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IH News 2022

Belfast Central Station

Opened in 1976 to replace Great Victoria Street and Queen’s Quay, Central Station in Belfast was supposed to spawn a regeneration of the area around East Bridge Street – something that never happened.

Things moved on and the real “central” station – Great Victoria Street – reopened in 1995, along with a new section of railway (the Blythefield curve) to make Great Victoria Street usable as a proper central train station. In recognition of this loss of status, in 2018, the station was renamed “Lanyon Place” and any pretence at centrality was abandoned.

Things move slowly in the public sector – by pure chance, I was passing by Lanyon Place on a train today and happened to see staff taking out the old “Belfast Central” platform signs from a side entrance and loading same into a van.