A SECTION OF THE LAGAN TOWPATH BELFAST CITY – MAY 2015
When I use the Lagan Towpath I find many of the cyclists to be over aggressive towards pedestrians and I did read in a local newspaper and online that this is/was a known issue.
In May 2015 I started at Stranmillis in Belfast and walked to the Odyssey complex, where the River Lagan enters Belfast Lough. Near the exit to the Gasworks a young man tried to steal my camera but fortunately he was not successful.
I should mention that over a period of of ten years visiting Belfast this is the only such incident that I have encountered. Shortly afterwards two police officers approached me to enquire if I had seen someone matching the identity of the person in question. Apparently he would offer to take photographs using the tourist’s camera or phone and then run away with the camera. Their advise was that, in general, the Lagan Towpath was very safe but that one needed to be alert as is always the case.
There is no doubting the fact that low-level anti-social activity is an ongoing problem in Belfast and that is a great pity because there are some really excellent public facilities provided by Belfast City Council.
Every time I am in Belfast I take a walk along the Lagan Towpath because I really like it. However it does appear to suffer from a high level of anti-social activity and often the street furniture and public art installations [especially ‘Weights 2000’ by Mike Hogg] show signs of unnecessary and unsightly damage and destruction.
But to be fair, when I visited in May 2017, there was much less evidence of damage due to vandalism and the Mike Hogg installation and been repaired. In May 2018 I could not decided if the installation had been relocated to make way for a new building but the installation was in reasonable condition.
When I visited in March 2019 the installation was well located but two of the elements were damaged and all had attracted the attention of taggers.
The Gasworks distinctive funnel and clock tower mark the place where the city’s gas-making industry began production in the 19th century. The area offers a quiet place to escape from the bustle of the nearby city centre and makes an ideal starting point for a pleasant walk or cycle along the River Lagan towards Donegall Quay or upstream towards the Lagan Towpath and Lagan Valley Regional Park.
Gasworks has been the site of Belfast’s gas-making industry since the 19th century. The site, built on ground owned by the Marquis of Donegall, opened in 1822 and supplied gas for street lighting and domestic and industrial use.
Belfast Corporation (now the Belfast City Council) used their profits from the gas industry to pay for the construction of Belfast City Hall, which opened in 1906.
By the end of World War II in 1945, around 120,000 people were using gas from the Gasworks site. However, by the 1960s, demand declined as new technologies began to emerge and production finally stopped altogether in 1985.
The Gasworks site was purchased by the council, together with central government and the Laganside Corporation, in the early 1990s. The land was considered unsuitable for most uses, due to contamination, but a major refurbishment programme, part-funded by the European Union, soon turned the area into a modern business park.
You must be logged in to post a comment.