AFTER years of painstaking renovations and costs totalling more than €1m, Newbridge Town Hall is set to reopen this Friday, 13 May.
It was announced following a Kildare County Council strategic policy committee (SPC) this week that the building, which was originally built more than 150 years ago, is ready for use once again. It will house a photographic exhibition celebrating 1916. Problems with a leaking roof over the winter months have been repaired and the building will now reopened to the public when the exhibition, 1916 Sackville Street, is launched by mayor Brendan Weld at 7pm on Friday.
The cost of refurbishing Newbridge Town Hall is being funded from a combination of Newbridge Town Council resources (€736,342) and Kildare County Council resources (€183,355). One of the last acts by the former town council was the signing of a contract by then mayor Mick Deely to start the first phase of the renovations.
The refurbishment has involved a lot of specialist work, including the repointing all four elevations of the building, to protect the structure and its new interior.
“The building has been closed since the early 2000s, when it became so unsafe that it could no longer be insured,” said mayor Paddy Kennedy. “This is great news and I am looking forward to seeing how the many diverse community groups will make use of it. Already there have been representations by the Newbridge Concert Band and queries made about holding a showband dance.”
The first stone of the town hall (which is formerly a barracks chapel) was laid in 1859 by Lieut General Sir James Chatterton. The building has had many uses through the years, such as a dance hall, a FÁS training centre, a bingo hall, a storage unit and it was also headquarters to the town commission and the community council.
The internal refurbishment work included timber and stone flooring, the renovation of windows, cleaning and decoration of walls and ceilings, provision of toilet facilities, and associated mechanical and electrical works.
“While progress is slow, we are getting there slowly,” said local councillor Mark Lynch. “We have a great management group in place and now we need people who will help in the day to day running or use of the town hall.”
