For many first-time visitors to Belfast, it’s hard to imagine that in the 1970s, steel gates effectively shut off the city centre every evening around 6pm. But thanks to peace, investment, regeneration and the tourism generated by Titanic Belfast and Game of Thrones, the city has changed incalculably for the better in the intervening 40 years. Even while traders and residents oppose a proposed £400m redevelopment of its historic Cathedral Quarter (a healthy reminder that not all regeneration is good regeneration), the city grows by the week, while retaining a compact charm and intimate character.
It’s at night that you get the full sense of how Belfast has emerged from conflict to become a safe, popular short-break city and one of the world’s top tourist destinations.
Though historic watering holes such as the Crown Liquor Saloon help frame the obligatory “first Guinness” Instagram post, visitors should look to discover the city’s more contemporary and exciting venues, clubs and restaurants. Despite licensing laws dictating that most bars kick out around 1.30am, right now, it’s clued-in club promoters and attuned art-space heads who are steering Belfast into exciting waters. Here are 10 must-hit spots for unravelling Belfast’s late-night spirit and dancefloor joie de vivre.
The Bear and the Doll
Transformed from its previous incarnation as the Titanic Bar, the Bear and the Doll is in a unique, instantly recognisable, triangular-shaped island building, constructed in 1886. It’s a slick bar serving first-rate cocktails and craft beer, with DJs and regular nights including local gallery Framewerk’s ace Late Night Art (first Thursday of every month). Better still, its new-fangled, Berlin-inspired sister space, The Art Department, carries the torch for Belfast’s proud clubbing heritage via some of the city’s most discriminating music heads, including GIRL and the Night Institute every Friday and Saturday until 3am.
2-14 Little Donegall Street, on Facebook
The MAC
Since opening in 2012, the Metropolitan Arts Centre has established itself as a world-class tourist attraction. Within its roughly trapezium-shaped site are two theatre spaces and three art galleries that host all manner of exhibitions, performance theatre, live music and experimental works 363 days of the year. The pièce de résistance of St Anne’s Square, a self-contained faux-Georgian development in the Cathedral Quarter, the MAC is just seconds away from several local gems including Italian restaurant Coppi and world class coffee shop Established. Hanging around for a show? Opt for Native, the MAC’s in-house restaurant and bar, which showcases the best products from small producers across Northern Ireland.
10 Exchange St West, themaclive.com
Bullitt Hotel
Owned by the Beannchor Group, which is behind the city’s five-star Merchant Hotel, the equally central, 74-room Bullitt is a more hip – and more affordable – proposition than its art deco-inspired sibling. Opened in 2016, and themed around the classic 1968 Steve McQueen film, it has stylish, cleverly designed rooms, each with a kingsize bed. It sidesteps expensive mini-bars and bellboys in favour of reasonably priced comfort. Balearic beats and deep disco cuts courtesy of Bullitt’s resident DJs pack out the courtyard at the weekends. For a change of scenery, its rooftop bar, Babel, offers cocktails, food and clued-in crate-diggers at the weekend, with the added boon of panoramic city views.
Doubles from £110 B&B, 40a Church Lane, bullitthotel.com
Limelight
Comprising the 850-capacity Limelight 1, the more intimate Limelight 2 and Katy’s Bar, this is one of Northern Ireland’s most iconic live music venues. Opened in 1984, it underwent a multimillion pound revamp in 2012 – a move that underscored its status as Belfast’s unrivalled home for balancing packed-out weekly club nights with international touring bands and local live music showcases. This Ormeau Avenue complex likes to refer to itself as legendary, and many stories from across the years support this description: Noel Gallagher’s oft-recited tale of Oasis discovering that Definitely Maybe had hit the No 1 spot as they prepared to play the venue back in September 1994 is among them.
17 Ormeau Avenue, limelightbelfast.com
The Menagerie
In the studenty Holylands area south of the city centre, the Menagerie spent the 2000s as Belfast’s dimly lit party enclave par excellence – heady eclecticism, mismatched furniture and vintage-shop lampshades. Relaunched last year, the latest incarnation of this former paint store marries boho chic with a facelift that hasn’t undone its dive bar cool. Above all, the key to the Menagerie’s draw is the way it backs promoters of every sonic inclination, from rock’n’roll throwdown Sunglasses After Dark to monthly queer disco Ponyhawke. If you could distil the spirit of a truly memorable Belfast night out, it would start at the bottom of the Menagerie’s stairs, sipping a cold beer.
