Newry Town Hall gets £255,000 makeover | Latest Newry News, Newry Sport and Newry Business for Newry City

Newry Town Hall gets £255,000 makeover

Newry’s historic Town Hall has undergone a £255,000 renovation.

Photo caption: Johnny Murtagh (Derrylackagh Contracts Ltd); Gavin McVeigh (Project Manager, Newry, Mourne and Down District Council); Mr Charlie Smith (Newry Panto Players); Neill Moore, Specialist Conservation Architect, Kriterion, Conservation Architects); and Cllr Mickey Ruane (Council Chairperson) visted the newly refurbished Town Hall on Thursday 21 January 2016.

Johnny Murtagh (Derrylackagh Contracts Ltd); Gavin McVeigh (Project Manager, Newry, Mourne and Down District Council); Charlie Smith (Newry Panto Players); Neill Moore, Specialist Conservation Architect, Kriterion, Conservation Architects); and Cllr Mickey Ruane (Council Chairperson) visted the newly refurbished Town Hall

The recently completed works involved external conservation repairs to the building to address weathering and deterioration problems that had led to water penetration above the auditorium and stage areas.

Newry’s Town Hall was designed by William Batt and was built on a three-arched bridge over the Clanrye River in 1893 by the old Newry Town Commissioners. The building occupies a prominent location in the city and is unique in straddling a county boundary on a bridge.

The original building has been extended and refurbished over various times until the present day. A three storey flat roofed extension was built in 1913 to replace the previous Fire Station to the rear of the original building. In 2006 a contract was undertaken to recover the roof with Welsh slate with a stepped lead lined perimeter gutter.

Recent works included dismantling brickwork parapets, chimneys and features, installing lead and other weatherproofing trays and flashings and rebuilding parapets and chimneys to prevent water ingress through existing walls.

Newry Town Hall Project 2In addition, there was also refurbishment and recovering of the asphalt flat roof area, refurbishing and replacing rainwater goods.

The makeover involved repairing, refurbishing, servicing and redecorating timber framed windows and external doors as well as conservation of imperial dimension brickwork external walling, including isolated areas and individual brick replacements, re-pointing brickwork and granite dressing stones around openings, corners and features; and replacing and upgrading the external lighting.

Newry, Mourne and Down District Council Chairperson, Councillor Mickey Ruane visited the Town Hall recently and said, “Newry Town Hall is an iconic building for Newry City with its unique setting over the Clanrye River.

Newry Town Hall Project 22“The Council recognises the important heritage of this building which is acknowledged in its Grade B1 Listed Status and the value it provides as a place of entertainment whilst also providing a civic service.”

The total cost of the Phase 1 is approximately £255,000. £94,000 was set aside for electrical works, of which approximately £85,000 has been spent on external lighting.

Recent refurbishment works are planned to be carried out over 2 Phases. With Phase 1 complete Phase 2 is programmed to be carried out during 2016/17 and will look at internal works.

Cllr Ruane added, “The Council is pleased to see the successful completion of Phase 1 works which we expect has given the external fabric the much needed care that this century old building needed. We look now to consider the future work to be undertaken with this building as we begin to consider the setting of our rates for next year.

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Posted by on Jan 22 2016. Filed under Community, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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