I assume that this is a bollard that looks like a chess piece. I photographed it as I did not see any other similar bollards during my 2022 visit.
The oldest building in Belfast is Clifton House, built in the early 1770s as the Poorhouse.
Back in I was contacted by a follower who mentioned that it should be Donegal not Donegall but in this case they were wrong. When I was six years of age I lived in Donegal and we visited Belfast on a regular basis and one day I noticed that a street sign Donegall rather than Donegal and when I asked my father about he said that it was a very old spelling error and that no one could be bothered to change it. Later I discovered that my father did know exactly why but he felt that it was too complicated to explain in detail.
Arthur Chichester, who was granted a charter for the city in 1613. When he and his descendants were made Earls of Donegal for services rendered a clerical error led to them becoming Earls of Donegall.
Donegall Square is a square in the centre of Belfast. In the centre is Belfast City Hall, the headquarters of Belfast City Council. Each side of the square is named according to its geographical location, i.e. Donegall Square North, South, East and West. It is named after the Donegall family. Other streets to bear their name in Belfast are Donegall Road, Donegall Pass and Donegall Street. Donegall Place, the city’s main shopping street, runs from the north side of the square.
Ever since I was about four years old I really liked visiting Belfast and I now still visit at once a year to spend a week photographing the built environment. One thing that I have noticed about Belfast is that there are many once attractive buildings in the city but many of them are unoccupied or could even be described as derelict and this is especially true in and around Donegall Street.
To make things worse, about six or seven months after I last visited the area there was a major fire which resulted in a report by an engineer indicating that repairs following a major fire in the Cathedral Quarter are likely to take years and that a cordon may need to remain around the listed Old Cathedral Building on Donegall Street, restricting access for several business owners, pedestrians and traffic.
Over the years, Ulster Architectural Heritage has repeatedly voiced concerns about the degradation of Belfast’s built heritage and here is an example of what they have to say:
“Once probably the most completely Victorian city in the British Isles, many of Belfast’s 19th century buildings have been demolished for road schemes, housing estates and commercial developments. Many of the remaining historic buildings within the city centre lie vacant, some even open to the elements, and with all sense of pride or purpose gone they have become a backdrop for anti-social behaviour and vandalism. Too often, it seems, developers acquire properties without thought for their possible restoration, often evicting long-standing family businesses and either blocking the buildings up or demolishing them outright while they seek planning permissions, in the process further eroding Belfast’s sense of place and character. The problem does not just lie with buildings that are completely vacant. Looking up above the ground floor on any street within the city centre, including core streets like Donegall Place, Royal Avenue, High Street and Castle Place, the majority of the upper storeys lie neglected and vacant, a trend which has been accelerated with the rise in online shopping. At the moment there are few incentives for developers to see their empty buildings brought into use. Buildings are acquired for their land value rather than because the new owners want to see them restored, or even perhaps like them. The buildings are often neglected because of an inability to see their potential for re-use.”