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Civic Centre
 Montego Bay’s beautiful new Civic
Centre is
an outstanding cultural facility and an attraction for the people of
St. James and Jamaicans as a whole.
Standing on the site of the old courthouse, it is a heritage
building and a quiet cultural oasis in the middle of the bustle and
noise of the city providing interactive, educational entertainment
and relaxation.
The Civic Centre is a multi-faceted facility
with provision for:
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Museum
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Art Gallery
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Performing arts
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Conferencing facilities
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Food services
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Parking
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Guided tours
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Public washrooms
Current opening hours (subject to change):
Tuesday to Friday
9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday
10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Sunday
12 noon to 5 p.m.
The Civic Centre is now available for bookings.
Please contact the St. James Parish Council at 952-5500 or
toll-free at 1-888-666-8346 for further information.
 The Montego Bay Civic
Centre has been long
awaited by the people of St. James, who have been without a unifying
Town Centre since 1968 when the original building, a Courthouse, was
destroyed by fire.
Montego Bay was a small town during most of the
18th Century until a Captain Jonathan Barnett subdivided
his sugar cane lands and created Charles Town with Charles Square.
With this subdivision the commercial coast line expanded and
the trade, commerce and population grew.
Montego Bay was now a much larger and important town with
over a hundred ships clearing port to England and North America and
slavers from Africa.
The Vestry of St. James bought land at Charles
Square to build a new and imposing building for Court House and
offices. In 1804 the
building was dedicated and it was completed in 1810.
The Court House became the civic and political centre of St.
James. The building housed the vestry offices, and regular court
sessions such as the debtor’s court at which slaves were sold to
pay the debts of their masters.
The upper floor was used for hosting balls,
plays and recitals. Receptions
were held by the plantocracy to commemorate important events and to
entertain visiting dignitaries.
In 1815 the government moved the country
(Cornwall) Assize Court to Montego Bay.
The first sitting of the Assize Court was held at the Court
House in 1816.
It was in this Court House in 1832 that the
trials of the slaves in St. James who were accused in the Rebellions
of 1831-1832 were held. The
slaves who were found guilty, including Sam Sharpe, were hung in the
Square and at the Albert Market.
Sam Sharpe was tried at the Court House on the 19th
April and hung in the Square on the 23rd of May 1832.
On the 29th of July 1833 the British
Parliament passed the Emancipation Act that became law on the 1st
of August 1834. Slavery
was abolished and all children under six were free, but all other
slaves had to serve 6 years of apprenticeship.
On the 1st of August 1838 all were emancipated.
It was from the balcony of the Court House that the Act was
officially read in St. James.
The building housed the local government
office. The board of
directors of the Closed Harbour Company, the trustees of the St.
James Free School and the Court of Inquiry, also held their meetings
in the Court House. The
building housed the St. James Parish Council until 1968 when fire
destroyed it along with the Albert Market at the rear of the
building and other buildings in the Square.
The building was restored by the Urban
Development Corporation, with funding from the Venezuelan Government
through the San Jose Accord.
If you don't see what you're looking for, search
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