Sirocco Park

Where?

54.599711471532146, -5.914018421184276
BT5 4AE– Short Strand

Description of chosen place

The site is known as ‘Sirocco Quays’ but is best known as the former Sirocco Ropeworks. It is a derelict site, which cuts off East Belfast from the City Centre. The site has sat derelict for so long, nature (as it does) has taken over. It has begun to resemble a park; a place of nature and wildness.

What do you imagine the space could be?

Various property owners have bought and sold the land, but their grand schemes always come to nothing, and so the fenced off 16 acre site continues its isolation from the city. When living in London many years ago, I was taken by the sign on the entrance to Victoria Park in the East of the city. There was an epidemic of poor health in the area and in their (actual) wisdom, they created a large city park, for the long term benefit of the people. Rather than increasing hospital size, or training more doctors, they built a park. It is a measure of foresight that's sadly lacking in current thinking. The city might not necessarily need another super-development… East Belfast could do with a park though.

Submitted by

Joe Laverty

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

Sirocco Park

Where?

Description of chosen place

What do you imagine the space could be?

Submitted by

Date

Social

Contact

About the ‘Forgotten Spaces’ project