Derry’s first town hall was built in 1622 at the centre of the Diamond.

The city’s Charter of 29 March 1613 had changed the town’s name from Derry to Londonderry. This highlighted its connection with the London business guilds that had been pressured by King James 1 to finance the new county and build up Derry and Coleraine.

The Charter created Londonderry Corporation to govern the city politically and commercially with power to nominate two MPs to the Irish Parliament.

The Corporation was granted the right to hold four markets a week on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays; and an annual fair. No other market was permitted within 7 miles.

The Exchange or Market House, 1622-1692, was located at The Diamond.

placeholder image — The Exchange or Market House, 1622-1692, was located at The Diamond.

Freemen of the city were allowed to import and export goods free of tax, while others would have to pay tax on such trading. And those taxes for the following 10 years would be spent on building and maintaining Derry’s Walls.

Following a 1616 decision of London Corporation, the Exchange/Market House was opened in 1622 as the city’s civic and commercial heart. It cost over £500 (now =c£110,000). The Corporation met on the upper floor and the open ground floor served as a marketplace for buying and selling goods.

But 68 years later, in the city’s major siege of 1688-9, the building “was heavily bombarded and ruined by enemy mortar shells”.

So the city started planning a new Town Hall and the Diamond continued to be our Corporation's address for a further two centuries.

[https://www.archiseek.com/market-house-derry/ Clerkin, Paul. "1622 – Exchange or Market House, Derry."

*Archiseek.com*, 3 Jan. 2013 & 19 Feb. 2023].