A Belfast Introduction: From Great Victoria Street to City Hall

Would you start a book from the second chapter?

Of course not. You’d start at the beginning, and you can think of this tour as the first chapter of your visit to Belfast. From the bustle of the Great Northern Mall to the dignified reflection of the Titanic Memorial Garden, it’s a perfect introduction to this endlessly fascinating city.

I’m a Belfast-born guide and I’d like to make you feel welcome here and share the city’s unlikely success story with you. From a crossing at a sand bank, without any natural resources, it mushroomed into a great Victorian city with thriving shipping and linen industries in the 1800s.

We’ll start our tour at Great Victoria Street. It’s where most people begin their journey through Belfast after they hop off a bus or train. Along the way, we’ll meet titans of industry who shaped the city as well as people who left their mark in the fields of science, architecture, religion, education and the arts. I’ll also point out a number of interesting buildings including the iconic Belfast City Hall.

On the tour, you'll also hear about:

• A hotel that has suffered 36 bomb attacks
• The Belfast Castle and the city’s beginnings
• What Milk of Magnesia is and how it soothed millions of upset stomachs for more than 150 years
• The Royal Belfast Academical Institution and its illustrious alumni
• Belfast’s ‘Black Man’ statue and the story of Reverend Henry Cooke
• The man who gave his name to the Wellington boot
• Thomas Cairnduff, the shipyard playwright
• The arrival of US Army troops in 1942
• The birthplace of the Titanic