Donegall Street Car Park

Where?

54.60127111450133, -5.927900054804886
BT1 2FF – Donegall Street

Description of chosen place

A car park that has been left neglected, covered in potholes and an eyesore on one of Belfast’s original historic streets.

What do you imagine the space could be?

A Pocket Park. With the policy to increase the number of people living in Belfast city centre it is important that consideration is given to adequate outdoor amenity space. My keen interest in regenerating Belfast and bringing people back into the city inspired me to do research in other cities such as Philadelphia and New York and applied what I learnt to how an area in Belfast could be developed to enhance and regenerate a deprived area. My proposal will introduce a Pocket Park between lower North Street and lower Donegall Street. This will make people aware of the great history, culture and economic importance this site once held back in the late 19th Century.

Submitted by

Orren McLaughlin

Date

February 20, 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

Donegall Street Car Park

Where?

Description of chosen place

What do you imagine the space could be?

Submitted by

Date

Social

Contact

About the ‘Forgotten Spaces’ project