Bellvue Zoo - City Hall

Route 2  Bellevue Zoo – City Hall

We started at the Zoo.   

In 1914 Belfast suffragettes burned down the tea house here but we passed through relatively peacefully.  

We struggled uphill, through dense bushes, alongside the Zoo’s boundary fence.  Things appeared to be going unusually well.  Then Ray noticed a lion on the other side of the fence.  From then on, Darren was given the job of going on ahead and checking for holes in the wire.  

We eventually reached the safety of Cave Hill and stopped to take some photos.  

The old house at Fortwilliam Golf Club was once the home of Edward Langtry who married Lily Langtry who, in turn, caused a few problems with the Royal family.  

Next, we visited Cavehill Tennis & Bowling Club.  The local suffragettes also burned down the clubhouse here.

Heading down towards Grove Park, we came across Skegoneill & Glendore Community Garden.   A group of people in the area are doing a lot of good work to brighten up this small area.  I hope we didn’t walk on any of their plants.

Brantwood Football Club has been around for a long time, it got its name from a street nearby.   Their £3:00 admission is certainly cheap. Would that buy a programme at Arsenal?

Grove Park was the first place in Belfast to have playing fields.  It was good to be back there again, I used to train around the grass oval area, which I think was an early cinder running or cycling track.  Almost next door is Alexandra Park – famous for being the only public park in the world with a peace-wall.  

Out on the Limestone Road, Darren showed us the school where he works.  The Currie Primary School building served as a morgue during the last war and this building is also where James Galway first learned about music.

Run over - everything's gone blue.

Back into town for a coffee at Cafe Nero in Great Victoria Street and that was another bus run completed. Only one more to do and then we are all abandoning healthy eating and having a celebratory bag of chips.