Former market house

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Relatively plain, two storey gabled market house of 1829, typical of its type and era but with ground floor archways now blocked. The building is set on the E side of The Square, at the junction of John Street.

The front façade faces roughly W and is generally symmetrical. To the ground floor are three large semicircular arched recessed which were undoubtedly originally open. The recess to the right has a timber sheeted doorway with adjoining window to its left (now boarded). The central recess has a narrower window (also boarded), and the left hand recess has a broad window as recess to right. To the right of the right recess there is another narrow window (also boarded). To the right of this window there used to be a doorway.

To the first floor are six sash windows (with vertical astragals) arranged almost symmetrically. Between the 3rd and 4th window is a clock face. The front façade is finished in painted rough cast with simple surrounds to openings.

The N gable is abutted by a single storey house. The exposed upper portion of the gable is in random rubble. The S gable has a window to the left on the first floor. This gable is finished in painted rough cast.

Covering almost the whole of the rear is a single storey lean-to, whose roofline merges with that of the main roof. To the centre of the lean-to is a taller gabled section. To the left of the E façade of the lean-to is a small window, with a similar window to far right. To the central gabled section there is a timber sheeted doorway (set at a high level- the ground level is slightly higher to this side of the building) with boarded up fanlight. The lean-to is finished in unpainted rough cast. The left (S) half of the lean-to has a corrugated asbestos roof, the right half a corrugated iron roof, and the central portion a (natural) slate roof. The roof of the main building is covered in natural slate also, with a rendered chimney stack to each gable.

Historical information

This market house was erected in 1829, by Mr William Thompson of Downpatrick, who had acquired the townland of Crossgar a few years previously. It was constructed to serve the newly laid out market square and built at a of cost £30, and, according to the 1836 OS Memoirs, contained a weighing room to the ground floor with the upper level ‘partly for storing grain and partly for the carpenter’s shop’. The market itself was held on every Wednesday and a fair every month. The lean-to section to the rear of the building appears to be original.

The weekly market in Crossgar ceased to be held after c.1890 and in c.1900 the upper floor of the market house was converted to a school. It may have been at this stage that the arched recesses to the ground floor were blocked up. In the mid to later 20th century the building served as a (C of I) church hall, and in the 1980s, as an office.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS/6/3/30/1 OS map, 1834, Down 30
2 PRONI VAL/1B/330 1st valuation, Kilmore, 1835
3 ‘Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland vol.17: Parishes of County Down IV’, ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams
(QUB 1992), p.90
4 PRONI VAL/1D/3/1 Valuation town plan of Crossgar, c.1838
5 ‘Parliamentary gazetteer of Ireland’ (Dublin 1843-44)
6 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’ Vols.1-21, 1852-1900, (Belfast, Henderson [1852-65], Belfast News-Letter [1865- ])
7 PRONI VAL/2D/3/14 Valuation town plan of Crossgar, 1859
8 PRONI 2nd (‘Griffith’s) valuation, Kilmore, 1863
9 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1870)
10 George Henry Bassett ‘County Down Guide and Directory’ (Dublin 1886), pp.378-79
11 PRONI OS/6/3/30/3 OS map, 1901, Down 30
12 PRONI OS/6/3/30/4 OS map, 1920, Down 30

Secondary sources
1 C.E.B. Brett, 'Historic buildings, groups of buildings, areas of architectural importance in the towns and villages of East Down', (Belfast UAHS 1973), p.47
2 C.E.B. Brett, ‘Court houses and market houses of Ulster (Belfast UAHS 1973), p.64

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

Relatively plain, two storey gabled market house of 1829, typical of its type and era but with ground floor archways now blocked. To the rear there is a long single storey lean-to section which appears to be original. The building was latterly used as an office.