Botanic Bungalows

Where?

54.578898274659785, -5.928965007167821
BT9 5YR – Stranmillis Embankment

Description of chosen place

This stretch of Stranmillis embankment along the river Lagan was home, for 25 years, to many families displaced by WWII bombing. These 72 prefab ‘Botanic Bungalows’ built in 1946 – housing from No. 1, “Hall, John, civil servant” to No 72, “Guinn, Sgt. Andrew, R.A.F.” (source: 1951 Belfast Street Directory) – would have seen children born, raised, up and gone. Funerals, weddings, birthdays, the stories of these lives, marked by war and impermanence (these poorly constructed prefabs, although intended to be temporary, were inhabited until April 1971 when they were demolished to make way for the Ulster ’71 festival) (source: “The resident of the last pre-fab bungalow at the Ulster 71 exhibition site in Botanic Gardens is interviewed.”) have left no visible trace. Today, a fence, hedge and carpark replace the once busy village of working class people (tram drivers, postmen, shop assistants) suddenly thrown together by circumstance and necessity. Apart from scant photographic sources and some testimonials from internet forums, no documents or archives record the lives of the 72 families of Botanic Bungalows, this forgotten place.

What do you imagine the space could be?

I imagine a shadow presence of the homes with boundaries traced on the empty space they left behind. Soft markings on the grass could represent boundaries. Plaques could indicate family names with QR codes for people to record further information and memories on residents' lives. An online archive of memories and photographs could be made available to descendents of those who lived, for some, the best years of their lives.

Submitted by

Colin Shaw

Date

February 19, 2023

About the ‘Forgotten Spaces’ project

We added a competition element and public voting mechanism to the exhibition to encourage engagement over passive viewing. From this process, two submissions – Short Strand Green Wall and Donegall Street Car Park – were allocated the ‘top prize’ of £100, racking up well over 300 stars between them. A discussion event and prize giving was held on Wednesday March 22nd at the Europa Hotel. We were joined by Sean Dolan, Senior Development Manager, Belfast City Council and Seamus Connolly, Group Manager, Neighbourhoods, Regeneration and Sustainability, Glasgow City Council for discussion on methodologies and policies in place for ‘How to Regenerate Forgotten Spaces?’. In the continuing spirit of democracy the event audience got to vote to give special commendations for ‘inspiring our collective imagination’ to a further three entries from a shortlist – those selected were Clandeboyne Corner, Inner City Forest (east) and The Church at Fountainville Ave.

With Forgotten Spaces we were interested in derelict buildings, waste-grounds, and development sites in that limbo-state, not because we were trying to address the myriad of complexities about land ownership, access or regeneration but rather because we were trying to draw attention to the vast number of neglected, unloved and underused spaces of the city which seem to get forgotten or ignored in top-level conversations. Imagination is a muscle – you need to feed it, feed it with ideas from other places, people, positive news - hopefully this project is feeding your imagination.

We’re not sure what the next stage will be (or if there will be one) but are always open to discussion ideas. Get in touch if you think we can help you or you can help us.

Meadhbh McIlgorm, Project Curator

Botanic Bungalows

Where?

Description of chosen place

What do you imagine the space could be?

Submitted by

Date

Social

Contact

About the ‘Forgotten Spaces’ project