Aidan Campbell
Amberley Publishing, £7.99
ISBN 978-1398101852
Review Amy Brunskill
This pocket-sized guide to Belfast provides the reader with everything required for an enjoyable trip around 50 of its most historically significant sites. The information is presented in a convenient format, with a helpful map at the beginning and a discussion of each site set out in geographical order, beginning in the east of the city, at Stormont, and moving towards the older sites in the city centre, before turning to the Victorian and Edwardian heritage of south Belfast.
The book covers a wide range of places – from the Custom House, a testament to Belfast’s role as an important trading port, to the Donegall Street Poor House – and is a visually enjoyable read, packed with predominantly black-and-white photographs from different points in time. The brief summaries of each of the sites are easy to browse if you are using the volume as a guidebook. Alternatively, it offers an engaging way to ‘visit’ Belfast from home and learn about some of the city’s famous buildings, as well as some of the more obscure aspects of its history.
This review appeared in CA 366. To find out more about subscribing to the magazine, click here.
