BELFAST: British city. Irish soul.

Пятница, 22 Июля 2011 г. 16:51 + в цитатник

Belfast is infamous throughout the world for one thing- The Northern Irish troubles. However, the city has a rich and industrious past. This is an introduction to the vibrant and dynamic city:

In the early 1800's, Belfast was merely an insignificant Georgian town, straddling the lough, overshadowed by its Norman neighbour, Carrickfergus. However, when the British Industrial Revolution took off in the mid 1800's, Belfast boomed, to become one of the British Empires most important cities. By 1900, Belfast had the worlds largest shipyard, Harland and Wolff. )In the 1910's, the worlds largest (and today most famous) ship, Titanic was designed and built in the shipyard, alongside her sisters Britannic and Olympic. Today, the ship-building legacy continues, as Belfast still has Europe's tallest gantry cranes and largest dry dock.) Belfast earned the nickname 'Linenopolis' as the city produced a massive percentage of the worlds total linen. The Sirocco rope-works were located within the worlds longest building, and forward thinking entrepreneurs from the city invented the modern bicycle tyre and air conditioning units. Russian Tsars and other international royalty shopped in the cities grand department stores. By populace, economically and geographically, Belfast had become larger than Dublin, described as the 'Athens' and 'Venice' of the UK.

When the Republic of Ireland declared independence, Belfast Became the capital of the new British state, Northern Ireland. The Stormont parliament buildings were opened in 1932 (scaled down due to the Wall St crash) The move was controversial, and led to the ongoing trouble still facing Northern Ireland today. There were several minor IRA threats in the city leading up to the 1960's.

During WWII, thousands of Belfast men were sent to fight for the UK. As Belfast was seen as a vital industrial city in the UK war effort, Hitler commanded that the Luftwaffe destroyed the docks and aircraft manufacturers. The Belfast Blitz occurred on 15th April 1941, and much of the city facing towards the shipyard was flattened, including much of High street. Belfast became the most heavily attacked city in the UK in one night outside of London. The Luftwaffe planned to come back to Belfast and flatten more of the city, however the plans were never followed through.

Belfast enjoyed relative peace until the summer of 1968- the official start of the Northern Irish troubles, that would go on to claim 3524 lives across the UK and Ireland. The IRA resurfaced, introducing a reign of terror against protestants and unionists in Northern Ireland. Belfast (Along with Derry) was the most affected city. Over 10 terrorist paramilitary terrorist groups patrolled Belfast, policing their own areas. Stormont was forced to close as the problem spiralled out of control. The British army were sent to the streets of the city and every person entering the city centre was checked for explosives. The Europa Hotel on Grt Victoria Street became the most bombed hotel in Europe. Peace walls, reminiscent to those in Berlin, separated the declining Catholic and Protestant populations of Belfast. In 1997, the IRA called a ceasefire, and the Good Friday Agreement was signed, re-instating peace to Belfast and Northern Ireland as a whole. Today, the famous Belfast murals are left as a reminder of what was.

Since the IRA ceasefire, Belfast's economy has been almost unrivalled in growth throughout the UK. It has become one of the most heavily invested city's the UK, with developers spending billions on regeneration schemes throughout the city. Belfast boasts the largest House of Frazer to initially open, Ireland's only official Apple store, and many other sought after retail names, such as Hamleys and FCUK. Victoria Sq is one of the UK's most modern and successful retail developments. The city is home to Ireland's 3 tallest buildings and is renound for its night-life and dining, boasting two Michelin starred restaurants. The city has a 20 000 seater indoor arena, and the worlds second best conference centre (2006, Aspex) 7 million people visited the city in 2008, and the place is fast becoming one of Europe's hottest city break destinations. This is Belfast's renaissance.

Enjoy the pics!

Few more:

This Cathedral Quarter (Also known as the cultural Quarter, aptly named after the grand Victorian St Anne's Cathedral. A modern metal spire was recently added to the cathedral, increasing the buildings total height by 70m. The cathedral was built from stone sourced from every country in Ireland (A sign of Irish unification at the time) There are numerous on-going developments in the area, including the OMAC, Northern Ireland's national art gallery. It is also the location of arguably Belfast's most luxurious hotel, the Merchant. There is a large concentration of bars and restaurants in the area, along with a major University of Ulster campus. There are plans to relocate the whole of the University to this area of the city. It would be the cities second complete university campus, after the historic Queen's University.

Victoria Square. I'm very proud of this place, designed by local architects. There is a documentary covering the complexes construction hovering about the internet for anyone interested. The view from the observation deck is great too.

89m OBEL tower looming in the distance. It has already featured on many local TV shows and advertisements.

The court buildings, old and new. The original buildings interior is stunning. No pics though. Will be some on Google images/flickr etc for anyone curious.

