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City Hall
The permanent visitor exhibition opened in 2017 and is located on the ground floor east wing of Belfast City Hall. It offers a self-guided journey from Belfast’s past to present, showing the vibrancy and diversity of the city across six themed zones. View the exhibition themes.
The exhibition stretches through 16 separate rooms, all presented within the original architecture of City Hall as designed by Alfred Brumwell Thomas in the late 1890s. It is free to visit the exhibition.
We've added a magical augmented reality (AR) experience to the City Hall exhibition.
When visitors enter rooms seven, eight and nine, they are invited by an animated seahorse from the Belfast Coat of Arms to experience the digital magic of augmented reality. The city’s hidden river is revealed, walls crumble to uncover secret passageways, and books open to let their stories take flight.
The immersive journey begins in a virtual library where you can explore Belfast’s words and accent as flying books tell their stories and portraits reveal a hidden secret.
Visitors are then transported to Belfast’s past, present and future through 3D maps.
Part of the Belfast 2024 city-wide creative celebration, this new experience uses the latest digital technology including augmented reality, projection technologies, and gesture-controlled interactive gaming.
The Belfast City Hall AR experience will run until the end of March 2025. The exhibition is free to visit but you need to book a ticket.
Watch our video about the AR experience. This video is one minute and 12 seconds long.
This trial of cutting-edge digital technology across three rooms of the exhibition is the result of a unique collaboration between Belfast City Council and BT and offers visitors interactive ways to explore the stories of our city.
You can book exhibition tickets for up to nine people by email [email protected]
For walk-in bookings on the day of your visit, go to City Hall reception and staff will help. Walk-in bookings are subject to availability per session.
The Visitor Exhibition is self-guided. You should arrive five minutes before your exhibition booking time and check in at City Hall reception.
Groups of 10 people or over can book by email [email protected].
Entrance to the exhibition is free for community and school groups. Charges may apply for commercial tour groups.
| Days | Times |
|---|---|
| Monday to Friday | 9.30am to 5pm Last admission at 4pm |
| Saturday and Sunday and bank holidays | 10am to 5pm Last admission at 4pm |
For opening times during public and bank holidays, go to our Holiday arrangements.
We recommend that visitors or groups with special requirements email [email protected] or call 028 9027 0456 before visiting.
Induction loops are available at the Visitor Exhibition and Tour Reception, The Bobbin Coffee Shop and Gift Shop. The City Hall exhibition is fully wheelchair accessible on the ground floor of City Hall.
We have sign language videos that give an overview of each room in our exhibition in three languages. These can be downloaded to your device below arrival or downloaded on site.
The gift shop is in the main reception and is open:
You can buy souvenirs including:
We only accept contactless and card payments in the gift shop.
These three rooms explore the development of Belfast from its foundation in 1613 to the construction of City Hall with original hand drawn plans on display and Belfast’s historic royal charters. Highlights of this area include an interactive interface which allow visitors to explore the City Hall’s extensive portrait collection of former Lord Mayors and to view the oldest Mayoral robe in the collection of civic regalia embroidered with real gold thread. Visitors in this area can also view some priceless 'Freedom of the City' artefacts and learn more about this special honour.
This area of the exhibition consisting of three rooms explores the industrial heritage of Belfast from its most famous ship Titanic to Belfast’s famous music venues and theatres. Highlights of these rooms include a stunning mahogany cabinet destined for the Captain’s cabin of Titanic which never made it on board.
These three rooms explore the rich heritage behinds Belfast’s unique words and phrases, an opportunity to interact with the Belfast street directory of 1897 and a room exploring the games played by the children of Belfast along the City’s streets in years gone by.
Four rooms exploring the religious and political divisions of Belfast examining how they have both shaped and been shaped by history locally, nationally and internationally. Artefacts in these areas include the famous Covenant Table from 1912, artifacts from the Battle of the Somme in 1916 and the Blitz of Belfast in 1941.
This is a unique area allowing visitors to read archived experiences of the City citizen’s recorded during the traumatic years of ‘the troubles’ and to pause and reflect on this painful period in the City’s recent past.
The exhibition finishes with two rooms which celebrate the famous sons and daughters of Belfast who have put Belfast on the map for their incredible diverse achievements in the worlds of Science, Technology, Sport, Literature, Music and Art to name but a few!
For more information and advice, get in touch.
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