The Cottage Smallholder

Belfast stinks today.

It's nothing compared to the old, pre-weir days; but there's a definite whiff of something unpleasant in the nostrils - that familiar mix of gas works and tidal river.

When I first started working in Belfast the Gas Works site had stopped production for around two years and was a collection of old industrial buildings stretched out along the River Lagan. The river was completely tidal in those days and at low tide, on a warm day, the smell of over 150 years of gas generation would mix with river mud and flow out across the city.

The first time I smelt it I thought something had died. It was a nostril-filling, throat-coating fug that could on occasion even make you retch a little. No matter how often I smelt it, it never seemed to get any less grim. And back in those days I got to smell it an awful lot. I was working in Lower University Street and my Dad was working in Sirocco Works (him and hundreds of others). He 'd drop me at the bottom of the Albertbridge each morning and I'd walk up to work. The most direct route took me right along the gas works. I used to take a great lungful of air at the junction of Cromac Street and Ormeau Avenue and then try and hold it until I was at least over the railway line beyond the gasworks.

And then the council bought the site with redevelopment plans. The land was heavily contaminated, so the first stage of redvelopment was getting rid of the polluted materials. A seemingly-endless stream of tipper trucks travelled the Ormeau Road, dribbling foul-smelling slurry as they went; and creating so much mess and smell that the residents complained enough to get on the news. Mind you, the residents of Lower Ormeau were well practiced at dealing with the media by then.

These days the Gas Works site is a business park with offices, workshops, a hotel, and cafes. The only things that distinguish it from all the other business parks is the name, some refurbished red brick factories and an interestingly-shaped water feature in front of the hotel.

I'm not usually a fan of getting rid of the old, but in the case of the gas works site I think it's a great improvement. These days the most common source of smells in Belfast is the river under High Street, or the city dump.

(Post title is a reference to Billy & the Boingers from that great comic strip Bloom County)