Belfast, The Harbour Office 1897

Photo ref: 40220

More about this scene

Belfast had a very effective body managing and improving its harbour long before it had a council able to provide roads, drainage and oversee housing. This was the office of the Harbour Commissioners, a body of senior ship owners, shippers and merchants; they did away with the small docks to provide spaces now occupied by Queens, Albert and Corporation Squares. They established the basis of the present harbour. A major task was the cutting of the Victoria Channel to give a straight passage from Queens Bridge to the Lough. The work left an island where they built a slip, which was soon to be managed by J E Harland. In 1897 the commissioners were landlords to a yard employing nearly 9,000 on the County Down side. The astonishing trade of Belfast, and the charges on ships and goods, provided all the money required and some to spare. The non-profit-making commissioners built these handsome offices. Well furnished, with marble busts and the walls hung with pictures, the decor would have become a London gentlemen's club. They designed a uniform for formal occasions: frock coats, white waistcoats and fancy buttons with gilt anchors. Not all was harmony, however; there were battles to be fought with their shipbuilding tenant across the river.

An extract from Belfast Photographic Memories.