Belfast City Hall

Belfast, Co. Antrim

Tel: 028 902 70456

At the heart of the city is Donegall Square, a spacious public area dominated by the imposing City Hall and a huge statue of Queen Victoria who visited Belfast in 1849. Designed by Sir Brumwell Thompson, the Hall was built between 1896 and 1906 in classical renaissance style with a gleaming Portland stone exterior and a sumptuous Italian marble interior. The central dome and corner towers have been unashamedly borrowed from Sir Christopher Wren's St Paul's Cathedral. There are 45-minute guided tours available which take in the palatial entrance hall, robing room, council chamber and views of the magnificent 173ft high dome whose whispering gallery, oddly, cannot be reached.

The council chamber is, naturally, the grandest room, with hand-carved wainscoting and walls dotted with portraits of British royalty and aristocracy. Outside, at the east side, is a sculptured group commemorating the victims of the Titanic, at that time the largest ship in the world, and one of many liners built in the Belfast shipyards.

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