Marlborough House Craigavon: Opinion divided about listing 1970s building

The Department for Communities is considering putting a Grade B1 listing on the building.

This would identify it as a good example of a particular period or style and although some alterations could be made to the building it would provide protection in terms of any significant changes.

Built as part of the grand, but unfulfilled ambition to create a new city linking Lurgan and Portadown, Marlborough House is a huge square office block.

From the front, 108 windows that might remind you of Austin Powers look down on you.

It’s unlikely to be what most people have in mind when they think of a listed building, but it’s unlikely you’ve seen anything quite like it anywhere else.

John Anderson of the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society said the building is significant, has merit for listing and could have a multitude of future uses.

“Whether you like it or not is a matter of taste, but it is a very distinctive building,” he said.

“Architecturally, it’s very interesting,” he added.

“It’s of national and possibly even international importance, and also it’s the centre of Craigavon, which you could say maybe wasn’t that successful a project for a new town, but it’s the only one on Northern Ireland, and the core of it, Marlborough House remains.

“It is a modernistic building in its architecture, but it’s also a modern building which would lend itself very well to convert it to a modern use. “