This is the Waterfront hall, voted the second best conference centre in the world back in '06. It is a local landmark, and it is one of the few modern buildings in the city that Belfasters show affection towards. Again, it was designed locally.

The Michelin starred, multi award winning DEANES restaurant. The place was gutted by a burst water pipe only days after I last ate there (lucky!) It has since reopened.

Japanese tourists pose at the Big Fish, another local landmark, a few days before Christmas last year.

Another new local landmark, aptly named The Boat. Was meant to have a posh restaurant at the bottom, but the plans may have fallen through. There are also 8 luxurious apartments, attracting attention from potential buyers in the USA and Middle East. For the novelty factor, The Boat has Ireland's only car lift. The tower has already appeared on local TV numerous times.

The next set of pictures are focused around an area known as Queen's Quarter, named after the Queens University Campus that dominates the area. It is one of the most attractive expensive areas of Belfast to live in, but has a thriving young student population and local boutiques, alternative shops and cafes and the usual chain-stores, such as Starbucks and Tesco Metro.

The Belfast botanical gardens are surrounded by University buildings. Within the gardens is one of the earliest examples of a curvilinear greenhouse, known as the Palm House, housing exotic plants.

I consider this building, the Ulster Museum, to be the building that first got me interested in architecture, when I was very young. It is still one of my favourite buildings in Belfast, and I personally believe that the 1960's extension is one of the best pieces of brutalist architecture in the UK & Ireland. The Museum, which houses everything from an Egyptian Mummy to dinosaur skeletons recently re-opened after a multi-million refurb. It is one of Northern Ireland's most popular visitor attraction and has won multiple prestigious awards, including most recently, this years Arts Fund prize.

View of Stormont Parliament Buildings from the museum.

Bonus pic of St Anne's Cathedral.

@ Londonfox - I agree, as long as Northern Ireland is in the UK, I see no reason to refer to it as part of ROI or not British blah blah... Similarly, if the island ever re-unites it will be Irish. But there are some deluded people out there.

I agree with you Ni3lS, unedited pics are the way forward

HDR and stuff is nice to look at in an arty way, but not when you're realistically trying to portray a city.

And thanks to everyone who commented.

The main University building, designed by Charles Lanyon, is one of Belfast's most iconic structures. The University is one of the most established and respected in the UK, with several thousand students. Queen's is the largest of two universities in Belfast (The other is University of Ulster)

The Union Theological College was designed by Charles Lanyon, who designed many other prolific buildings in Belfast, including the main buildings at Queen's. (There is a plaza and a building named after him in Belfast today) The NI government sat here (And at City Hall) while Stormont was constructed.

Student Union Building

The recently completed, critically acclaimed Queen's University library. The design mimics that of the main building.

...And the old library.

The City Hospital, used by Queen's to train medical students. It is currently the 3rd tallest building in Belfast and Ireland, at 72m. (It may soon drop in rankings to 6th or 7th fingers crossed!)

The immediate area around the University contains some of the highest concentration of Victorian and Georgian buildings in the whole city. This area is what I would consider the most affluent, expensive and multicultural area to live in the city centre. I would also consider it one of the most affluent placed to live in the whole wider city. Belfasts largest mosque in in the local area.

Victorian red-brick terrace housing is widespread throughout the city. Wealthier rows generally have larger houses and more façade detail than working class terrace housing.

The Upper and Lower Cresents host probably Belfast's largest concentration of Georgian architecture. This is an uncommon form of architecture in the city, which is strange considering the Georgian stock in Dublin, Cork, Derry and Limerick. It is most likely explained through Belfast's late boom as opposed to the other major Irish/Northern Irish cities. There are still some gems from the era though.

A view of some of the office towers in Belfast's main business district.

A few pics of the walk between the main business district and Queen's university. I know this area looks suburban in parts, but in the short walk, there are two train stations, and it is one of the busiest streets in the city, with lots of designer boutiques and alternative shops, dozens of cafes, clubs and pubs, hotels and the typical chain brands, such as Starbucks and Tesco Metro. The area reminds me a bit of parts of Boston.

Cayenne, the city's second Michelin starred restaurant, owned by well known (In the UK & Ireland) Northern Irish TV chef Paul Rankin. He has numerous smaller outlets throughout the city and at Belfast international airport.

The dramatic mountains that surround the city

Victorian and Edwardian warehouses are common in this part of the city. Today, many have been converted into trendy restaurants, offices and apartments. To the right hand side of this picture is the Ormeau Baths - an art gallery.

More converted warehouses.

A 105m tower has been approved for the adjoining site to this modern building.

