It has been some
decades since I last cycled in Belfast. As a teenager I regularly
cycled into Belfast to my summer job during the school holidays.
Many things have changed, the heavy security presence has now
thankfully been consigned to history, but many of the older once
familiar buildings have been swept away, in the planner's vision for
a brighter, more modern city. One of the new things that stand out
as unfamiliar to me was the public art which is displayed either on
cycle route NCN9/93 or close to it, as it traces it's course along
the northern bank of Belfast Lough/River Lagan into Belfast.
The first piece of
sculpture I came across by accident, when I cycled down towards the
Harbour entrance from the direction of Fortwilliam roundabout. There
is a large silver seahorse displayed on a plinth.
The seahorse is
represented on the city of Belfast's coat of arms and is a testament
to Belfast's maritime role as a major Irish seaport, as well as a
former centre of shipbuilding. Anyone familiar with the old Belfast Corporation trolleybuses/buses will remember the seahorse from the
crest on the side of the vehicles. Belfast by the late 19th
Century boasted three shipyards, with one, McIlwaine & Coll
having closed by the turn of the 20th Century. The second
to close was Workman Clark in 1935, with Harland & Wolff still
surviving today as a ship repair and marine engineering business.
Part of the former shipyard Harland & Wolff shipyard is now
probably more famous for the production and filming of the TV series
'Game of Thrones'.
The next sculpture
is also beside the Dock Street entrance to Belfast Harbour in Princes
Dock Street. It is located at the side of the Harbour gate and
represents the bow of a ship complete with a figurehead.
It is
easily missed and I have to say that I didn't notice it on my ride
into Belfast. I only really noticed it on my ride back. Another
interesting feature of Princes Dock Street is that there is also
another tangible reminder of Belfast as a major port. There are
still some of the harbour railway lines in the road surface.
Many of
the harbour roads also had rails, as much of the freight going in and out of
the Harbour was moved by rail. These lines would have been
originally worked by the
Belfast & Northern Counties Railway on behalf of the Belfast Harbour Commissioners. Those on the other side of the River Lagan
would have been worked by the Belfast & County Down Railway.
Princes Dock Street leads down to a gateway giving access to
Clarendon Dock.
At the back of the
Clarendon Dock building and twin graving docks stands a large
sculpture of a set of ship's dividers formerly used in navigation in
the days of paper charts. The sculpture stands in square between the
two entrance gates to the the old graving docks.
The older buildings
are cheek by jowl with new corporate development. This modern style
of architecture in my humble opinion lacks any of the panache or
architectural statement of the older Victorian buildings.
Beside the Lagan
Weir and near the Custom House is the last and biggest sculpture along
the cycle route into Belfast - Belfast 'Bigfish'. This was the first piece of
sculpture that I was aware of and has been there since 1999 and even
has it's own Wikipedia entry!
The most striking
new sculptured building to appear in Belfast is the Titanic building
on the south bank of the River Lagan. The building when viewed from
certain angles is meant to represent the bow of the ill fated White
Star liner RMS Titanic and is probably the best Titanic exhibition in
the world and a fitting memorial in the city in which she was built
and launched.
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