Now gone, the Old Town Hall in Strabane stood at the junction of Main Street and Market Street. The main body of the building was built in 1766 replacing an earlier building, however, the elaborate tower was added in a renovation of 1904. A key part of the town plan, the building was blown up in 1972 and subsequently demolished. A great loss
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Grays Print shop on Main Street Strabane is thought to date from around 1780. It has a rare shop front of the period and tradition has it that the printer of American Declaration of Independence John Dunlap served his apprenticeship here. 308.www.Marksoftime.com
The Danske Bank at the junction of Castle Place with Main Street, is a forbidding 1970’s essay in textured pre cast concrete. Designed for the Northern Bank by Ferguson McIlveen in the late 1970’s, it is similar to many across Northern Ireland. In this location, with sunlight coming through from the riverside behind, the building it has a certain grandeur that marks it out, however, as an important building in this part of town. Further into the centre of the town, the former Northern Bank of 1922 at the junction of Castle Street and Castle Place is a very elegant building. Mixing red brick with bands of white Portland Stone, it provides a fitting termination to the junction of two streets. It is now used as a mobile phone shop.
The Abercorn Factory near the centre of town is the main industrial building to survive in Strabane. Built as a shirt factory in 1865, it is located across the road from warehouses built to serve the canal basin. Strabane Presbyterian church, further into town, is an elegant brick building dating from 1955. With sophisticated and subtle detail it is among the best architecture of the period in Co Tyrone. Worth a visit. Strabane Workhouse is on the edge of the town and now used as council offices. A 1980’s refurbishment has lost most of the fine detail of the original building but the former entrance block in the middle and side wings can still be discerned. The building was one of a large number built throughout Ireland in the 1840’s to a standard layout. This building is unusual in that there are two stone buildings parallel to the entrance block. In most cases the block sits on its own in front of the rest of the complex. These buildings are later additions to house children’s accommodation and school rooms. The workhouse closed in the 1920’s and main block to the rear was demolished in the mid 1960’s |
Marks of Time
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