Was up today at the zoo, dragging the weans around looking at bored animals, and it struck me that the derelict and over grown pleasure gardens are a real missed opportunity for Belfast. Why the council hasn’t redeveloped them into a set of a terraces with a view which is second to none is beyond me. Most of the landscaping is already in place too, there’d be work involved in the grounds but it’s already on the site of the cave hill park and has a massive car park in front of the zoo.

If you really wanted to be adventurous, stick a cable car to Valley Park?

Add in local archaeological sites like McArt’s Fort and the completely unexcavated Fort William (an 18th century star fort) and you’ve got the makings of a wee tourist complex.

Just some thoughts that went through my head…

by ThePistonCup

15 comments

  1. Council investing in something to *improve* the place?

    You new?

  3. It’s losing millions per year and it’s likely we will see a restructure soon, can’t imagine that will involve anything that costs more money. (No matter the long term gain)

    What form that takes, I’m interested to find out.

  4. Fort William? Got any info on this, I’ve never heard of it and can’t find anything about it online. 

  5. It’ll take closing or massively shrinking the zoo before that land becomes available. The disrepair of the steps is absolutely criminal. It could be a fantastic resource on the new route of the Glider too, but would take a lot of thinking outside the box.

    Personally I think the zoo should stick to native European species in the same way that Wild Ireland does.

    No bloody cable car either, if you’ve ever seen the state of Snowdon from visitor numbers! Summits should be a reward for the journey up.

  6. Belfast is filled with missed opportunity, the tram system for example

  7. Nice to see constructive positive points for the land use. Zoo certainly needs to go.

  8. This is my euro millions project if I won like. 120m quid. Rock up to the council with 20m and go “here’s my pitch” it’d involve fixing the floral hall too.

  9. They’d be better closing the zoo and doing something like this. The zoo is the most depressing place, we took our kids last year and the animals looked so sad. Our boy talked non stop about the fake dinosaur exhibit as the most exciting part of it…speaks for itself.

    In contrast we recently visited Wild Ireland in Burnfoot. The animals seemed markedly happier, healthier and the place is much better kept. My kids loved it too.

  10. Sounds amazing tbf. Would love to see a drinks terrace of some kind, to bring adults to what would have been the grounds of the zoo for an afternoon out. Whilst we are at it they need to renovate the ballroom at the zoo too!

  11. Would say it was a shame but would prob be some sort of migrant camp now if we did….

  12. Any hope is dashed when you think of the beautiful Art Deco dance hall in the middle of the zoo, that has just been left to rot!

  13. Sorry, that money is already being used to provide for the newly arriving population.

  14. I’ve always thought that the Floral Hall could be a real tourist trap.

  15. I’m trying to visualise where this is in relation to the zoo?

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