If you don’t behave, you might end up like this person, whose punishment is to look at the street art in Union Street, outside the Sunflower.
Click and click again to enlarge (to 1000 x 750)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T02572
Laughing Stocks
City Centre
Bound In Good Style
The first printing press in Belfast belonged to James Blow and his brother-in-law Patrick Neil in 1694 (DIB | Dublin Penny Journal gives 1696 | Mary Lowry Story Of Belfast gives 1690); a run of 8,000 Bibles is said to have been printed in 1751, one of which is part of the Linen Hall Library’s collection on Early Ulster Printing (RASCAL).
In 1895, Carswell & Sons opened a print-works and book-binders in a warehouse running with frontage in Queen Street and a rear in College Court (the building is now a bingo hall – see Kelly’s Eyes) which is currently being renovated as an office block (Bel Tel) – some of the scaffolding in College Cour can be seen in the later images in We Built This, the street art festival for International Women’s Day, 2023.
To complement those festival pieces, the mouth of College Court has been given a make-over, with work by Peachzz (ig) (above) and lettering by Woskerski (ig) that both draw on the street’s association with printing. If you know who did the “bookbinding” piece, please get in touch.
Previously on either side of College Court there were two pieces by Friz: Fox and Hare.
The bonus image, of a man leaning against the newsagent’s wall, is on the corner with Castle Street.
Click and click again to enlarge (to 1000 x 750)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
Click and click again to enlarge (to 1000 x 750)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
Click and click again to enlarge (to 1000 x 750)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
Click and click again to enlarge (to 750 x 1000)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T02439 T02441 T02440 T01737
Different Days
An 11-metre-wide set of bouquets spelling out “Belfast” has been installed in front of Belfast City Hall as the initial event of the Belfast One Business Improvement District’s campaign for 2023-2024. The calendar of events can be found here.
Click and click again to enlarge (to 1000 x 750)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T02741
The Grid
Work by Rob Hilken (web | ig) in Bank Square, Belfast.
Click and click again to enlarge (to 1000 x 750)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T02541
From Dawn ‘Til Dusk
Street art by Rob Hilken (web | ig) in High Street and Church Lane, Belfast.
Click and click again to enlarge (to 1000 x 750)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
Click and click again to enlarge (to 1000 x 750)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
Click and click again to enlarge (to 1000 x 750)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T02529c T02530 T02531r
Support Your Local Artist
Or artists – as there are plenty of them. This piece is by Danni Simpson (ig) on the shutters of Bradbury Art Store in Callender Street, Belfast.
Click and click again to enlarge (to 700 x 962)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T02769
Nerone
Here are both the new and the old pieces from French artist (now based in London) Nerone (ig | web). The new piece is a wide arrangement of flowers in Upper Arthur Street. The older piece (shown in the final image, below) is from 2021’s Hit The North, “Life Won’t Wait” above the night-club (currently Club Lux) in Dunbar Road.
Click and click again to enlarge (to 1000 x 750)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
Click and click again to enlarge (to 1000 x 750)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
Click and click again to enlarge (to 1000 x 750)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
Click and click again to enlarge (to 1000 x 750)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T02017
T02014 [T02013]
T02015
T01860
The Spiritual And The Temporal
Work by emic (ig) in Castle Lane, Belfast, perhaps picking up a theme from Friz’s Under The Cherry Blossoms in Castle Arcade which focused on the castle and grounds in the era of Arthur Chichester. Chichester’s castle burned down in 1708 and by 1800 the castle and its grounds were vanishing under buildings akin to the nearby corn market and Belfast entries (WP).
Click and click again to enlarge (to 900 x 910)
Copyright © 2023 Extramural Activity
Camera Settings: f2.4, 1/600, ISO 16, full size 3021 x 3055
Click and click again to enlarge (to 1000 x 750)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
Click and click again to enlarge (to 1116 x 700)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
Click and click again to enlarge (to 900 x 1200)
Copyright © 2023 Extramural Activity
Camera Settings: f1.8, 1/1297, ISO 20, full size 3024 x 4032
X12366 [X12368] T02701 [T02699] [T02700] T02738 [T02739] [T02740] X12367
You Built A Time Machine … Out Of A DeLorean?
In the film Back To The Future, Doc Brown builds a time machine out of a DeLorean by adding a “flux capacitor”. In the second film in the series (IMDb), Doc and Marty take the DeLorean – now with a thruster and wheels that flip horizontally in order to act as jets – into the future (that is, 2015). The movie franchise has given a long life to a car that in practice was made – in Belfast – for only seven years (WP).
Street art by Glen Molloy in Corporation Street, Belfast.
Previously in Larne: Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines.
T02578
Click and click again to enlarge (to 1000 x 750)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
‘Bout Ye
How’s about ye?! FGB (ig), Leo Boyd (ig), and KVLR (ig) added three pieces at the end of April to what is now the “Belfast Stories” construction hoarding. FGB’s piece, shown above, was inspired by the fact that the northern branch of North Street was called “Goose Lane” (tw) at the time of (Chichester’s) Belfast Castle, as herders headed through the north gate (see the map at Lennon Wylie). There is a “Goose Lane” plaque on just the other side of Royal Avenue; it is included below.
Click and click again to enlarge (to 1000 x 750)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
Click and click again to enlarge (to 1000 x 750)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
Click and click again to enlarge (to 1000 x 750)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T02615 T02614 T02613
“One of the earliest streets in the city, North Street was known as Goose Lane, along which geese were driven to feed on the fields outside the town. That 17th century street consisted of single-storey houses and the old city wall bisected it at what is now Royal Avenue – Belfast City Council.”
Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 800)
Copyright © 2016 Extramural Activity
Camera Settings: f5, 1/40, ISO 100, full size 3888 x 2592
X05368
Extramural Activity 