This aptly named 'Writer's Square' area of the magnificent St Anne's church courtyard was…read moretransformed for one night only in to a Mecca of arts and culture where various stalls, tents and stands were set up and all displayed their various wares, arts, skills and events all in relation to Culture Night. There were a number of interesting, fun stalls where you could get henna tattoos or get your face painted or pick up information about the various charities and events relating to Culture Night around Cathedral Quarter. There was live music playing throughout the night as well as a miniature stage show from 'Leon and the place Between' which will be debuted at the Belfast Festival at Queens. Any one who missed this night should be well prepared for next year as it seems to be growing and flourishing in to a fantastic event on the Belfast calendar. It was here I discovered the publication 'Belfast Flags of Hope' which is a fascinating and great publication by The Thomas Devlin Fund. This group was set up to commemorate the young school boy (Devlin) who was viciously murdered on his way home from the shop, one summer night, five years ago. The fund provides financial support for teens involved in creative and musical ventures. The 'Flags of Hope' idea was thought up by local artist Raymond Watson who wanted to represent the aspirations of school children in the fight for the hope of a day where sectarianism no longer exists. This scheme touched my heart as I was at school with Dev and I think it's great to see even a glimmer of good coming out of his death.

History and modern clash here in the Cathedral Quarter which is in the shadow of Belfast's Saint…read moreAnne's Cathedral. I spent most of my time along Hill Street but there's more. The narrow cobblestone alleyways are lined with classic pubs, fashionable bars and a spectrum of restaurants for different tastes and budgets. Many of the walls here are covered with street art, either sanctioned or unsanctioned. This makes for a colorful (colourful?) tour as you stumble from one drinking establishment to the next. Thankfully, my hotel was not too far away from Hill Street so I didn't have to stumble too far after enjoying drinks in the Dirty Onion and the Dark Horse the Garrick bar and the Duke of York. Lots of traditional Irish music, some whiskey, some Guinness and more. Don't miss the Yardbird which smelled amazing with their rotisserie chicken cooking. [Review 1994 of 2024 - 896 in United Kingdom - 23016 overall]

It has become a trend of modern times to quarter off cities into distinct areas. A technique to…read moreimprove the tourist experience and enhance city environments for locals. Some commentators criticise this, pointing to gentrification as a side effect of such urban planning. However, Belfast as a city emerging from decades of turmoil due to The Troubles, needed urban improvement more than any other UK city. The Cathedral Quarter has given Belfast an area to be proud of and I personally think it's brilliant. With cobbled streets, the continental feel of St Anne's Square, street art, The MAC, Black Box, Oh Yeah Music Centre, Belfast Print Workshop, Duke of York, 2Taps, Coppi, The Merchant and many more pubs, restaurants, independent shops and galleries the Cathedral Quarter brings a long awaited vibrancy to Belfast. It's my favourite area in Belfast to hang out and relax with friends and family. An area buzzing with people, music and culture which makes me proud of my city. Also don't miss it on Culture Night which is an event occurring annually in September. On this one night, the best night of the year for Culture Vultures, Cathedral Quarter abounds with live art, music, performance, dance, fire, colour and entertainment that will make you glad to be alive. You would be a fool to miss it - and bring the kids as it's family friendly up until 9pm.

Great artwork of a 33ft long by artist John Kindness. This fish is a ceramic tile and located at…read morethe bank of Lagan River. It's very noticeable and well created. Glad that I visited.

We live laugh love the salmon of knowledge!!! Big Fish was a huge highlight of the trip, even…read morethough we only got to see it at night because of our timing.

Moored in the Lagan is The Belfast Barge, quiet and unassuming it doesn't blow its own trumpet but…read moreit really should. There are 3 elements to the Belfast Barge which was news to me when I visited last week. Much more than just a boat The Belfast Barge is a successful restaurant, a museum and an events venue. Next week they are hosting a comedy night in their events venue, which will be very cosy. The museum is full of maritime facts and history depicting Northern Irekand's ship building and boating heritage. The museum also hosts temporary exhibitions. The restaurant is fully licensed and acts as a café bar during the day and at night live music and cabaret dominate the barge, the boat will literally be rocking!

