1949 – Sir William Whitla Hall, University Rd., Belfast

The Whitla Hall was opened in 1949 and was named after Sir William Whitla. Construction actually started in 1938, stopped during World War II, before completion in 1949. It is the University’s principal venue, seating 1250, for orchestral concerts, conferences and exhibitions and it hosts the graduation ceremonies each June and December. A restrained brick structure, the building has shallow relief sculptures on the main facade including the university crest, designed by Gilbert Bayes but executed by Morris Harding.

Whitla was a prominent Belfast doctor, lecturer, MP for the University and Methodist, born and raised at The Diamond in Monaghan, the fourth son of Robert Whitla, a woollen draper and pawnbroker. Educated at the town’s Model School, Whitla was articled at fifteen to his brother James, a local pharmacist who had a chemist shop on Dublin Street in Monaghan.