Old House of Keys
former meeting place of the lower house of Tynwald
The Old House of Keys (Manx: Shenn-thie y Chiare as Feed) is the former meeting place of the House of Keys, the lower house of Tynwald, the Isle of Man's parliament. It is located across the street from Castle Rushen in Castletown, the former capital of the Isle of Man, in the south of the island. The building was used as the House of Keys from 1821 until 1874, when the parliament was moved to Douglas.
Prior to 1821, the House of Keys had no official home, but met first at Castle Rushen, and later at the Bishop of Sodor and Man's library in Castletown. After criticism from a Royal Commission, plans were drawn up for a new meeting house for the Keys in 1813, but after concerns about the cost, they were redrawn and approved in 1819. The building, designed by Thomas Brine, was completed in 1821. It housed the House of Keys until 1874, when the Keys followed the other primary functions of the island and moved to Douglas. After their move, the Old House became a branch of Dumbell's Bank, and later Parr's Bank. In 2000, Manx National Heritage acquired the building and began restoring the house to how it appeared in 1866. The building opened to the public as a museum in November 2001.
The public source identifies “Old House of Keys” as former meeting place of the lower house of Tynwald. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around House, Keys and former.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2018393. Authority coordinates are 54.073, -4.652. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1821, 1874, 1813 and 1819.
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This entry incorporates text from “Old House of Keys” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.