Donegall Square North

Donegall Square is the heart of modern Belfast, centred on a grassy square occupied by the City Hall and surrounded by buildings in a wide variety of styles and from different periods. The buildings provide a microcosm of the city’s development, ranging from early Victorian to Art Deco and Modern. They illustrate how the focus of the city shifted over time from High Street/Castle Place to this present location.

At its epicenter is the City Hall, an exuberant confection in Portland stone, with fine marble interiors, built to commemorate Belfast’s elevation to the status of City in 1888 and completed in 1906. On the corner of Donegall Place stands the “Royal Irish Linen Warehouse” of the firm Robinson and Cleaver, 1886 – 1888. A marvellous collection of sculpted heads lines the first floor pediments, showing some of the firm’s famous patrons, including Queen Victoria and the Maharajah of Cooch Behar. Beside its stands the former Richardson Sons and Owden’s Warehouse, now the property of Marks and Spencer, a building described by Oscar Wilde as “…one beautiful building…beautiful in colour and very beautiful in design.”

Opposite the City Hall stands one of Belfast’s most venerable institutions, the Linen Hall Library. Founded in 1788, it is the oldest library in Belfast and the last subscribing library in Ireland. In 1888, the Linen Hall Library purchased its present building at 17 – 19 Donegall Square North and today it houses one of the most renowned collections of Irish material in the world.

May Street Presbyterian Church is situated to the south of the City Hall. This magnificent Georgian church has been in continuous use since it opened in 1829. It is an elegant and well proportioned building, a handsome example of the Presbyterian taste for the solidly classical.

The view from here down Chichester Street leads one’s eye to the Waterfront Hall, 1997, one of the architectural stars of the city, a splendid, glass fronted concert hall, which at night appears to float on the River Lagan on whose bank it stands.

The commercial and trading needs of Belfast were well served by another of its landmark buildings – St. George’s Market on Oxford Street. For over 100 years, St. George’s Market has been an established feature of everyday life in Belfast. When first built, it was the supermarket of its day, a place where people from all around came to buy eggs, butter, poultry, fruit and vegetables. Today it is one of the city’s most vibrant retail, cultural and conferencing venues and visitors are welcome to its weekly food markets.