Belfast east

Forever Changes

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Love’s 1967 album ‘Forever Changes’ (listen on youtube) features the faces of the five band-members pressed together into the shape of a heart, or Africa. The bottom face was originally drawn (by Bob Pepper) without a smile (WP).

By Graffic (ig) on Hollywood Road, east Belfast, on the shutters of the Bill Harris hair salon.

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Park Life

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Various street artists and writers painted the underpass at the end of Kyle Street that goes into Victoria Park (Belfast City Council). Here (top to bottom) is work by Friz (web), emic (web), GWELO, Wee Nuls (web), NOYS (ig), Rob Hilken (web), BORE, FGB (web), Imogen Donegan (ig), Jam (ig) + GoodRobottt (ig), Danni Simpson (web) + Karl Fenz (web)

With support from the Eastside Partnership (web), Connswater Greenway (web), and National Trust (web).

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The Chronicles Of Narnia

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The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe is by far the most famous of C.S. Lewis’s ‘Chronicles Of Narnia’. It was the first of the seven to be written – in 1950 – but as it is set in 1940, The Magician’s Nephew is often read first, as it is set in 1900 and concerns the creation of Narnia. The others are The Horse And His Boy, Prince Caspian, The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, The Last Battle. Lewis was born in Dundela and raised in Strandtown, in east Belfast (CSLewisInstitute).

Tildarg Street, east Belfast. There are also a long-standing Narnia murals in Pansy Street and in Convention Court.

work-in-progress from April 18th:

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William McFadzean

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“‘Rubicon’ – the family home of Pte. William F. McFadzean, Victoria Cross, who gave his life to save his comrades at Thiepval Wood on 1st July 1916 immediately prior to the Battle Of The Somme.” – McFadzean died when he threw himself on a fallen box of grenades.

For his heroism, Billy McFadzean (14th RIR) was awarded the VC (WP). The other VC winners pictured alongside McFadzean in the Cappagh Gardens mural (above and immediately below) are G[eoffrey St. George Shillington] Cather, R[obert] Quigg, and E[ric] N[orman] F[rankland] Bell.

The Family home was on Cregagh Road at Cregagh Park – there’s a picture of McFadzean standing outside the house at Royal Irish. The “blue plaque” is the most recent addition to the scene.

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The Holywood Arches

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The area around the junction of the Newtownards Road and the Holywood Road in east Belfast is known as the “Holywood Arches”. The name comes from the fact that – up until 1950 – the old Belfast & County Down railway line from Comber (and beyond that from Newtownards or Newcastle) crossed over both streets on top of two large arches, wide enough to allow traffic in both directions and tall enough to accommodate double-decker buses (see e.g. this image on Pinterest).

This mural is on the shutters of the nearby Arches Café (web); the vintage photograph reproduced can be seen in this pdf from Eastside Partnership.

See also: Step Back In Time about a train crash in 1945 at Ballymacarrett station (on the Bangor line) that killed 22.

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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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