| Bray Town Hall | |
|---|---|
Halla Baile Bhré | |
 Bray Town Hall | |
  Bray Town Hall Location within Ireland | |
| General information | |
| Architectural style | Tudor Revival style |
| Location | Main Street,Bray,Ireland |
| Coordinates | 53°12′02″N6°06′40″W / 53.2006°N 6.1112°W /53.2006; -6.1112 |
| Completed | 1884 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architects | Thomas Newenham Deane andGuy Dawber |
Bray Town Hall (Irish:Halla Baile Bhré) is a municipal building in Main Street,Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland. The building which used to be the offices and meeting place of Bray Urban District Council now accommodates aMcDonald's fast-food restaurant.
The first municipal building in the town was a market house in the north part of Bray.[1] In the late 1870s,Lord Brabazon, and his wife,Mary, Lady Brabazon, who lived near-by atKillruddery House, decided to commission a more substantial building for the town. The site they selected was at the corner of Killarney Road and Vevay Road.[2] A fountain, with a sculpture of a rampantwyvern holding a shield depicting thecoat of arms of the Brabazon family, was unveiled at the front of the site in 1881.[3] The new building was designed byThomas Newenham Deane andGuy Dawber in theTudor Revival style, built by Wardrop & Son in red brick with mocktimber framing at a cost of £6,359 and was completed in time for a meeting of thetown commissioners on 19 May 1884.[4]
The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of three bays facing onto Main Street. On the ground floor, the central bay featured a segmental shaped opening with iron gates, while the outer bays contained pairs oflancet windows with iron grills. The first floor was fenestrated by three prominent half-timberedoriel windows, surmounted by gables containing heraldic carvings inbas-relief. At roof level, there was a two-stageoctagonalfleche with clock faces in the first stage andlouvres in the second stage. The long side elevations were arcaded and open on the ground floor, so that markets could be held, with a series of half-timbered gables containingcasement windows installed on the first floor. Internally, the principal room was the council chamber on the first floor: it featured an elaborate timber roof, two finely carvedchimney pieces and a series of colourfulstained glass windows.[5]
In 1899, the town commissioners were replaced by anurban district council, with the town hall becoming the offices of the new council.[6] The Irish Catholicfraternal organisation, theAncient Order of Hibernians, used the town hall from 1911 and the local branch of theparamilitary group, theIrish Citizen Army, formed in 1913, also met there.[7] The ground floor of the building continued to be used for weekly markets until the 1940s.[8] The Bray Heritage Centre, established in the town hall in 1985, was based there until the centre relocated to the old courthouse in 1993.[9][10]
An extensive programme of refurbishment works was undertaken by Noonan Construction in the early-1990s. Following the refurbishment, Bray Urban District Council continued to occupy the council chamber on the first floor, whileMcDonald's operated a fast-food restaurant on the ground floor from 1997.[11] The first floor continued to be occupied by the council until 2002, when its successor body, Bray Town Council, was formed at the newly-opened Civic Offices in Main Street.[12][13] In 2014, the council was dissolved and administration of the town was amalgamated withWicklow County Council in accordance with theLocal Government Reform Act 2014.[14][15]