Belfast Titanic Quarter

Today I'm visiting the other sight I came to Belfast to see, the Titanic Quarter, located at the former Harland & Wolff shipyards, where the Belfast Titanic tells the story surrounding that fated ship. The building is shaped like four ship bows surrounding a cuboid. It's a very popular attraction with close to a million visitors per year. I had bought my ticket online so skipped one queue, but still there was a line to enter.

From the windows one can see the location of the dry dock where the Titanic was built. H&W still exists today building offshore energy generators, e,g, wind turbines.

The exhibition starts chronologically, narrating the rise of Belfast as an industrial city.

The sorts of industries that sprouted in that era.

The beginnings of the shipbuilding industry.

At this point I stopped trying to record everything with my camera, except for exhibits which I found interesting, otherwise I would simply be doing a poor job of replicating the visitor experience with my photos.

A recreation of a luxury cabin on the Titanic.

The SOS call from the radio operator. In those days the code CQD was also used. Abbreviations shortened messages, naturally. OM means Old Man. Marconi was one of the beneficiaries from the disaster since it showed how crucial radio telegraphy was for communications with ships at sea.

One fact that emerged was that the radio on the Titanic was down for some time, creating a backlog of telegrams to send, so the operator was busy catching up and brusquely told another ship to stop interfering, thus missing a warning about icebergs ahead.

There were other factors of course, and the sum contributed to the tragedy.

At ground level there is a restaurant and bar.

Nearby is the Nomadic, the only surviving ship from the White Star Line. It has been restored to be a museum but apparently not taking visitors again yet as of 2022.

It has Cherbourg on it because it initially served there as a tender, and had various adventures for the rest of the century, until it was purchased by the Northern Ireland government for its historic significance.

I walked towards the harbour entrance and saw lines on the ground indicating where the Titanic dock used to be. There is this Iron Throne artwork there. I think it's connected with the Game of Thrones franchise.

Behind me in the photo is the Titanic Studios, which is a film production company that was involved with the Game of Thrones series and others. It's another revenue spinner for Belfast. You'll see it in the third panorama.

Panoramas:

I headed back towards the city along the River Lagan, passing the Belfast Harbour Marina. It was too far to walk the whole way so I caught the same Glider service, G2, that had brought me to the quarter.

Belfast is a much younger city than Dublin so the architecture is more modern. Due to the recent history of the Troubles, there are still areas of deprivation to the west. You can even take guided tours that show you the sectarian murals and explain the history.

Back in the city I came across some street entertainers.

Buskers.

Victoria Square shopping centre.

It had a complicated system of stairs linking floors.

But eventually I found the Nandos on the top floor and had a peri-peri chicken meal. It was close enough to what I'm used to to satisfy.

Another entrance to the centre. opening up to Victoria Square.

The Jaffe Memorial Fountain, commemorating the coronation, stands there.

And that's the end of my Belfast photos. I didn't see any other sights the rest of the day. I bought some bottled water and sandwiches and had them for dinner in my room.

In the morning I caught the return service of the Enterprise to Dublin.