Market House, Newtownards

Market House is a municipal building in Conway Square, Newtownards, County Down, Northern Ireland.

[1] The building was commissioned by Robert Stewart, 1st Marquess of Londonderry to be the centre of the market town, a role previously undertaken by Newtownards Priory.

[5][7] The events of that conflict, including the action at Newtownards, were immortalised in the novel Betsy Gray by Wesley Guard Lyttle which was first published in 1887.

[8] Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 6th Marquess of Londonderry gifted the building to the town commissioners in September 1897 in anticipation of the formation of Newtownards Borough Council under the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898.

[5] The arcading on the ground floor was replaced with round-headed windows, to allow the whole building to be used for municipal purposes, in 1903, and it remained in use as the headquarters of Newtownards Borough Council until the early 1970s.