Guildhall

Guildhall Review

After a three-year top-to-bottom £10 million renovation and conservation program Derry's ornate Victorian Guildhall reopened in summer 2013. With its beautiful stained glass, restored stonework, and a new exhibition telling the story of the Plantation of Ulster, the Guildhall is now on every visitor's itinerary. The exhibition recounts the story of the building of the walls and considers the plantation and its legacy as well as the role of London and the Crown. An outstanding example of the city's architecture, the Guildhall—dating from 1890—has been refashioned as a tourist information point. Permanent touch-screen displays explain the building's special features; the many delights for the eye here include the neo-Gothic strutwork, elaborate ceilings, baronial wood paneling, and magnificent organ. With the gleaming restoration, one of the most famous of all Derry's local sayings, "You've more faces than the Guildhall clock" (not to be taken as a compliment), has renewed resonance.