Market House, Newtownards

[ ⚑ ]  54°35′37″N 5°41′45″W﻿ / ﻿54.593732°N 5.695969°W﻿ / 54.593732; -5.695969

Market House in Newtownards, County Down, Northern Ireland, is a historic building. It was built between 1767 and 1771[1] by Robert Stewart, 1st Marquess of Londonderry to be the center of the market town, in lieu of the Newtownards Priory.[2] It has served as a prison and as a town hall. It is currently the Ards Arts Centre and is also the home of the Ards Historical Society.

It was built of Scrabo stone.[3]

Standing at the north end of Conway Square in Newtownards town centre, the Market House was built in 1770s to a design of Ferdinando Stratford, a bridge and river engineer from Bristol in England. The ground floor was originally an open space where a market could be held and was entered from Conway Square through a central archway which was fitted with gates that could be opened and closed at night. The upper floor had an assembly room over the west wing with a drawing room in the east wing, now known as the Londonderry Room.

Originally the market was held inside the market house, but the tradition which remains today and is now held outside in Conway Square each Saturday.

The Market House was also used as a military base during the 1798 Rebellion against British rule, housing a regiment of the York Fencibles under the command of Colonel Stapleton. Prison cells which were on either side of the archway and can be seen today from inside the ground floor of the building. Many years later the Market House was used as the local Town Hall, but today it is used as an Arts Centre. The drawing room on the upper floor (now the Londonderry Room) is still used for meetings and exhibitions.

## References

1. ↑ Newtownards Historical Series #9 The Market House
2. ↑ Ulster Scots Heritage Trail: Market House
3. ↑ "The History of Newtownards". Culture Northern Ireland. http://www.culturenorthernireland.org/features/heritage/history-newtownards.

## External links

* Newtownards Historical Series #9 The Market House, a geocaching site

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