Belfast's skyline is dotted with cranes as major attractions close for renovations. Not so good for tourists, but many feel the work is essential for preserving the city's character, writes Paul Clements
IF YOU ARE planning to visit Belfast this summer to view its rich architectural and cultural heritage, be prepared to be disappointed. Four of the city's historic buildings, dating from the 19th or early 20th centuries, are hidden from the curious eyes of tourists as teams of workers carry out extensive renovations on them.
The landmark buildings that are closed for repair or rebuilding are in the big league of visitor attractions: the City Hall, the Ulster Hall, St Malachy's Church and the Ulster Museum are swarming with yellow-jacketed workers and buzzing with saws, churning cement mixers and bleeping fork-lift trucks. Three of the buildings are swathed in scaffolding. They have succumbed to the ravages of time and, as they are showing signs of serious wear and tear, the conservationists have been called in.
Described by one critic in the 1970s as "Victorian grisly", they are a throwback to an age that regarded pomp and circumstance as being architecturally important. But today, once again, the city is firmly in favour of showing off its past and protecting its civic architecture.
The main attraction for visitors to Belfast is the exuberant columned and domed neo-classical City Hall, the home of the city fathers and mothers where the council chamber was once dubbed the "bear pit" because of the sectarian battles that went on there. The building is closed but the grounds of the City Hall now host the Belfast Wheel, providing a funky alternative to the popular guided tours of the Great Hall and other rooms. More than £10 million (€12.6 million) is being spent on an interior makeover that includes electrical and plumbing work, comprehensive cleaning, and a new floor in the central foyer. The work will continue until 2010, although early next year some of the ceremonial rooms will reopen and the guided tours will restart.
Around the corner in windy Bedford Street, tall green hoarding surrounds the impressive Italianate facade of the Ulster Hall while extensive renovations take place. The money for its facelift, totalling £7.4 million (€9.3 million) has come from a number of sources including the City Council, the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Environment and Heritage Service, the Department of Culture and the Arts Council. It will be spent on the restoration of the main hall, new back-of-house facilities as well as upgrading of the existing visitor services, installation of air-conditioning, and repair of the historic fabric. During the Troubles the windows were boarded up and are being opened again with the original frames restored.
The Ulster Hall started life as a music hall in 1862 and was also the centre for the political rallying of Nationalist politicians including Parnell and Pearse. It houses the Mulholland Organ, presented by the wealthy industrialist Andrew Mulholland and described by the architectural historian Marcus Patton as "a monster Victorian instrument". One of the reasons the renovations had to be carried out with some urgency on the Ulster Hall is that the money from the Lottery Fund comes within a specified time frame and this coincided with the City Hall refurbishment. The Ulster Hall is due to reopen next spring, when the building will become the Ulster Orchestra's permanent home.
Five minutes' walk away in Alfred Street, one of the city's most romantic buildings, St Malachy's Church is undergoing a £3.5 million (€4.4 million) repointing and restoration programme. This includes repairing bricks, rebuilding the attractive castellated towers, replacing the concrete windows with oak frames, cleaning the stained glass, rewiring, repainting the interior, as well as building a new sacristy. A new altar is being carved from Portuguese limestone and the stencil and gilding work around it is being restored. The specialist work includes remarbling and tiling the sanctuary steps.
It's the first time in the church's 164-year history that it has been closed for restoration (it was renovated in 1926 but didn't close) and during the upheaval the parishioners meet for Mass in the hall next door. The curate, Fr Martin Graham, says the work is badly needed because of dry rot and cracked windows.
"St Malachy's is an intimate church, well known for its religious music, and it is important to the parishioners - as well as the office workers and shoppers who come into Mass during the day - that this work is done. We get many tourists each year and e-mails from all over the world from people wanting to visit us as we are the nearest church to the big city centre hotels. While the work is inconvenient, people realise that it is a good thing that Belfast is being rebuilt and money is being invested in the city's historic buildings now that the Troubles have ended."
