IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Musgrave Street, BELFAST, BT1 3HX

Bittles is a small bar, sitting at the sharp end of Belfast's only flat-iron building. It dates back to the 1860's and you can see a gilded shamrock about half way up.

See Image The new Musgrave Street police station under construction (middle). Continue to Image

A row of Victorian warehouses stretched, along the eastern side of Victoria Street, from Chichester Street to Ann Street (background, left). Behind them lay Musgrave Street and Townhall Streets – the site of Musgrave Street police station and the back of the Magistrates Court - both prime targets during the bombing campaign. A barracks had been built, for the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC), at Musgrave Street, towards the end of the 19th century. It replaced previous establishments in Police Place and Police Square (both streets which, after re-building, became part of a new street called Victoria Square). The RIC barracks subsequently became the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) barracks (later the RUC and now the Police Service of Northern Ireland station). The warehouses had been acquired, in the 1970’s (using emergency legislation) and acted as a security screen for Musgrave Street station, personnel and associated facilities. In this photo they were being prepared for demolition and replacement by a concrete wall. The taking of this (and the others in this series) was illegal and, had I been “caught” (while I doubt whether I would have been prosecuted), I would have expected to have been told to expose the film to daylight. Premises and their occupants (police and non-police) were “legitimate targets” – discretion and common sense were vital when taking any sort of photograph of anything “sensitive”. Continue to Image

All the buildings, in this view of Victoria Street, have now vanished. Those in the background were demolished as described in Image Those in the foreground (including the building from which the photograph was taken) went under the bulldozer for the Victoria Square development Image In the days before the Westlink Image and the M3 Image, all traffic from the south to the north and north Down passed along Victoria Street (much quieter now). Finally, just below the double-deck bus, there was a security checkpoint where all vehicles and pedestrians, entering “The Segments” Image were searched. There is no equivalent in 2011. This is an approximate “then and now” Image

See Image Three of the buildings almost opposite Victoria Square, to the right (south) of the previous photo. Continue to Image

This is the exit ramp of the Victoria Square car park on Victoria Street. The First Trust Bank building is on the right.

This building, at the apex of Upper Church Lane and Victoria Street, displays this shamrock with the date “1861”. An architectural guide book gives the date of construction as 1868 . . . See also Image Image shows the entire building in March 2012.

See Image One of the less common, white on black signs with the old postal district number, on the south eastern side, at the Victoria Square end of Upper Church Lane.

A classical head on the Victoria Street side of the Victorian former Trueman’s warehouse Image

See Image The view towards Victoria Street with the Laganside Buscentre Image on the right. The curved building (left) is the rear of the First Trust Bank offices Image (The Google map fails to show that this street runs to Victoria Street.)