A unique performance space. I have seen comedy performances and gigs here. It's holds a lot of…read morepeople and worth going to if you get a chance #Comedy #Music

In all honesty I'm not overly impressed with Pottinger's Entry. Certainly it has historical…read morerelevance and there's always a busker hollering, but I would never direct a tourist or friend here. Pottinger's Entry ultimately is just another Belfast street with nothing exceptional to make it worthwhile of a visit. It's also often filled with smelly bins which are off-putting but I guess bins must go somewhere for collection. What's great is that it's home to Grapevine Cafe, Morning Star pub and some other independent shops and eateries which are very, very good. However the strength lies with these businesses alone and has nothing to do with their location. Unfortunately I wouldn't recommend Pottinger's Entry itself as a place to make a beeline for as I personally think it lacks any distinctive features, art or ambience. A lot of the other Belfast entries have greater character - this is nothing special.

Having wandered through Belfast's many alleyways and entries on a daily basis I thought it was…read moreabout time I put my feelings toward them on Yelp. I'll start with the freshly renovated Pottinger's Entry. This is one of Belfast's five oldest streets and boasts used to be home to The Newsletter and a few other newspapers making it comparable with London's Fleet street. The 'entry' is now a convenient cut through leading to local businesses. You can often find an acoustic guitar-wielding busker belting out the tunes in Pottinger's Entry. Cutting through here will give you an insight in to what old Belfast was like especially if there is folk music bouncing off the bricks - you'll feel like your walk has been given its very own soundtrack. Banners hang at the entrance and exit of Pottinger's Entry saying, "The Entries - the close knit passageways where Belfast was born and bred" This sums up the importance of these wee snickets in Belfast's current architectural make up.

It looks like a jewelry box but it's actually the Jaffe Memorial Fountain. Striking and brightly…read morecolorful it was originally erected in 1874 by Sir Otto Jaffe to honor his father, Daniel Jaffe. It was initially placed in Victoria Square but was later moved to the Botanic Gardens, where it remained until 2008 It is intricate and elegant, made of Portland stone with each of the smaller columns featuring a female figure that represents each of the four seasons. It stands at the Victoria Street entrance to the Victoria Square shopping center. The original yellow and white were apparently selected to reflect the aesthetic preferences of the Victorian era, as these were popular colors to symbolize purity and light and optimism. It is indeed a fountain but in September it was dry. I'm not sure if it is ever filled with water. [Review 1883 of 2024 - 866 in United Kingdom - 22905 overall]

I bet you've walked past this wee gem hundreds of times but never given it a second look, I'm right…read morearen't I? Well now it's time to be enlightened. This is the Jaffa Fountain, not named after everyone's favourite cake/biscuit but actually named after Belfast's first Lord Mayor Otto Jaffa. The fountain itself was actually built in 1879 and it was erected in its current location, but here's the strange part. As industrial and commercial Belfast grew it was moved out to Botanic Gardens - mature students might recognise it from those days. Once Victoria Square was commissioned the decision was made to bring the old fellow back to its rightful place. I for one am glad they did as I think it provides a welcome nod to Belfast's past in the centre of its current commercial renaissance.

So if you're looking for a real delve into The Troubles in Belfast, you'll have to make your way…read moredown the Loyalist and Protestant hub of Shankill Road after you walk the Catholic Falls Road. Bustling with life and retail, Shankill appears like any small enclave of a city trying to make ends meet: pubs, butchers, tailors, newsagents, florists. And above them, the murals. Is Shankill rich and haughty compared to Falls Road? No. One step around the leisure center and lower Shankill and you'll sickeningly realize that this war was the blood of the poor fighting the poor - same as every major war that the politically empowered attempt to subvert. It's a place worth going and should not be missed.

