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The Whitworth Hall is situated in
Laurence Street, Drogheda, in County Louth, Ireland. It was built in 1865 by the
local MP at the time, Benjamin Whitworth and was designed by
the Belfast architect William Barre. It is built of rubble limestone,
with a red brick facade in a Lombardo Romanesque style. The
deep window and door arches at the
front are striking and the building is a good contribution to the
Laurence Street streetscape. It cost in the region of 4,000 pounds to build,
and when complete was
donated to the people of Drogheda as a gift by Benjamin
Whitworth.
Whitworth intended that the hall would be used
as a community centre, and that this would be
beneficial to the town and its people. He called it "the people's hall", and it was managed
by a board of trustees, but the hall fell into a
state of disrepair and went into private ownership in the
early 1970's.
Down
the years the Whitworth has indeed been used by the townspeople and
has hosted a wide range of activities. It has been used as a
cinema, a theatre, a music hall and a dance hall. Other events to
have taken place there include whist drives, roller skating, charity
auctions, boxing and wrestling tournaments.
The
Whitworth,
nowadays in private ownership, is still in use today as a leisure/snooker
complex. It is debatable if this is strictly in line
with Whitworths vision of a peoples hall, for the benefit of all the
community. Certainly the exterior
is very much similar to its appearance in 1865, but internally it
is unrecognisable. All the trimmings of the Whitworths past have disappeared
and have now been replaced with 3 floors of gaming machines and
snooker tables.
Many generations have
great memories of the Whitworth... the events and the personalities of previous
times. Some of those memories and people are recounted in
this website. Will the townspeople in 50 years time recount similar memories
from the Whitworth of today?
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