Design Joint calls this fine mid eighteenth century building home. Built in 1734 by Alderman James Barlow after his marriage to Althemia, the daughter of the Drogheda merchant and corporation member Alderman Francis Leigh. The house is illustrated in Ravell’s map of Drogheda and is attributed to the architects Richard Cassels (Castle) and Francis Bindon. It is rightly regarded as the finest Palladian style Georgian townhouse to survive in Drogheda. A fine redbrick building with limestone quoins and parapet, it has five bays on three floors and a basement, a fine pedimented gibbsian doorcase with the central window above decorated with a segmental pediment. In 1985, An Foras Forbatha declared Barlow House to be of national importance.

Barlow House became a Royal Irish Constabulary police station in the mid-nineteenth century before transferring to the Garda Siochana in 1922. It remained a Garda Station for seventy-five years until 1997. Barlow House was purchased by Droichead Arts Centre from the Office of public Works in 2000.

Conservation architect John Redmill supervised the restoration of the building and the installation of a lift with disability access during the period 2000/2001. The house is used as an arts complex and provides an ideal period setting for small-scale performances and exhibitions. This historic 1734 building with its exceptional decorative features is strategically situated on the site of the old West Gate near the town walls at the western entrance to Drogheda’s main thoroughfare. Now in use as a public cultural building, it provides an excellent functioning historical gateway to the town.

Today, Design Joint, Droichead Arts Centre and other creative enterprises are based in Barlow House. The house is a lively example of how heritage, business and contemporary culture can come together to foster creative enterprise.