Hamilton Graving Dock - 1863 - 1867

Servicing mainly small coasters and tugs, the Hamilton Graving Dock was the first graving dock built on the Co Down side of the River Lagan.   Its service basin, the Abercorn Basin was created out of open water facing the Harland & and Wolff shipbuilding berths known as the Abercorn Shipyard.  The Dock is 137m (450ft) long and the basin covers over 12 acres of water.  For decades the Basin also serviced the Port's coal import trade.

Former Harland & Wolff Headquarters Building & Drawing Offices, Queen's Island - B2 listed (currently under review)
c 1900 - 1919

Long, somewhat Mannerist, this three-storey office block in sandstone and brick was built in stages between c.1900-1919. The building was the administration and drawing office centre for the world famous Harland and & Wolff shipyard. The offices of Lord Pirrie, Thomas Andrews and Alexander Carlisle were located in this building.

The oldest sections of the building appear to be the two former Drawing Offices, which retain a cathedral-like atmosphere and which are located to the ground floor rear of the building.

Although the building contains a number of other drawing offices e.g. the Admiralty Drawing office, it is the association of the two grand ground floor Drawing Offices with the production of both the concept design and detailed construction drawings for RMS Titanic & Olympic for which it is best known.

The building was the hub of the Harland and Wolff empire which at its peak had over 50,000 employees in the UK - 30,000 in Belfast.

The Headquarters building remained in use by Harland & and Wolff until October 1989. However now owned by Titanic Quarter Ltd, it represents the ‘jewel in the crown' in the regeneration of the 185 acre Titanic Quarter development site.

RMS ‘Titanic' and ‘Olympic' Slipways, Queen's Island, Belfast

Located at the Queen's Yard more colloquially known as the Main Yard, are the twin slipways of the Titanic and Olympic White Star passenger liners.

Initiated by Titanic Quarter Ltd,Titanic Quarter Ltd's  the consultations with the Environment & Heritage Service led to the statutory scheduling of both slipways and the adjacent waterways in the Victoria Channel into which the White Star liners were launched.  The slipways with the city dominant Arrol Gantry cranes remained in use until the 1960's.

Thompson Graving Dock - 1903 - 1911

The 268m (880ft) long Thompson Graving Dock which lies within the Northern Ireland Science Park site, was built for the new class of White Star liners in the early 1900's but had to be enlarged further for Titanic and Olympic.  When constructed it was the largest graving dock in the world.  In terms of shipbuilding history and like the slipways the site is of world significance and with the other docks, played a key role in the development of shipbuilding and ship repair in Belfast.  The Dock is statutorily scheduled as a wet dock and remained in use for ship repair purposes until 2002.

Thompson Dock Pump House - c 1885 - 1889

This Grade B1 B2 listed building is located within the Northern Ireland Science Park site.  Built by the Belfast Harbour Commissioners alongside the Thompson Graving Dock, it is a long rectangular single storey building and was used as a pump house to serve both the Thompson and Alexandra Graving Docks.  The pump house, with its innovative machinery housed in a deep well within the building, is in typical late Victorian eclectic style with various gables and Romanesque arched openings, all in polychrome facing brick.  The building is a series of joined gabled pavilions constructed in red brick with cream brick dressings to the gable verges and semicircular and segmental arch headed openings.  The facades are decorated with many classical motifs and roundels, key stone acrotena etc. 

HMS Caroline

HMS CAROLINE, berthed afloat at the  Alexander Alexandra Dock, Titanic Quarter the sixth ship to bear the name, is the second oldest commissioned warship in the Royal Navy. The lead ship of a class of six light cruisers, she was built and launched by at Cammell Lairds, Birkenhead in 1914. Her moment of glory came in May 1916 when she took part in the Battle of Jutland - indeed she is now believed to be the sole survivor of that great action. Post war she spent several years in the Far East before retiring from front line service.  In 1924, at the instigation of Sir James Craig, CAROLINE came to Belfast to serve as the Headquarters of the then Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (now Royal Navy Reserve); conversion for this task was undertaken by Harland and Wolff. She still retains many of her original features, including her four Parsons double reduction steam turbines, emergency steering equipment, galley, tripod mast and bridge. A significant listed ship on the National Historic Ships Register, she is expected to serve in her current role for the foreseeable future Caroline was regularly docked in the Hamilton Graving Dock for survey work and hull painting.

Alexandra Graving Dock

The Alexandra Graving Dock was built between 1885-89 following a petition which was presented to the Harbour Commissioners in 1881 by Harland & and Wolff for additional fitting out facilities.  A subsequent inquiry recommended a site at the north end of Queen's Island, which was accepted.  It was not until 1884 that the design and dimensions of the dock were settled after visits had been made to Glasgow and Liverpool to inspect facilities there.  The following year Princess Alexandra cut the first sod and gave her name to the new dock.  At 253m (830ft) long, and the design reflected the new leaner ships of the nineteenth century.


Steam Cranes - Victoria Yard

Manufactured by the Leeds based engineering company Smith & Rodley at the end of the 19th/early 20th Century, the three mobile steam cranes shown are presently sited at Victoria Wharf close to where the smaller shipyard of Workman Clark & Co was once based.  Workman Clark ceased operations in 1937 and its shipbuilding facilities at the Victoria Yard were taken over by Harland and Wolff.  Around fifty of these steam cranes, of which only three remain, used to operate around Queen's Island on a dedicated rail track system.  The steam cranes also worked at the Thompson Graving Dock servicing the outfitting of RMS Titanic.