Fortnight Publications Ltd.

The Remaking of the CityAuthor(s): Wesley StewartSource: Fortnight, No. 331 (Sep., 1994), p. 34Published by: Fortnight Publications Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25554725 .

Accessed: 25/06/2014 03:38

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

Fortnight Publications Ltd. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Fortnight.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 195.78.109.96 on Wed, 25 Jun 2014 03:38:27 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

BH SOCIETY BH

The remaking

of the city

A o survive, a city must change and adapt. It must

also offer a character and a history, as well as repre

sent its present and future citizens. Planning in

Belfast over the last 20 years has sought to achieve

this balance. The city has been rebuilt, with commer

cial confidence and new prosperity in the city centre,

and a high standard of new housing.

For citizens and business, this means a new hope

for the future. But this rebuilding is no accident of

history?it is a planning achievement, the scale of

which is remarkable amid the additional difficulties

of the cultural and political differences in the city.

Fred Heatley implied (Fortnight 329) that housing in the city

was dominated by residential tower blocks.

The truth is that Belfast has only a small number of

these?all dating from the 60s. Many ofthe high-rise

flats have been, or are in the process of being,

replaced by two-storey, family housing.

Many of the older terrace properties had to be

redeveloped. While Belfast missed the worst prob

lems ofthe Victorian back-toback housing, the city's

rapid development in the mid-19th century left an

inheritance of terrace houses which, in the 70s,

presented renewal problems on a huge scale. Sur

veys revealed that nearly a quarter of Belfast's hous

ing stock was unfit?30,000 houses were in need of

urgent attention. From 1978 to 1988, a redevelop

ment and rehabilitation programme was undertaken

by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive? more

than 10,000 new houses developed and more than

4,000 dwellings acquired from the private sector for

rehabilitation. The new housing was of a very high

standard, as the NIHE worked with communities to

deliver two-storey housing in traditional materials.

In the 60s, the rapid growth of the city at the

expense of the rest of the region, threatening the

surrounding hills and the lough, had to be con

tained. This containment and the planned expan

sion of surrounding settlements was knocked off

course by the 'troubles'. Between 1971 and 1978,

77,000 people?almost a fifth of the population of

municipal Belfast?moved from and within the in

ner city. While NIHE programmes stabilised several

inner-city communities, there has been a continu

ous outward movement?as in other British cities?

of mobile, economically-active people. Reversing

this will take a long time and it is doubtful if the city centre will again be a location for family housing.

But the planning service in Northern Ireland has

adopted policies that encourage existing residential

communities and new private sector developments.

Planning has long sought to balance accessibility

to and through the city?allowing commerce to

expand and create employment?with community

needs and the city's architectural heritage. The new

cross-harbour development will, for the first time,

provide a

strategic road and rail network. Most of the

earlier urban road schemes, like Westlink, have

either been abandoned or reduced in scale. The

planning service has been instrumental in formula

ting a balanced transport policy (detailed in the

1987 Belfast Urban Area Plan 2001*), to improve

public and private access to the city centre.

The recently-published Belfast City Centre: Vision for the Future** emphasises the role of public transport

in making the city centre more attractive to pedestri

ans. Improvements to main shopping streets, new

and enhanced open spaces and the restoration of

some of the city's former urban squares will enhance

the pedestrian environment. To achieve this, the

priority of the motor car will need to be overturned.

Further improvements in public transport will come

with proposed new railway and bus stations.

The centre of Belfast is the major commercial,

retail and administrative site in the region, vital in

government, business, shopping, leisure, cultural

and social activities?a far cry from the 70s when

there had been little investment in property for

more than ten years and the city virtually closed

down at 6pm. Retailing lost out to out-of-town cen

tres, entertainment establishments closed and busi

ness on the northside had all but collapsed. Policies

backed up by urban development grant (around

?200 million of private sector investment), with the

development of CastleCourt (a ?100 million invest

ment) , have altered the prospects for the centre and

the city as a whole. The value and diversity offered by

a city centre has been rediscovered.

A city must change and adapt to survive. But a

balance is needed between buildings and spaces

created by earlier generations and the accommo

dation of contemporary architecture. Not 'all old

buildings are good' and not 'all new buildings are

bad'. Policies protecting the architectural heritage

have on the whole been successful. There are four

conservation areas in Belfast and plans are advanced

for the designation of another three.

Planning is not a science. The ability to adapt

should be a sign of strength, rather than weakness.

Planners are not, and do not wish to be, custodians

of an immutable masterplan. Planners provide the

machinery which, in consultation with politicians,

business people and the people of Belfast, can achieve

a balance between conservation and development.

It is this which will allow the passing on to future

generations of a thriving city, which respects its

heritage and is attractive as a place in which to live,

work, shop or be entertained. +

Continuing the debate on the pros and cons

of town planning in

Belfast {Fortnight 325, 327 & 329), WESLEY STEWART details the

priorities of planning policy since the 70s.

*Available from HMSO, price ?10 **

Available from HMSO, price ?5 Both obtainable also from Belfast

Divisonal Planning Office, 16-22 Bedford St, Belfast

JJQJJQQQ^BbISbHbI SEPTEMBER 1994

This content downloaded from 195.78.109.96 on Wed, 25 Jun 2014 03:38:27 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions