Exhibitions at City Hall

All of our exhibitions are free to view.

Waking the Giant exhibition

People viewing the 'Faces' wall Date: Ongoing
Location: Bobbin Coffee Shop
 Opening times: Monday - Friday, 9.30am - 4.30pm and Saturday, 10am - 4pm

The theme of this exhibition is industry in Belfast from the 17th century through to the present day.

The exhibition celebrates and illustrates the contribution of ordinary working people to the development of the Belfast through their employment in the heavy industries such as shipbuilding, engineering, rope manufacturing, linen and textile manufacture and export, tobacco processing and glass making.

Central to the exhibition are two curved walls facing each other, telling the story of Belfast at the start of the 17th century and the story of Belfast's biggest, and interlinked, industries that produced linen, iron, ships and rope.

A high-level timeline, featuring key industrial dates in the history of Belfast, runs across three walls in the room.

A main feature of the space is the stunning 'Faces' wall, which features a blend of portraits of the well-known businessmen and industrial figureheads, combined with striking images of the anonymous workers at the shipyards and foundries, mills and factories. The wall itself consists of 68 individual boxes of differing depths, with the faces literally representing the building blocks that make up the city.

No Mean City photographic exhibition

Some of the photos displayed in the No Mean City exhibition Date: Ongoing
Location: Bobbin Coffee Shop
 Opening times: Monday - Friday, 9.30am - 4.30pm and Saturday, 10am - 4pm

Commissioned to mark the centenary of Belfast City Hall in 2006, the exhibition profiles 68 of Belfast's most celebrated citizens who have made a contribution to society.

Photographs

Photographed by Belfast-born Michael Donald, the exhibition features a wealth of celebrated citizens from the past century, from backgrounds as diverse as sport and music, literature and trade unionism, drama and medicine, business and engineering.

The complete list of portraits featured in No Mean City is as follows: