PROJECT
BANGOR COURTHOUSE
CONSERVATION PROJECT IS MUSIC TO THE EARS
LEO MATHESON LTD CARRIES OUT CONSERVATION LED RENOVATION WORKS TO TRANSFORM BANGOR COURTHOUSE INTO LIVE MUSIC VENUE…
O riginally built as a branch of the Belfast Banking Company in 1866, before its conversion to a court of petty sessions in the 1950s, Bangor Courthouse has been transformed by Leo Matheson Ltd into a seafront venue for music, arts and culture. Decommissioned as a law court in 2013, the building was donated to local arts charity Open House Festival in December 2020 via Northern Ireland’s first community asset transfer. The Quay Street building was slowly falling into disrepair until organisers of Open House Festival stepped in to transform it into a thriving arts and entertainment hub, which will soon be
home to the festival and offer events all year round. One of the few remaining Victorian structures on Bangor’s seafront the Court House was listed as a Grade B2 building on the Heritage At Risk register, requiring a conservation led approach by Leo Matheson Ltd to respect its historical context, detail and fabric. As the Castlewellan based firm has worked on a number of listed buildings, the Director, Leo Matheson wasn’t fazed at the task at hand. Leo commented, “I have built up a good rapport and working relationship with the sub-contractors we appointed and knew, under the supervision of my site
foreman Victor Hunter, the end result would be a project the client would be proud of. Working on listed buildings needs good collaboration between ourselves, the client and their design team and as we had successfully worked on a number of projects in the past with Knox and Markwell Architects, I knew we would meet the high expectations of the client.” Internally the ground floor was completely reconfigured to create flexible spaces. This required demolition to most of the internal structure and steel braces fitted to tie the internal walls together. While excavating the ground floor the original mosaic tiling
“Our team collaborated with the client and their design team to deliver first class service and end results.”
76 | NI BUILDER
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