Belfast City Hall is Belfast City Council’s civic building. It is located in Donegall Square, in the heart of Belfast city centre. It first opened its doors on 1 August 1906.
Inside City Hall, you can register births, deaths, marriages and civil partnerships, take a tour, admire the public art and enjoy refreshments at the Bobbin Coffee Shop.
In the grounds of City Hall you can visit the Titanic Memorial Gardens, picnic on the lawns while watching The Big Screen or see the building lit up at night.
The City Hall is fully accessible to anyone who uses a wheelchair. At the reception desk, there is a lower section for people in wheelchairs and are short of stature to use. All the corridors are wide and smooth, which poses no problems for anyone in a wheelchair and they are well-lit, so should not create much difficulties for anyone with limited vision.
All the doors are automatic, so open once you or anyone else approaches them. I was amazed at this, because the building itself was opened in 1906 and there was no obvious signs that it was fully automatic. It just was and in perfect keeping with the style and decorate of the century old building. This also includes the elevator, which was big and beautiful.
There are disabled toilets throughout the building for public use and they are large enough for any size wheelchair, with ample room to move around inside. Everything was in reach and posed no problems for me.
The staff within the City Hall were all extremely friendly and keen offer any assistant or information to make my visit go smoothly.
The restaurant onsite, “The Bobbin Coffee Shop” was excellent too. The tables and chairs were not fixed, so could be easily moved to accommodate visitors, but there was also ample floorspace as it was.