A short distance from the city centre, the Ulster Museum on the Stranmillis Road, one of the most-visited tourist attractions in the North, is closed for structural alterations until next summer. The older part of the museum dates from 1914 and a modern, sombre concrete extension was added in 1971. The museum is spending almost £15 million (€18.9 million) on a rejuvenation programme that will change its character dramatically. A bright new entrance and arrivals space is being created that will house a 'Hall of Wonders', while the history and natural science galleries are to be transformed. An applied arts gallery, as well as a new café, restaurant and rooftop gallery, are all planned. Artefacts previously held in vaults will be displayed in an additional 1,200sq m of public space.
So won't all these closed buildings deter tourists from coming to the city? The tourist board firmly believes this will not be the case. Belfast, they say, has much appeal for visitors despite the closures. Ruth Burns, destination marketing manager with the Northern Ireland Tourist Board, says the work is essential.
"When the renovation of these buildings is complete, it will greatly enhance the visitors' enjoyment of Belfast and Northern Ireland," she believes.
Belfast unquestionably has some of the finest public architecture in Britain and Ireland, and the tourist board is quick to point out that buildings such as St Anne's Cathedral, the Palm House in Botanic Gardens, the Linen Hall Library (it celebrated its 220th anniversary in May), the Grand Opera House, Belfast Castle, as well as the Queen's University Welcome Centre and the recently-restored Crown Bar, are all still open for business.
The architectural firm Consarc Design Group, which specialises in historic building conservation, is involved in the work on the City Hall, Ulster Hall and St Malachy's. The chairman of Consarc, Dawson Stelfox, says the buildings are being reinvented for future generations.
"You have to remember that people work or worship in all these buildings that are being renovated or rebuilt. They aren't museum pieces so we have to make them usable and bring them up to standard to meet all the statutory requirements. We were a long way behind the rest of the UK in terms of protecting our historic buildings. The protection only came into force in the 1970s and we lost out both through the Troubles and in developers not really being interested in restoring them. But today the public is much more aware of the importance of maintaining them and of preserving their character."
The Stormont executive has also acknowledged that more money should be given to help protect Belfast's built heritage. Last month, the North's Minster for the Environment, Arlene Foster announced an increase in funding of £1.5 million (€1.89 million) for the historic buildings grant-aid budget, bringing it up to nearly £4 million (€5 million). She has also set aside £500,000 (€630,000) to fund building preservation trusts and charitable organisations which help rescue vulnerable buildings. The final repair bill to bring the four landmark buildings into the 21st century will run to at least £40 million (€50.4 million).
Meanwhile, work on the city's Titanic Quarter is Europe's largest urban waterfront regeneration scheme and is due for completion within the next few years at an estimated £1 billion (€1.26 billion). On top of all this, Belfast's theatrical architecture is being given a makeover. The Lyric Theatre in the south of the city closed earlier this year for renovations and will reopen in April 2010. In the same area, the popular Crescent Arts Centre - a former girls' school - is closed until 2010 for renovation work. It has moved to a new temporary building on the Ormeau Road.
RITA HARKIN, RESEARCH officer with the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society (UAHS), welcomes the work being carried out.
"Heritage-led regeneration, with a focus on restoration, is important in helping to create a nourishing and memorable destination for visitors as well as locals," she says.
But the UAHS is also concerned about the threat to buildings in supposedly protected parts of the city. It has joined forces with local arts groups and businesses in the Cathedral Quarter to form a 'Let's Get It Right' campaign to defend the special character of the area.
"The unusual listed 1930s North Street arcade as well as some other inter-war and several 19th century buildings are vulnerable and we are lobbying for their retention and re-use as part of a proposed Royal Exchange scheme," says Harkin.
The Victorian builders who worked on these solid structures would have trouble recognising today's glitzy, refashioned city. But if you are visiting Belfast this summer and desperately want to see the interior glories and plush council chamber of the City Hall, you can take a virtual tour on the website; alternatively you can look across to its high green dome from one of the capsules on the adjacent Belfast Wheel.
And, as you rotate sedately, reflect on WC Fields's comment on his visit to Philadelphia: "Last week I went to Philadelphia, but it was closed."
Paul Clements is a contributing writer to the newly published edition of Insight Guide Ireland.