Market houses (sometimes earlier called
tholsel
Tholsel was a name traditionally used for a local municipal and administrative building used to collect tolls and taxes and to administer trade and other documents in Irish towns and cities. It was at one stage one of the most important secular bu ...
s) are a notable feature of many Irish towns with varying styles of architecture, size and ornamentation. They are usually located at the centre of the town at which at one stage a market was held. Originally there were one, three, four or even five or more bays on the ground floor which formed a covered
arcade
Arcade most often refers to:
* Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine
** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware
** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board
* Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games
* ...
to protect traders from the elements and allow access for carts, animals and produce. An upper floor was often used as a court house or ballroom while the cellar or basement was often used as a local gaol. Ornamentation consisted of a
cupola
In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome.
The word derives, via Italian, fro ...
, a clock or sometimes a dome or tower. Today most of the market houses in Ireland have been put to use as cultural venues, business premises, town halls or have been left derelict pending development. Many are listed as protected structures while very few have been demolished in recent times due to a newfound architectural, historical and social appreciation.
Table of market house locations
See also
*
Architecture of Ireland
*
Irish Architectural Archive
The Irish Architectural Archive was established in 1976 by Dr Edward McParland and Nicholas Robinson as the National Trust Archive. Its objective is to collect and preserve material of every kind relating to the architecture of Ireland, and ma ...
*
List of towns and villages in Ireland
*
Market houses in Northern Ireland
*
Tholsel
Tholsel was a name traditionally used for a local municipal and administrative building used to collect tolls and taxes and to administer trade and other documents in Irish towns and cities. It was at one stage one of the most important secular bu ...
*
Market hall
*
Weigh house
A weighhouse or weighing house is a public building at or within which goods are weighed. Most of these buildings were built before 1800, prior to the establishment of international standards for weights, and were often a large and representative ...
References
Further reading
* McParland, Edward (2001) ''Public Architecture in Ireland 1680–1760'' Yale University Press
External links
National Inventory of Architectural HeritageBuildings of IrelandPostcards IrelandDúchasThe Historical Picture ArchivePatrick Comerford Irish history websiteLibrary Ireland - A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1838)by
Samuel Lewis
{{DEFAULTSORT:Market Houses In The Republic Of Ireland
Retail buildings in the Republic of Ireland
Architecture in the Republic of Ireland
Lists of buildings and structures in the Republic of Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...