Context 156 - September 2018

22 C O N T E X T 1 5 6 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 8 The court house and church piqued the most interest as classic derelict, grand old buildings. While a project has yet to be secured for the court house, the church and church halls have been instrumental in bringing a variety of com- munities and groups together in this interface location, which impressed the tour members. Working together, Paula Reynolds and Shane Quinn have created a North Belfast cluster organisation that manages historic buildings in this location, the most deprived ward in Northern Ireland. The cluster is to attempt to find users of the buildings that will engage the community and assist with their maintenance and conservation. Rosemary Thornber Central Belfast: architectural influences from elsewhere Led by Marcus Patton, Historic Buildings Council for Northern Ireland Marcus Patton, a member of the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, is director of the Hearth Buildings Preservation Trust. The tour took in many of the key buildings that defined the history of the commercial heart of Belfast and Patton’s intimate and wide knowledge of the city was evident. We began our tour at the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society (UAHS) offices and heard about this interesting Georgian quarter of the city. It soon became clear that Belfast, as an important city in the 19th century, had attracted many highly renowned architects, such as Sir John Soane, who in 1810 designed the Academical Institution, a handsome porticoed, red-brick building. A recurring theme of the tour was the impact of conflict on the heritage and fabric of the city centre. For example, the terrace in which the UAHS stands had once been splendid and prosperous, but was badly affected by second- world-war bomb damage, then dereliction and decay as the inhabitants left during the sectar- ian conflicts. We heard about 20th-century regeneration in its most negative sense, when Belfast welcomed investment in the form of new development and rejected much of its built heritage, leading to the loss of many significant historic buildings. Patton told us of his campaigning against the clearance of the early-19th-century, red- brick terrace houses on the eastern side of the city centre. This had sparked the conservation movement in Belfast and culminated in the establishment of the building preservation trust, commemorate KingWilliam of Orange’s triumph over King James of Scotland, in 1688. These marches are often seen as purely antagonistic towards the Catholic communities in Belfast, and this building has been the subject of many attacks. The warden claimed to have survived in the cellar during a petrol bomb attack. The hall contains a fitted-out ballroom with a surrounding mezzanine, and many items of memorabilia or what might be termed as valu- able examples of uniforms, arms and musical instruments belonging to the movement, dating back to the beginning of the 20th century, and prints and paintings that might be earlier in date. The movement aims to take down barricades and use the hall for wider community events, such as one hosted at Ballynafeigh Orange Hall in South Belfast, on 2 July 2018, involving the Gaelic Athletic Association. Delegates visiting the Carlisle Memorial Church, currently being repaired by the Belfast Buildings Trust (Photos: Roy Lewis)