As part of our Northern Ireland tour, we got a 2 hour Belfast Black Cab Tour included, and this was…read morethe first stop our wonderful tour guide, a bloke by the name of Paul, took us to. My brother and I had been to Belfast before and to the Peace Wall area, but this was our first time to the International Peace Wall murals and it was Brilliant learning more about the area and the context with a guide. So firstly, these murals are painted on a boundary wall of the Andrews Flour Mill Factory and its for all the other "struggles" going on in the world. When I visited in March 2019, the murals depicted Catalonia, Syria & Palestine issues. The area surrounding this mural is also of interest and there is an info board which is very helpful. There's a blink and you miss it spite of a Catholic Church, surrounded (protected?) by houses, and also a tall red & white building, awkwardly out of place. This building is the only remnant of a 5-building complex where the top 2 floors were taken over by the UK army and used as their command post. Interesting, fascinating place to visit! Yelp 129/ 2019

We could hear the clock ring for 1pm as we were snacking away at Sawers and if I had known that…read morethis was an hourly thing, we'd have sped up our chacuterie consumption to catch this. A proper glockenspiel and the only one in Ireland, the Alice Clock was created to celebrate the millenium. There are 24 bells that play on the hour where characters from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland rotate around the three mosaic panels. Every three hours, it's religious figures to celebrate the birth of Christ. The clock was designed and executed by Berni Sutton of Coney Island, County Down. Worth a visit! [Review 1894 of 2024 - 872 in United Kingdom - 22916 overall]

If you thought that the Albert Clock was the only famed timepiece in Belfast, then you were sadly…read morewrong. Belfast's second clock (only in size mind you) is located at the Fountain Centre. It is really rather quaint and unusual, having been brought from Hamburg, where it was made, to Belfast a mere ten years ago. If you're in and around the Fountain Centre, perhaps you've popped into Utopia for a gift, or Caffe Nero for a coffee, take 5 minutes out to admire this enchanting timekeeper. It lies just above the escalators which take you up to the roof of the Fountain Centre, and the chimes can be observed dangling from the ceiling. This is a lovely spot to sit on a sunny day, with a couple of calming fountains providing a tranquil atmosphere for the weary shopper. The benches which provide an opportune occasion to people watch on the pedestrian area below, and if you're lucky enough to be there on the hour, the Hamburg Clock will happily play you a little tune, with cute figurines rotating round the pillar. Not a must-see, but if you so happen to be in the area, the Clock at the Fountain Centre will undoubtedly bring a smile to your face.

Someone somewhere is a bright spark. Putting pianos on the street just to brighten up people's…read moremiserable, monotonous days. It is so simple. And it was so effective. I suppose in a way it was public art, but public art that the public could actually get involved in. Which is a nice change. Not something to look at, but something to do. It was a bit confusing when I first walked past and seen a piano (as you would expect, you don't go down to the shops and expect to have a piano sitting in the way). And admittedly I did that passer-by thing that meant I just looked at it instead of actually doing anything. And then someone with a hat and bright hair sat down and twinkled away. And she was quite good. But then I got this overwhelming urge to play. Despite the fact I have no piano skills. I can do a bit of Twinkle Twinkle. But that's pretty much it. So I skipped it. But still, to the artist Luke Jerram, Well Done! We need more things like this. Give me a trumpet and i'll play a jazz version of Ground Force.

Last Monday while I was walking through town I came across in my opinion one of the coolest ideas…read more(of its kind) ever implemented in Belfast. I was walking by the Tesco's minding my own business when I came across a crowd of guys sitting around singing and laughing, and bearing in mind in was around 10.30am I thought it more likely that it was a crowd of drunks enjoying themselves rather than anything else. As it turns out I was half right. Yes it was a crowd of drunks and yes they were enjoying themselves. At the centre of their entertainment however was a piano that had been locked to the nearest sturdy object, out of the way of busy shoppers but obviously placed so it could grab the attention of passersby. One of the guys was playing out tune after tune much the pleasure of the small gathered crowd and this definitely put an out of place smile on my face for a Monday morning! As I carried on about my business I came across two more pianos around town and I'm sure there are more in the places I didn't walk around. The pianos were obviously well worn but had been fixed up so that they could be used for this initiative and fair play to whomever it was that did it! It was great to see people getting such enjoyment out of an object that would most likely have been discarded and the fact they could be used by anyone that wanted to have a go represents a notion of sharing and kindness that is rarely seen and sadly lacking these days. Good work!!