Cathedral Quarter - Belfast City Council

37
The corner bollards were
designed to protect the
building from cartwheel
damage
Gerry Adams once pulled
pints at the Duke of York
bar in Commercial Court
Commercial Court
Ironfounder Stewart Hadski leased ground at what is
now Commercial Court and an entry to the “Old
Foundry” is shown on the 1791 map. Home to
Ireland’s first penny newspaper, the Belfast Morning
News (incorporated into the Irish News since 1892),
in the 1860s, it was the best-selling newspaper in
Ulster, thanks to the popularity of the colourful
colmunist Barney McGlone. Barney, whose real name
was Robert A. Wilson, was a Donegal Dissenter and
wrote a daily column in the Ulster dialect entitled ‘To
me cousin in Ameriky’. Dressed in a wide brimmed
sombrero hat and flowing cloak draped like a Roman
toga, he was a familiar figure in Commercial Court
until his death in 1875.
Printers’ Café now sits snugly on the edge of this entry,
where a fluted conical corner bollard on one side and a
half cylinder of iron at the other were designed to protect
the buildings from cartwheel damage.
The Duke of York is a popular meeting place for
journalists, politicians and legal professionals. Gerry
Adams once pulled pints here. The bar was bombed
during the ‘70s but rebuilt in 1975 and again in 1992.
It is one of the oldest licensed premises in Belfast and
today plays host to a wide range of music events.
29-31 Donegall Street 1895
William Batt designed this four storey red brick
building with its diapered gable of brick and terracotta
squares. There are basket-headed arches, roundels
and ornamental keystones on upper floors.
Exchange Place
This entry was in existence in 1819. An iron cannon
acted as a corner bollard here before being removed in
1993. The dark red brick buildings at 2-6 Exchange
Place have a partly curved façade and you might catch
The Duke of York