CATHEDRAL QUARTER TRUST

Like many other cultural quarters around the world, the Cathedral Quarter has emerged from a post-industrial landscape of disused warehouses and dilapidated buildings. First mooted as a potential cultural hub in the 1970’s at the height of ‘the Troubles’, Northside, as it was then called, was gradually populated by local creative thinkers who recognised the area’s potential. Eventually, in 1997, the Laganside Corporation adopted part of Northside as a strategic link from the River Lagan to the city-centre and also launched what is now known as the Cathedral Quarter.

The vision for regeneration of the area was based on a mixed economy model where private investment worked alongside public funding to create a place where arts and culture mixed seamlessly with the commercial and hospitality sectors to offer a unique and authentic experience for visitors and local people alike.

Urban environments are constantly changing and the Cathedral Quarter has experienced both ups and downs – prior to COVID, the Trust had achieved many successes in helping to establish the Quarter as Belfast’s cultural hub, with thousands of visitors coming to the area each year to attend festivals and arts events, such as CQT’s flagship Culture Night event.

The Cathedral Quarter faces ongoing and new challenges. Longstanding development blight exists on one side of the area causing dilapidated streetscapes, dereliction and building neglect. Added to this has been a post Covid increase in homelessness, substance abuse and anti-social behaviour, this was set against a context of inadequate city cleansing, maintenance and policing coming out of the pandemic. The causes are interweaving; a loss of footfall due to the prolonged absence of visitors and workers during the pandemic combined with the previous blocked footfall caused by the 2018 Primark fire road closure. As of 2023 some of these issues are slowly being addressed and the new University Campus and a resident student population is bringing new footfall through parts of the area.

Alongside these challenges, stalled development projects such as ‘Tribeca Belfast’, cause urban blight along with the post-COVID shift to working from home. Businesses in the area, particularly those in the cultural and hospitality sectors that were weakened by the impact of the pandemic are further threatened by an unprecedented rise in costs and inflation. The broader economic context also presents significant challenges with major infrastructure projects that directly impact on the Quarter either stalled or in development limbo.

Despite all of these challenges, the Cathedral Quarter remains a special place in the city; welcoming, creative, diverse and edgy. In an era where we must address a low carbon future, the eminently repairable buildings of the area embody not just
sustainable bricks and mortar but ‘embodied energy’ in every sense. The work of safeguarding, animating and promoting this special place provides the context in which this Plan has been developed and in which the Cathedral Quarter Trust operates.