There is hope the building could be brought back into use for heritage and arts purposes
The news marks a significant milestone in efforts to have the building brought back into public ownership and restored, with a view to transforming it into an events and cultural space.
Launched in 1996, the World Monuments Fund (WMF) watchlist is announced every two years and 25 heritage sites across the world are chosen, with a view to raising awareness of restoration and protection efforts.
The renowned list, which was announced today, also serves to open the door to potential investment for the chosen locations.
Belfast’s Assembly Rooms
Alongside the Assembly Rooms on the 2025 watchlist is the historic city of Antakya in Turkey, as well as Gaza’s historic urban fabric and the Kyiv Teacher’s House in Ukraine, where the country’s new parliament sat when it declared its independence in 1918.
Also on the list is the Moon, due to the 90 historic landing and impact sites that mark humankind’s presence on its surface.
Built in 1769, the Assembly Rooms building is situated at the intersection between Bridge Street, North Street and Waring Street in Belfast city centre, an area previously known as the Four Corners, the commercial and geographical hub of what was then a town.
It was the scene of many historic events, including when a proposal to establish a slave-trading company in Belfast was shot down in 1786. It was also a meeting place for Presbyterian merchants, many of whom were radical liberals, and the place where United Irishman Henry Joy McCracken was sentenced to death in 1798.
The Assembly Rooms was previously used as a bank, but it has been derelict since 2000 and fallen into disrepair.
It is currently owned by London-based property firm Castlebrooke Investments.
The Assembly Rooms building was nominated for the WMF 2025 watchlist by the Assembly Rooms Alliance, which was set up in February 2023 with the objective of preserving the property and bringing it back into use for heritage and arts purposes.
John Gray, the convenor of the alliance and former librarian at the Linen Hall Library, welcomed the news.
“The WMF will be giving us two years of mentoring and professional support to develop the project, which will be hugely beneficial,” he said.
“They also are the gatekeepers to a variety of potential funding sources, particularly in the United States, which, given that we’re talking about a prospective cost of probably £15m to restore the building, would be vital.”
Assembly Rooms in Belfast
The alliance is proposing that the Assembly Rooms’ banking hall, which has a potential capacity for 250 people, be used as a multi-purpose cultural venue for events, running from theatre exhibitions to conferences.
For the rest of the building, the Assembly Rooms Alliance has partnered up with the Museum of Troubles and Peace, with a view to installing an exhibition portraying the story of the conflict.
John Darlington, director of projects at the WMF, said: “The reason we picked it… Well, first we looked at the site in a historical sense. Clearly, the Assembly Rooms as an early 18th century building in Belfast, with all the history attached to it, makes it very important to the city.
“Then we look at what the threat is. The Assembly Rooms has been on the Heritage at Risk Register for a long time and it needs a solution.”
“Then we look at the partners — i.e. other people who are going to kind of lead this project. Are they credible? And, again, the Assembly Rooms Alliance is really strong, a really articulate group of clever people.
“Then the final thing we look at is, because we can only pick 25 sites across the world, we have to make sure those really deliver not just in, say, Northern Ireland, but that they also have resonance elsewhere.”
Belfast’s Assembly Rooms
News Catch Up – Wednesday 15 January