The story of Ebrington
The high ground on the east bank of the Foyle was held by Jacobite forces during the Siege of Derry in 1689. Decades later the British military fortified it properly, laying out a ten-acre star fort in 1841. The cream-coloured buildings that still ring the square, the Clock Tower, the hospital, the canteen, the first officers' mess, the officers' quarters, the guard house and the barrack master's house, were built between 1841 and 1890.
Ebrington Barracks served through two world wars. The First Battalion of the Cheshire Regiment was based here during the First World War. In the Second World War the Royal Navy took over the site, and it played a part in the Battle of the Atlantic as a base on the convoy routes. During the Cold War it trained submariners and was commissioned as the shore establishment HMS Sea Eagle.
After the military left, the site was regenerated and the parade ground reopened to the public as Ebrington Square on 14 February 2012. The Peace Bridge, completed in 2011, deliberately connected the square to the Walled City across the river, stitching the Waterside back into the heart of Derry.
The square took centre stage in 2013, when Derry-Londonderry was the inaugural UK City of Culture and Ebrington hosted major events. Today the old barracks buildings hold a brewery restaurant, a café and creative and enterprise workspaces, while the open parade ground continues as a public square and one of the city's main venues.