Titanic Quarter facts for kids
The Titanic Quarter in Belfast, Northern Ireland, is a big project to make the area by the water new and exciting. It has old ship-building sites, movie studios, schools, homes, and fun places by the river. The most famous part is the world's largest attraction all about the RMS Titanic. This area is in Belfast Harbour, which used to be called Queen's Island until 1995.
The site is about 185 acres big. It used to be part of the Harland and Wolff shipyard, where the Titanic was built. That's why it's named after the city's most famous ship. A company from Dublin called Harcourt Developments has been in charge of developing the Titanic Quarter since 2003.
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The Titanic Belfast Museum
The biggest building here is the Titanic Belfast visitor attraction. It cost £97 million to build. Its foundations needed the largest amount of concrete ever poured at once on the island of Ireland! The building opened on March 31, 2012. In its first year, over 800,000 people visited it. A charity owns this amazing attraction. The people who designed it said they wanted it to look like the shipyards, ships, ice, and even the logo of the White Star Line, the company that owned the Titanic.
Science Park and Film Studios
In 2005, Catalyst Inc opened. This is a science park that works closely with Queen's University Belfast and the University of Ulster. It's also near the famous Titanic Studios. These studios are also known as the Paint Hall Studios. They were first started by film producer Jo Gilbert. Many movies and TV shows have been made here. These include City of Ember with Tom Hanks and Bill Murray, Your Highness, and HBO's popular TV series Game of Thrones.
Northern Ireland's Archives
The main building for the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) opened in April 2011. It cost £30 million and is located at 2 Titanic Boulevard. PRONI is where Northern Ireland keeps its important historical documents. Some of these records go all the way back to the year 1219!
Big College Campus
In September 2011, the largest education building in Northern Ireland opened in Titanic Quarter. This was a new campus for the Belfast Institute for Further and Higher Education. It is now called Belfast Metropolitan College. This huge campus cost £211 million to build.
Belfast Harbour Marina
The Belfast Harbour Marina opened in the middle of Titanic Quarter in 2009. This happened during the Belfast Tall Ships Festival. It's located in the Abercorn Basin. The marina has 40 spots for small boats. It was paid for by the Northern Ireland Tourist Board and Belfast Tall Ships 2009 Ltd. There are plans to build an even bigger marina here in the future, with 200 spots for boats.
Places to Stay and Live
The first hotel in Titanic Quarter, a Premier Inn with a restaurant, opened in November 2010. It created over 40 new jobs. In September 2017, a second hotel, the Titanic Hotel Belfast, opened. This hotel is in the old Harland & Wolff Headquarters and Drawing Offices. It even has artwork by Colin H Davidson, who used to work at Harland and Wolff.
Belfast Audi, a car dealership, also opened its new main office here in November 2010. It's at 80 Sydenham Road and created 115 new jobs. The first homes in Titanic Quarter were finished in December 2010. These are called The Arc. They include apartments and shops right next to the Abercorn Basin.
Sports Fun
In September 2014, Northern Irish boxer Carl Frampton won a big boxing title here. He won the IBF world super-bantamweight title. This fight happened in a special outdoor arena built in the Titanic Quarter. About 16,000 fans watched, which was the biggest boxing crowd Northern Ireland had ever seen!
How to Get Around
The Titanic Quarter has good public transport. You can take Translink Metro bus services 94, 600A, and 600B. These buses run from Donegall Square North (near City Hall) to places like Holywood Exchange, Catalyst Inc, and Belfast City Airport. They also stop at The SSE Arena, Queens Road, Titanic Belfast, and Belfast Harbour Estate East.
You can also get here by train. NI Railways services stop at Titanic Quarter (Bridge End) station. This is the first station towards Bangor on the Belfast–Bangor line from Lanyon Place.
The G2 service, which is part of the Belfast Rapid Transit System (Glider), also ends its route at Titanic Quarter.
