acquired the Town Hall from the Ulster Bank which had just built its fine new building on the adjacent site in 1909’, [and]…the auditorium and council chambers were designed by Derry architect, John M Robinson. The work was carried out by Belfast contractor Isaac Copeland; starting in 1913 under the direction of John Thompson, Clerk of Works.

It was used to house pupils of what was to become the technical college from the early 1920’s. The dome of the hall ‘was designed and built by a specialist firm from Huddersfield, Messrs Heywood & Co, …[and] the balcony was constructed with a curved front and had an ornamental iron railing which was supplied by Messrs Walter Mc Farlane & Co, Glasgow’. An opening concert was held in September 1915, the town hall was the ‘centre of entertainment in Omagh for 82 years…(Haldane, pg 54).

Following a bomb in December 1974 much of the front of the building was demolished and landscaped. A portion of the building that remained (the Assembly room) was statutorily listed on the 8th January 1981. The building closed in May 1997 and, with the approval of NIEA, a modern state of the art centre was constructed in 2008 for Omagh district Council Public Services Centre on the same site.

It is also reputed that King James rested in a former house on the same site for one night on his flight from Derry.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/6/35/1-First Edition OS Map (1833)
2. PRONI OS/6/6/35/2-Second Edition OS Map (1854)
3. PRONI OS/6/6/35/3-Third Edition OS Map (1905-6)
4. PRONI VAL/2/D/6/17 –Town Plan of Omagh (1849-1869)
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/6/36 –Valuation Revisions (1860-1929)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/41/37-Valuation Revisions (1903-1929)
7. PRONI VAL/12/E/186/1/5 –Town Plan of Omagh (1882-1909)
8. PRONI VAL/12/F/7/7/1-Valuation Revisions (1930-35)

Secondary Sources

1. Mitchell, Haldane, Ed. Images of Omagh and District. Vol. 7. Omagh: Rotary Club of Omagh, 1999.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

The town hall has been demolished and was replaced in 2008 with the Omagh District Council Public Services Centre.

General comments

The town hall has been demolished and was replaced in 2008 with the Omagh District Council Public Services Centre.