The Linen Hall Library is located at 17 Donegall Square North and is the oldest library in Belfast and the last subscribing library in Northern Ireland. A subscription library (also membership library or independent library) is a library that is…
The Lagan Weir opened in 1994. Prior to its construction, mudflats would be exposed at low tide that were unsightly and emitted a strong odour in the summer months. The weir also incorporates a footbridge.
The River Farset used to run down the centre of High Street until it was culvetted over in the 19th century. One notable former business in High Street was the Ulster Overcoat Company which made the coat known as an…
A Presbyterian congregation was established in Rosemary Street in 1644. By the 1720s, there were three Presbyterian churches in Rosemary Street named the First, Second and Third Presbyterian Churches. The current First Presbyterian church was dates from 1783 and is…
The Custom House was built in the 1850s as the administrative buildings for government revenue collectors. It was designed by Sir Charles Lanyon and built in the Italianate Palazzo style. The steps of the acted as a ‘speakers corner’ where…
The Belfast Cenotaph was designed by Sir Alfred Brumwell Thomas and unveiled in 1929. It is a monument to all those killed from Belfast in the First and Second World War. The memorial includes a central Portland stone monument about…
The Belfast Boer war memorial takes the form of a statue of a private of the Regiment in khaki uniform, with topee and puttees, with a rifle and fixed bayonet at the ready. It lists 130 names of the officers,…
The Big Fish is a printed ceramic mosaic sculpture by John Kindness. It was established in its current place in 1999. It is a 10 metre long representation of The Salmon of Knowledge (in Irish: bradán feasa), an animal figuring…
The Exchange was built in 1769 as a single-storey, arcaded Market House funded by a donation of £4000 from the Earl of Donegall as a celebration of the birth of his son, George Augustus. In 1776, again at the request…
Arthur Square is named after Arthur Chichester, the founding father of Belfast. Chichester obtained a charter to establish Belfast as a corporation, or town, from British King James in 1613. The site was originally known as the corn market and…
