Belfast city centre

Culture Night Belfast 2025 – North Street

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

In the first year that Culture Night Belfast included a public-art component (2012) – before “Hit The North” was the official title of the paint-jam – the idea was to paint some of the permanently-closed shutters in North Street. (Hence the name adopted from 2013 onward; “north” for “North Street” rather than “the North/Northern Ireland”.)

The central location for recent iterations of Hit The North has been Union Street and Kent Street around the Sunflower, but thirteen years later, the public-art component of the re-booted Culture Night returned to its ancestral home roots, with the four pieces of streetart (and one junction box) in North Street, where even more shops are shuttered than in 2012.

The works shown here are by Chain Gun Art (ig) (“Cheese, Please!”), Lost Lines (ig), Féoıl (ig), Rob Hilken (web), and Ana Fish (web). The Ana Fish piece is on shutters painted by Verz in 2012 – see North Street Will Rise Again.

Art was also produced on a hoarding in Garfield Street and on junction boxes (and one doorway) in Royal Avenue.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
T07710 T07711
T07731 T07732 T07733 T07734 T07735

Culture Night Belfast 2025 – Royal Avenue

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Culture Night Belfast returned after a three-year hiatus and included a paint-jam in three locations: on junction boxes (and one doorway) in Royal Avenue (this page), on a hoarding in Garfield Street, and on shutters (and one junction box) in North Street.

The artist of the first box is unknown; the other pieces are by ?Rob Hilken (web)?, Danni Simpson (web), and Karl Fenz (web).

Other new/recent painted boxes in Royal Ave, but perhaps not part of CNB:

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
T07717 T07718 T07739 T07741 T07742 T07740

The End Is Nai

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Here is a selection of paste-ups on the hoardings around the War Memorial building in Waring Street, inspired by Leo Boyd’s attempt to create an unofficial paste-up wall. (See Paste No Paste-Ups.)

The piece above relies on two homophones, “nai” (“now” in a strong Belfast accent) and “nigh”, and, “sigh” and “scythe”.

In addition to pieces by Boyd (web), there are works by Lazer Eyes (web) (“In the gears, the machine”), Codo (ig) (“Every test is a lesson; every lesson is a blessing”), Szu Szu Sign Co (ig) (“There will never be a border between us”), Dragos (ig) (Imagine Balkans creatures), and RickyDrewAPiccy (Fb) “The End Is Nai” and “Cranes – they’re everywhere. She’s got cranes on her walls … now she’s got cranes in her soul.”

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
T07720 T07721 T07722 T07723 T07724 T07725 T07726 T07727 T07728 T07729 T07730

Paste No Paste-Ups

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Above and immediately below are two new paste-ups by Leo Boyd which attempt – by example and by reverse-psychology – to turn the hoarding around the War Memorial building in Waring Street into a paste-up gallery (similar to the new “legal wall” for graffiti and street-art in Little Patrick Street – see First!).

The third image is of a Boyd paste-up already on the wall, mixing the police land-rover (see Off The Edge for an index) with the cat looming over city hall (see Belfast Kitty Hall). The final stencil is by French artist MDLF (ig).

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
T07287 T07288 T07289 T07290 T07510