Belfast Through Time

Belfast (Irish: Beal Feirste ‘mouth of the sandbank ford’) is the capital city of Northern Ireland. The site of Belfast has been described as ‘not built on a perfect site’ given that the original settlement was located on low-lying land on the Co. Antrim side of the River Lagan. It was during the Victorian period that wealthy business owners moved out of the old town and built grand villas on the hills surrounding the city. There are views of big houses, grand public buildings and churches, schools, public transport including trams, trolleybuses and steam trains, factories and suburbia. Many of these scenes are remarkably unchanged and much of the character of the bustling industrial city remains, while many locations have been swept away and are unrecognisable following recent redevelopments.