Victoria Square is a shopping and leisure complex located in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. The area includes over 70 shops, several restaurants and the Odeon cinema. Opened on 6 March 2008, Victoria Square is a commercial, residential and leisure development which took 6 years to build. Its anchor tenant at nearly is the largest House of Fraser that the retailer has opened in the UK.

Design

Victoria Square was developed by Multi Development UK Ltd. The architects were

Building Design Partnership Building Design Partnership Ltd, doing business as BDP, is a firm of architects and engineers employing over 900 staff in the United Kingdom and internationally. History BDP was founded in 1961 by George Grenfell-Baines with architects Bill White ...

and T+T Design, the in house architects of Multi Corporation. At approximately and costing £400m, it is the biggest and was one of the most expensive property developments ever undertaken in Northern Ireland. An element of the development is two covered, multi-level streets linked to the glass dome which measures 37 m in diameter and 45 m in height. A public square covered entirely by the glass dome serves as the hub of the entire area. The Jaffe Fountain, constructed in the 1870s by former Lord Mayor

Otto Jaffe Sir Otto Moses Jaffe, JP (13 August 1846 – 29 April 1929), also spelt Jaffé, was a German-born British businessman, who was twice elected Lord Mayor of Belfast and was a leader of the Jewish community in the city. Family Jaffe was born in ...

in memory of his father, has been restored to its original location in Victoria Square. There are pedestrian links to nearby business, nightlife and shopping streets on Laganside, Donegall Place, Royal Avenue and Ann Street. A large section of the centre's roof is covered in

Sedum ''Sedum'' is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Crassulaceae, members of which are commonly known as stonecrops. The genus has been described as containing up to 600 species, subsequently reduced to 400–500. They are leaf succul ...

in an attempt to reduce the carbon footprint of Victoria Square.

Facilities

The development spans approximately 800,000 ft² (75,000m²) of retail over four floors.

Q-Park Q-Park is an operator of parking garages in Belgium, Denmark, Germany, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Q-Park is the number two on the European parking market. In total Q-Park controls 800,000 parking spaces on m ...

provides 2 levels of basement parking with c. 1,000 car spaces. The retail space includes 98 unit shops, with leisure units including an 8 screen

Odeon Cinema Odeon, stylised as ODEON, is a cinema brand name operating in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Norway, which along with UCI Cinemas and Nordic Cinema Group is part of the Odeon Cinemas Group subsidiary of AMC Theatres. It uses the famous name ...

. There are also restaurants, bars and cafés. The development also included 106 apartments. On 24 November 2013, a car bomb detonated outside a Victoria Square car park. There were no injuries.

Belfast Great Victoria Street railway station Great Victoria Street is a railway station serving the city centre of Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is one of two major stations in the city, along with , and is one of the four stations located in the city centre, the others being Lanyon Place ...

is nearby.

Gallery

Image:Belfast (193), October 2009.JPG, Victoria Square, October 2009 Image:Belfast (206), October 2009.JPG, Information board, Victoria Square, October 2009 Image:Belfast (212), October 2009.JPG, Victoria Square, October 2009 Image:Belfast (241), October 2009.JPG, Viewing gallery, Victoria Square, October 2009

References

{{Shopping centres in Northern Ireland Shopping centres in Northern Ireland Buildings and structures in Belfast Domes Tourist attractions in Belfast Shopping malls established in 2008 2008 establishments in Northern Ireland