Windsor House used to be the tallest building on the island. Today, it still dominates Belfast's skyline. There were serious plans to double the height of the tower a few years back, however this wouldn't have been possible anyway, as Belfast has a building height limit of 109m.

The Albert memorial clock is a local landmark. During the Troubles, the details were taken of the clock tower, incase they were damaged by a bomb explosion. The details have since been reinstated and the tower once again stands as it did when it was first completed... well other than now leaning slightly to one side! (Earning the nickname 'Leaning tower of Belfast')

A great example of Art Deco Belfast.

The 5 star Hilton, BT Headquarters and recently completed, but vacant Lanyon Towers.

Here is a photo of the OBEL tower, the tallest building in Ireland.

It is not likely this tower will be the tallest on the island for long. There is competition from both Dublin and within the city itself. However, the planning department here recently rejected a 109m building. The last tallest, Windsor House reigned for almost 40 years!

Here is the tower on the skyline (Not my pic)

Titanic Quarter is the £1.5 billion regeneration project of Queens Island, the location where Titanic and her sisters were built in 1910. The projects 1st phase is almost complete, and phase two is well underway. The development will when completed, consist of the landmark Titanic Signature project (Titanic Experience- a maritime museum), thousands of apartments, an art gallery, numerous hotels, the restored Harland and Wolff head offices and Titanic Drawing rooms, the reinstated Titanic slipway (incorporated into a large landscaped park), an art gallery, the new Belfast MET college, SS Nomadic, a Financial Services campus, PRONI, regional headquarters of large organisations, such as CITI group and prolific car showrooms, such has Audi.

More info at: http://www.titanic-quarter.com/index.php

These photos are a few months old:

Titanic Signature Project.

The Arch, a high-end apartment and retail scheme, incorporating a landscaped promenade and public art pieces.

Other projects in the scheme:

Lots of glass around Belfast.

Bonus pic of St Anne's.

The celeb endorsed Ten Square Hotel.

And a fantastic Argentine restaurant, La Boca. 700,000 Argentines claim Irish ancestry today.

This area will soon be developed into a new shopping core called Royal Exchange. Planning (I think) has just been submitted.

This is a couple of 4 of Belfast's grand Victorian, Edwardian and Art Deco department stores. Russian Tsars once shopped in these grand buildings. Sadly, non of the buildings today house their original stores, but all remain in excellent condition. My favourite is the Bank Building.

Belfast's only currently open arcade, housing many unique boutiques. There are plans to rebuild another arcade as part of the afore-mentioned Royal Exchange project.

Dutch influence at Donegal Place.

Belfast has a great stock of Art Deco architecture for some reason.

The new Art Deco influenced entrance to the amazing Merchant Hotel.

Pics from the Belfast Wheel last Christmas. Has since unfortunately been dismantled and relocated to Dublin. May be plans for it to come back when Titanic Quarter is more complete.

To the far left, the side of Stormont Parliament building and the far right, the Scottish Baronial Scrabo tower (Both in the mountains)

Nice sculpture.

Another grand Belfast department store building, Robinson & Cleaver.

This area is ear-marked for future large scale development.

Another great example of Belfast Art Deco.

CastleCourt is a massive shopping centre in the heart of the city. It may sound good, however a whole community was destroyed and some of the best Victorian buildings on Royal Av were demolished to make way for this steel and glass beast. Other than the front entrance, the façade is daunting and hideous, cutting off smaller historic streets.

The building under the red netting is the fabulous Library Building, currently being cleaned and restored. It is a grand Victorian building, of colour similar to its neighbour.

A similar view from a photo I posted on page 1.

Spires shopping centre, quite unique.

The Crown Bar, one of Belfast's most famous pubs, and the only in the UK owned by the National Trust. This place attracts thousands of tourists a year. Parts of the interior are furnished with fittings from Titanic's sister ship, the Olympic.

War Memorial.

Some monuments in at Donegal Square.

The Ulster hall, opened in 1862 as a multi-purpose venue with a capacity to hold 1000 people (or double standing) Today it hosts concerts and has recently reopened after restoration and modernisation.

Mock Tudor, Victorian built St Malachy's church, again just re-opened after a large restoration project.

Another pic it took of the church from a distance.

Nice urban feel in the next pic.

The modern glass building is the Fitzwilliam hotel (which I think is 5* rated) It has a fantastic, quirky interior. The large building complex in the mountains is the Royal Victoria Hospital, running along the infamous Fall's road. There is currently a 65m tower U/C in the complex.

Looking towards Europa, previous title holder of Europe's most bombed hotel. Bill Clinton is among the famous guests to have resided here. There was recently a popular documentary series made about the hotel, which is on of Northern Ireland's most infamous buildings. The boarded up building in the photo will hopefully soon be converted into a new luxury hotel, with a 104m approved tower planned to be built next door.