About the park
The idea of a public park by the Connswater was first put forward in 1854 by the Belfast Harbour Commissioners. It then sat for half a century, because the ground was the wrong ground: marshy, tidal, cut off, and stubbornly unsuitable for anything resembling a lawn. Meeting followed meeting, surveyors filed reports, drainage schemes were drawn up and redrawn.
The park that finally opened in 1906 was made, not found. The land was reclaimed from the eastern shore of Belfast Lough — a 1974 street directory put the finished park at around 63 acres — and it was landscaped by Charles McKimm, the same hand behind the Tropical Ravine at Botanic Gardens. An outdoor swimming pool is said to have followed a few years later, and the central ground filled up with soccer, bowls and cricket.
For most of the twentieth century the park had its own railway station. Victoria Park station opened in 1905 on the Belfast and County Down Railway and served the park until it closed in 1988; today the nearest stop is Sydenham, a short walk away.
The newest landmark is the white steel arch at the north end. The Sam Thompson Bridge — a 62-metre span opened in 2014 as part of the Connswater Community Greenway — carries walkers and cyclists over the water to Airport Road, linking the park to the Harbour Estate and the Titanic Quarter. It is named for Sam Thompson, the Belfast shipyard worker who became a playwright and wrote Over the Bridge, a play about sectarianism in the yard that Belfast at first refused to stage. Standing on his bridge with Samson and Goliath in front of you, the name lands well.
The lake itself is now part of the Belfast Lough Area of Special Scientific Interest, which is why the birdwatching is better than a city park has any right to be — and why the council would rather you left the bread at home.