Open Thurs-Sun, 130 University Street, menageriebar.com
Sunflower public house
A self-proclaimed “simple corner pub, free of gimmicks or themes”, the Sunflower is perfect testament to the pure power of a city moving on. Though its imposing security cage nods to Belfast’s darker days, its interior reveals a different story, all lively conversations, live music sessions and a tilt for Irish craft beers and ciders from breweries such as Yardsman and Hilden. Though pubs such as the ultra-cosy Spaniard or the Bittles are fine for a quick pint or two, the Sunflower is Belfast’s best independently owned pub by some distance.
65 Union St, sunflowerbelfast.com
The Black Box
With a calendar consistently brimming with alternative, fringe-style events, the Black Box isn’t merely the crown jewel in the city’s cobblestoned Cathedral Quarter: it reigns supreme as Belfast’s leading performance and arts venue. Its 240-capacity main room puts on a revolving cavalcade of live music, theatre, literature, comedy, film, visual art, circus and cabaret; in the singularly snug Green Room, it’s much the same but on a smaller scale, with the addition of resident DJs, pizzas and a solid selection of crafts and draughts. Sealing the deal, this Hill Street institution is a registered charity run by some of the most involved and art-focused staff in the city.
18-22 Hill St, blackboxbelfast.com
La Taquería
Hungry and in a hurry? Asian street food joint Bánh (48 Upper Arthur St) is unlikely to disappoint in the early evening. Otherwise, take some time to enjoy the country’s finest Mexican restaurant, La Taquería. Based in a former oyster bar on Castle Street, this warmly lit first-floor restaurant is the vision of head chef Adam Lynas and his Mexican wife Eliza. Though fast-paced burrito spots such as Boojum (two locations) are hugely popular in Belfast right now, La Taquería is a world apart, offering delicious, authentic Mexican food – not to mention a wide range of tequilas, mezcal cocktails and Mexican lagers – in a relaxed setting.
Mains from £8.50, 53 Castle St, lataqueriabelfast.co.uk
Muriel’s Cafe Bar
Marrying the warmth of a local with the buzz of a club, Muriel’s Cafe Bar is home to the friendliest, most engaging bar staff in Belfast. But its charm doesn’t end there. With velvet seating, damask drapes and – something of a calling card – women’s underwear dangling from its ground floor ceiling, this city centre bar boasts a mouthwatering food menu, 140 gins (local brand Jawbox being a particular staff favourite, with the perfect swerve of a squeeze of lime and ginger ale) and The Monkey Room, a first-floor hideaway offering cocktails in a casual environment. Peckish on leaving? Don’t pass on recently opened (and highly rated) burger joint Pablos next door.
12-14 Church Lane, on Facebook
Kremlin
The Smithfield and Union Quarter area, just off the Cathedral Quarter, is Belfast’s unofficial gay quarter, and its HQ-of-sorts is the Kremlin on Donegall Street, Northern Ireland’s first ever gay-owned and managed venue. Its Soviet-style industrial extravagance permeates “communist chic” rooms including Tsar Cocktail lounge, Red Square and the Long Bar. With clubs including Maverick and Boombox offering alternatives just around the corner, an unending variety of theme nights and the most raring-to-go clubbers in the city has ensured that the Kremlin is widely seen as one of the country’s must-hit nightclubs.
96 Donegall Street, kremlin-belfast.com
Getting there
Budget airlines including FlyBe, easyJet and Ryannair fly to Belfast from various airports in England, Scotland and Wales.
Best times to visit
Now in its 11th year, Belsonic features music from Nile Rogers, Soul II Soul, Liam Gallagher, Richard Ashcroft and Carl Cox over six nights at Ormeau Park, from
15-30 June. The 19th Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival runs a programme of live music, comedy, spoken word, theatre, literature, film and art from 3-13 May. Held on the Causeway Coast and Glens, the North West 200 (15-19 May) is one of the fastest and most spectacular open-road motorbike races in the world, drawing spectators from far and wide.
Brian Coney is editor of music and culture guide The Thin Air
Comments (…)
Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion