Belfast city centre is focused on Donegall Square and Belfast City Hall in its centre. All major city bus routes converge here and, on sunny days, this is where shoppers and office workers can be found enjoying their breaks. The City Hall is the grand centerpiece of the city and the orientation point for your exploration of Belfast. Running north from the centre of Donegall Square is Donegall Place, a broad and bustling shopping street, which will lead you towards the Cathedral Quarter and the Arts School. The city centre is bordered to the east by the River Lagan, and to the south by the area around Donegall Pass. Where Belfast city centre meets the River Lagan, windswept pavements prove that meaningless sculptures and grandiose attempts at urban planning do not necessarily make for a popular urban space. The horrendous dual carraigeway known as the Westlink successfully separated the centre of Belfast from the western suburbs of the city in the nineteen-seventies; this borders the city centre to the west, on the plus side, the network of dual carriageways and motorways mean that one can get from the city centre to all the surrounding suburbs and satellite towns in less than fifteen minutes,even during the rush hour, something which is impossible in many other cities, for example Dublin.

In between these rough boundaries, you'll find Belfast's heart. Parts of it are blighted by deriliction, others are blighted by narrow minded money grabbing redevelopment. Note that while largely safe at all times, years of city centre curfews during the troubles means that the centre of Belfast can be startlingly empty of pedestrians after 8pm. City centre living has yet to become as popular here as in other parts of Britain and Ireland.

The *City Hall, Donegall Square, Tel: 9032 0202 - Opened in 1906, the City Hall will possibly seem familiar to South African visitors, who may notice more than a passing resemblence to the city hall in Durban. This is a fine example of turn of the century architecture from the heart of the British Empire's drafting office. The City Hall houses Belfast's Council chambers and administrative offices. Excellently presented free guided tours are available every day; ring ahead for details of times. Also of note are the grounds, containing a memorial to victims of the Titanic and a statue of Queen Victoria. The spacious grassy square and broad pavements that surround the City Hall are also where local youths gather to perform complex mating rituals. The City Hall will temporarily close to the public from early November 2007 for essential renovation works. However, the grounds of the building will remain open and will continue to play host to popular events, such as the Continental Christmas Market. The building is scheduled to reopen in 2009 and, until then, most Council services, including the Registrar's office for births, deaths, marriages and civil partnerships, will relocate to Adelaide Exchange in nearby Adelaide Street.

• Place, 40 Fountain Street, Tel: 9023 2524. This diminutive shop space was recently taken over by the Royal Society of Ulster Architects (RSUA) as a small gallery space to promote the built environment in Northern Ireland. Regular exhibitions and workshops are held here.
• Ormeau Baths Gallery, 18a Ormeau Avenue, Tel: 9032 1402. Significantly lacking in credibility, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland has now taken over the running of this once-lively and vibrant art gallery. This change of direction has left the OBG without a single artist involved in the running of the museum. A group of local artists has subsequently formed the Ormeau Baths Gallery in Exile, a mobile venue which hopes to 'return' to the OBG building in 2007.
• Saint Anne's Cathedral, Donegall St, Tel: 9043 4006. The stunning cathedral building is situated at the opposite end of Royal Avenue, the main shopping street, from the City Hall. It is a fascinating building, and is at the centre of the "Cathedral Quarter", which is reluctantly being redesigned and cleaned up by various investment agencies to become Belfast's 'cultural' distract. Thankfully, a lot of work remains to be done, and the area contains many fine cafés, bars and interesting buildings that recall the city's commercial and industrial heritage. Rent prices have yet to jump significantly, so keep an eye out for the small galleries and studio workspaces that remain in this area.
• Belfast Exposed, 23 Donegall Street. Tue-Sa 11am to 5pm, Tel: 9023 0965. Belfast Exposed is Northern Ireland's only dedicated photography gallery, and as well as operating a fine exhibition space in a refurbished warehouse building, also provides local photographers with dark room and processing facilties and a well maintained library. Exhibitions are usually free and always worth seeing.
• Belfast Print Workshop and Gallery, 30-42 Waring Street, Tel: 9023 1323. This gallery is combined with an active workshop, where local artists are able to use the facilities to print their work. Usually a good selection of local work.
• Belfast Central Library, Royal Avenue, Tel: 9050 9150. Opposite the road from the Cathedral, the Victorian library building houses an excellent Irish section and a Newspaper library, containing archives of all Northern Irish newspapers.
• Lagan Lookout Visitors Centre, 1 Donegal Quay, Tel: 9031 5444. On the river, beside the Big Fish, the Lagan Weir controls the flow of the River Lagan. It contains the Lagan Lookout, which has an exhibition on Belfast history and a model of the Titanic. The complex is attractively illuminated at night, which is fortunate since the Visitor Centre is scheduled to close for good at the end of August 2006.
• Titanic Boat Tour. Belfast takes a bizarre pride in that the ill-fated Titanic was built here (not caring to promote the many hundreds of other ships that were built here which did not sink) and you can now take a boat tour around the area that the ship was built. The former boat yards of Belfast are being amitiously redeveloped into a residential and commercial neighbourhood that will be called (you guessed it) the Titanic Quarter. Tours cost £5. Check sailing times on their website.
• The Waterfront Hall, 2 Lanyon Place, Tel: 9033 4455. Standing on the northern side of Donegall Square, Belfast's imposing concert and conference venue is visible to the east where Chichester Street meets the riverside. Built in 1997, it has been credited with generating £10 for the Belfast economy for every £1 spent on its construction [48]. The main auditorium offers some of the best performance hall acoustics anywhere in Europe, and it is worth checking with the box office for upcoming shows.
• The Bar Council & Bar Library of Northern Ireland, 414 Chichester Street. Not open to the public, but notable for its striking architectural design. The northern half of the building is the opulent home of Belfast's (privately employed) barristers; meanwhile the southern end of the building (visible from May Street) is occupied by the more modest Royal Courts of Justice Stamp Office (a tax-payer-funded government agency). Presented with two clients with two wildly different budgets, local architects Robinson McIlwaine successfully designed one building which seamlessly merge a more modest design and cheaper materials for the southern half of the building and a more elaborate and expensive design at the northern end.
• Cornmarket is at the centre of Belfast's retail area. Visitors from Britain and Ireland will feel immediately at home with the bland selection of high street chains.