Parliament house.  The Old House of Keys was built in 1821 and served as the parliament house of the Isle of Man from then until 1874, after which the house assembled in Douglas where Tynwald has been located ever since.  It replaced an earlier, smaller building constructed in 1707 by Bishop Wilson (1663-1755), which had served as both a library and a meeting room for the Keys.  Unlike the present limestone structure, Bishop Wilson’s library was substantially built of brick.


The building was constructed to plans by architect Thomas Brine after a protracted design process which began in 1813 and involved the Duke of Atholl (the Island’s Governor-in-Chief), the Lieutenant Governor, the British government and the sitting members of the House of Keys.  The Duke had earlier commissioned plans from George Steuart (his favoured architect and designer of the Castle Mona and the Red Pier in Douglas) in 1797, but like several of Steuart’s designs for his client these were never realised.


Thomas Brine’s building is approximately square in plan, and externally is still substantially as built.  The front (west) elevation is double-fronted, with a small, central, porticoed entrance.  At ground floor level, there is a window to either side of the door, whilst three evenly spaced windows complete the upper storey.  The north facade comprises five evenly spaced windows on the ground and first floors.  The south elevation is more complex.  Again, like the north wall, the facade is pierced for five bays, but on the ground floor, from left to right, the first bay is blind, whilst the second forms a doorway; the third to fifth contain windows lighting the Keys’ chamber.  On the first floor, the first bay is again blind; the second a window of similar dimensions, and the third to fifth contain windows whose openings have been re-set at a lower height as the result of a later alteration.


Every elevation presents a hipped roof profile, behind which the reverse roof slope drains to a central gully.  Two low chimney stacks, constructed on the main internal wall which runs from north to south, rise through the reverse roof slopes and are spaced so as to conform to the symmetry of the front elevation.  A third chimney vented a fireplace on the rear (east) wall, which adjoins the neighbouring property.


Coursed limestone masonry is present throughout, together with brick reveals, sandstone sills and slate lintels on all facades, suggesting that the building was originally stuccoed or rendered to hide this mix of materials.  A rusticated render was present into the 1920s, as was locally fashionable in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and was used by Brine on both built and designed-but-not-built commissions.  The render failed and was removed in the 1920s, but was replaced in 2001.


Internally, Brine’s design provided a short hallway leading to the Keys’ chamber, which stretched across the entire rear of the building, and three fifths of its depth.  To the left of the hall lay the secretary’s office, whilst to the right the equivalent space accommodated a dry closet and a stairwell leading to the first floor: here a small suite of rooms provided the lodgings of the ‘keeper’ (caretaker) who was responsible for maintaining the building and its security.


Following the decampment to Douglas of the House of Keys assembly in 1874, the building was acquired by Dumbell’s Bank and converted into a banking hall in 1877.  Various internal alterations were carried out to facilitate this, including improvements to the security involving the infilling of ground floor windows, and the creation of a roof lantern as a substitute for the daylight lost in so doing.  The building continued to serve as a bank under several different ownerships and during the 1960s some of these alterations were reversed, with further more minor internal changes taking place as a consequence.


After closure of the bank in 1972, the building was used as the offices of Castletown Commissioners until 1988, after which it was taken over by Manx National Heritage in 1999, extensively refurbished and reopened to the public as a seasonal heritage site recounting its original parliamentary use.