At-risk Belfast Assembly Rooms added to prestigious international list of treasured monuments: hopes moves could kickstart crumbling 18th century city centre building's transformation into Troubles museum
Belfast’s crumbling city centre Assembly Rooms are in stellar company after joining a prestigious international watch list of treasured monuments – which includes the Moon.
The 18th century Assembly Rooms on Waring Street are among the oldest surviving civic buildings in the capital city, but currently lie derelict and were officially declared at-risk more than 20 years ago.
Hopes are high that the facility’s debut on the World Monuments Fund (WMF) watchlist could kickstart moves to turn the building into a Troubles museum that would educate people about Northern Ireland’s move away from conflict, as well as being a tourist draw for international visitors keen to learn more about the truth of the province’s dark days.
The Assembly Rooms are one of 25 sites added to the WMF list yesterday, with other facilities singled out for recognition including Buddhist grottoes carved into a cliffside in China, an historic Turkish city almost destroyed by earthquakes, and the Moon.
As WMF director of projects John Darlington told the News Letter: “Belfast is in some stellar company – literally.”
The Assembly Rooms won universal support when the international body debated this year’s nominees, he added, stating: “This is an enormously significant site.
"We hope to catalyse action to preserve and restore it; we’ve seen international attention the watchlist generates can do that.”
Compiled every two years, the WMF watchlist spotlights cultural heritage sites of extraordinary significance in need of preservation.
Built in 1769, the Assembly Rooms played host to a major event in the revival of Irish traditional music, the 1792 Belfast Harp Festival, was the place an attempt to set up a slave trading company in the city was scuppered, and provided the scene of the execution of several leading United Irishmen after the failed Rebellion of 1798.
In 19th century, the building was massively reworked and expanded by architect Charles Lanyon, the visionary who shaped much of Victorian Belfast.
Listed for protection in the 1970s, it has been officially at-risk since 2003 and is currently in the hands of a developer who plans to demolish much of the surrounding area to make way for a long-delayed regeneration project.
Although arts bodies have occasionally staged events there, little has been done with the site this century, and it’s now in need of substantial repair and conservation work.
Irene Boada Montagut, founder of the Museum of the Troubles and Peace project, thinks the Assembly Rooms would make an ideal space for dialogue, learning, and fostering reconciliation – as well as a tourism draw.
“Belfast is an international city, and the Troubles were an international conflict; people all over the world know about them and are interested,” she told the News Letter.
“But for international visitors who want to learn more, their only options are some one-off exhibits, a few places that only reflect a single identity, and the black taxi tours.
“This could be a way to teach people, visitors and schools and researchers, about what really happened here, and give important lessons about how Northern Ireland moved on from conflict to peace and reconciliation.”