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URBAN DEPRESSION AND SOME URBAN EXPRESSION

ON DONEGALL STREET IN BELFAST 2022

Ever since I was about four years old I really liked visiting Belfast and I now still visit at once a year to spend a week photographing the built environment. One thing that I have noticed about Belfast is that there are many once attractive buildings in the city but many of them are unoccupied or could even be described as derelict and this is especially true in and around Donegall Street.

To make things worse, about six or seven months after I last visited the area there was a major fire which resulted in a report by an engineer indicating that repairs following a major fire in the Cathedral Quarter are likely to take years and that a cordon may need to remain around the listed Old Cathedral Building on Donegall Street, restricting access for several business owners, pedestrians and traffic.

Over the years, Ulster Architectural Heritage has repeatedly voiced concerns about the degradation of Belfast’s built heritage and here is an example of what they have to say:

“Once probably the most completely Victorian city in the British Isles, many of Belfast’s 19th century buildings have been demolished for road schemes, housing estates and commercial developments. Many of the remaining historic buildings within the city centre lie vacant, some even open to the elements, and with all sense of pride or purpose gone they have become a backdrop for anti-social behaviour and vandalism. Too often, it seems, developers acquire properties without thought for their possible restoration, often evicting long-standing family businesses and either blocking the buildings up or demolishing them outright while they seek planning permissions, in the process further eroding Belfast’s sense of place and character. The problem does not just lie with buildings that are completely vacant. Looking up above the ground floor on any street within the city centre, including core streets like Donegall Place, Royal Avenue, High Street and Castle Place, the majority of the upper storeys lie neglected and vacant, a trend which has been accelerated with the rise in online shopping. At the moment there are few incentives for developers to see their empty buildings brought into use. Buildings are acquired for their land value rather than because the new owners want to see them restored, or even perhaps like them. The buildings are often neglected because of an inability to see their potential for re-use.”

DECLINE OF A RED K6 TELEPHONE KIOSK

PHOTOGRAPHED IN SEPTEMBER 2021

SAME LOCATION MARCH 2022

SAME LOCATION MARCH 2019

SAME LOCATION MAY 2018

SAME LOCATION 2016 – 2017

SAME LOCATION MAY 2015

It would appear that weedkiller has been applied since my last visit in March 2019. Because of travel restrictions I could not visit Belfast in 2020.

The phone kiosk in my photograph is an example of a 1936 K6 ‘Jubilee Box’ and it is listed. It is a pity that it is not better maintained. As you can see from my photographs (September 2021)the kiosk, on North Street, is in very poor condition and the Belfast Bikes docking station is no longer at this location.

When I first photographed the kiosk in 2015 it was in good condition and appeared to be well maintained and there was a new Belfast Bikes docking station beside the Kiosk.

The Belfast Bikes station became operational at the location on the 15th April 2015 but it was removed sometime between my visit in 2018 and my visit in 2019. Late in 2017 it was announced that a few Belfast Bikes docking stations in the city centre were to be re-located to “areas of higher demand”. The following were listed for removal: East Bridge Street/Stewart Street, Winetavern Street, Dunbar Link, Writers’ Square and North Street.

Belfast City Council claimed that the stations to be closed were in “close proximity” to alternative stops, and “therefore would not create gaps in the network.

Lower North Street which has been described as “the street that time passed by”. It was external to the security barriers during the bombing campaign and as such it was avoided by shopkeepers and customers alike. It has never recovered especially following destruction and neglect of the North Street Arcade by fire.

DECLINE OF A RED K6 TELEPHONE KIOSK IN BELFAST

BBC HQ IN NORTHERN IRELAND

ORMEAU AVENUE IN BELFAST 16 MAY 2018

2BE, the Belfast station of the British Broadcasting Company, went on the air on 15 September, 1924 at a small studio in Linenhall Street in Belfast. It became part of the newly established British Broadcasting Corporation in 1927 and its services continued to grow.

By the mid-1930s the limitations of the Linenhall Street studios had become apparent, and preparations began to create a new home for local broadcasting in Northern Ireland. James Miller, a Scottish architect, was asked to undertake the building’s design.

By mid-1937 it had been confirmed that the BBC had acquired a city centre site on Ormeau Avenue and that it intended construct a “Broadcasting House in its main characteristics similar to the headquarters of the Corporation in London”.

Substantive building work on the BBC’s “new Northern Ireland headquarters” began in 1939 and continued despite the outbreak of World War II. It was completed in 1941 at a time when regional broadcasting was largely in abeyance.

Services resumed in 1945 and received fresh editorial impetus with the BBC’s new emphasis on regional voices and experiences. The Troubles had a profound effect across Northern Ireland and on the BBC itself. This period marked a transition in the BBC’s role in Northern Ireland, and its coverage of the conflict sometimes excited fierce audience and political reaction; Broadcasting House (like many other city centre buildings) suffered from bomb damage.

Broadcasting House itself grew with the addition of an administration block in 1975 and a new suite of studio and editing facilities in 1984.

The future of the Grade B2 listed building has been assured by the announcement of a £77 million investment in the site by the BBC to improve its infrastructure, efficiency and accessibility, the work which is expected to take place between 2018 and 2023.

LAGANSIDE WALKWAY MARCH 2022

A SMALL SECTION OF THE LAGAN TOWPATH FROM ALBERT BRIDGE TO CROMAC PLACE

To the best of my knowledge the area in my photographs is known as Mays Meadow. No longer a meadow where cattle were kept before sale at the nearby market, May’s Meadow runs from the Laganbank Road to East Bridge Street via a tunnel. Mays Meadow is best described as being close to Central station now knowns as Lanyon Place Railway Station.

The first time I visited this area a middle-aged man offered to photograph me using my camera and got really annoyed when I said that my camera was not insured if I allowed a third party to use it. He said “go back to New York you big fat yank” and as a matter of interest this is not the only time that I was advised to go back home to the USA. About fifteen minutes later I was approached by two police officers advising me that my camera was in danger of been stolen.

In the past I have mentioned that I found many cyclists, using the walkway, to be aggressive to pedestrians but one thing that I did notice this visit was that there were fewer cyclists. Also there were very few e-scooters or e-bikes in Belfast [Dublin is overloaded with them]. I came across the following online “We have recently become aware that the “EAPC” (Electrically Assisted Pedal Cycle) regulations which exempt electric bikes from being treated as motorbikes in most of the UK do not apply in Northern Ireland.”

From Belfast the towpath can be accessed from Lockview Road, Stranmillis. The roundabout at Stranmillis College is signed for Lagan Valley Regional Park, parking is available on the left at the bottom of Lockview Road next to the boat clubs and tennis courts. Alight from 8A Metro bus at Stranmillis College or approx 1 mile walk from Central Station along Laganside to Stranmillis.

From Lisburn the towpath at Union Locks can be accessed from Blaris Road, off Hillsborough Road which is near the M1 Sprucefield turn-off. The Hillsborough Road is on a number of bus routes in and out of Lisburn and the train can be used as a link to Belfast from Lisburn. Lisburn Station is at the bottom of Station Road.

Refreshments at Stranmillis; Cutters river grill and bar. Toilet and café facilities at Lock Keepers Cottage. Restaurant at Ramada Hotel, access from laneway opposite Lock Keepers Cottage. Refreshments and toilet facilities at Malone House, set in Barnetts Demesne above Shaws Bridge. Toilet and cafe facilities in Sir Thomas and Lady Dixon Park, follow paths from Drumbridge. Restaurant and toilet facilities at Lagan Valley Island, Lisburn.