Belfast Street Art: North Street and the Cathedral Quarter

When these photographs were taken in 2015, North Street and the adjoining Cathedral Quarter had become important locations for Belfast’s contemporary street-art movement. Hit the North began in 2013 as a response to vacant and neglected spaces along North Street. Organized by Seedhead Arts and the Community Arts Partnership, the festival brought local and international artists together to create murals on walls, shutters, and derelict buildings.

Several photographs document the former North Street Arcade, which linked North Street and Donegall Street. Its Donegall Street entrance was designed by Cowser and Smyth and completed in 1936 in the Art Deco style, while the North Street building incorporated an older Victorian structure. A fire in April 2004 severely damaged the arcade, leaving its surviving façades and closed storefronts as prominent surfaces for murals.

The photographed works combine stylized lettering, portraits, graphic characters, and pop-cultural imagery with the area’s historic brick and stone architecture. They preserve the appearance of Belfast’s changing urban-art landscape in 2015.