City Quays Gardens opened this week after being in development for over a year. The space features benches, plants, reclined seating and tables.
City Quays is a £275m investment by the harbour that has seen three new buildings created on lands owned by the harbour company, with more planned in the coming years.
The gardens are a £3m addition to that space, with the green being built on land previously reserved for parking.
Joe O’Neill, the CEO of Belfast Harbour, said: “The vision for City Quays Gardens was to create a vibrant and attractive public green space for Belfast and its people, including those who live here, work here and who are visiting the city.
“We decided to make this investment because we wanted to transform the public space around City Quays to make it an attractive leisure space and also to better connect the Harbour Estate to our neighbouring communities, including the growing student population nearby.
“The gardens provide a richly planted and bio-diverse green setting to what is both an area of great historic interest as well as a continually developing commercial and residential area.
“Having green spaces in urban areas is important for mental and physical wellbeing, which is why we wanted to create a space for rest and relaxation. We hope to follow this first phase of City Quays Gardens with further development of the public area around City Quays in future.
“As a Trust Port, Belfast Harbour reinvests all post-tax profits in developing the port and estate for the benefit of customers, the city and the region.
“The key principles of social, environmental and economic sustainability have been woven into the design and development of City Quays Gardens to develop what was previously a car park into gardens that blend our maritime heritage with sustainable design.
“The finished gardens include extensive tree planting, events lawns with amphitheatre seating, and outdoor eating areas, as well as an iconic and eye-catching sculpture at the main entrance.
The gardens were initially announced with a scheduled completion date of August 2024.
Newly finished City Quays Gardens, a public realm improvement project by Belfast Harbour. Photo by Peter Morrison
News Catch Up – Thursday 1 May
Mr O’Neill says that early responses to the space show its popularity with visitors.
“We have worked very closely with our designers and contractors to get the build absolutely right and we are very pleased with the results.
“We hope everyone who uses City Quays Gardens will be too. And judging by the response we have received this week, evidenced by the numbers of people using the gardens in the past few days, this has certainly been the case.”