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ULSTER ORCHESTRA AT TOWNSEND
Ulster Orchestra at Townsend currently comprises the Foyle Foundation Hall (formerly Townsend Street Church) where the Orchestra rehearse and perform; a former school building which house the Orchestra’s administrative offices; and memorial hall.
The Ulster Orchestra moved into the historically significant site, which sits on a Peace Line, in 2022, and have embarked on an extensive restoration and redevelopment project to create its first permanent home, supported by funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Foyle Foundation, Ulster Garden Villages, Dormant Accounts Fund NI, as well as the continued support of the Department for Communities, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Belfast City Council.
The restored buildings will provide a rehearsal and events space, a music learning and community engagement hub, a dedicated recording studio, additional rehearsal rooms and spaces to rent, enabling the Orchestra to expand its work and impact in the Belfast community and across the region.
Townsend Street
Townsend Street has a rich history. It is one of only two points in Belfast where one can see the Farset River, the river that gave the city its name. It also houses Townsend Enterprise Park, on the site of the former Soho Foundry.
Over the years, the history of the street and its surroundings were buried by the degradation of the area and the legacy of Troubles-era interface gates.
Sound Links was the Ulster Orchestra’s first place-based heritage project, and an exciting opportunity for us to discover and celebrate the rich history and heritage of our new home on Townsend Street. We were incredibly fortunate to partner with our neighbours at Townsend Enterprise Park, which since its inception as a cross-community initiative in 1987 has been instrumental in fostering businesses and jobs in the local area, acting as a vital force for regeneration, peace and reconciliation.
Townsend Street Enterprise Park are passionate about sharing the rich industrial, social and cultural history of their site where the MacAdam brothers’ Soho Foundry, a powerhouse of Victorian industry and innovation, once stood. Many other foundries and factories lined Townsend Street and the area was central to the industrial revolution in Belfast, supporting the development of the world-famous shipyards and linen industry at a time when Belfast became known as Linenopolis. What made the Soho Foundry famous was its innovative water turbine technology and worldwide export market, with the largest steam engine ever constructed in Ireland shipped from the Soho Foundry to Egypt in 1848 for the irrigation of the Nile Delta.
The younger of the two brothers, Robert Shipboy MacAdam, was a true ‘renaissance man’, a noted scholar and folklorist, a pivotal figure in Belfast’s Irish language revival, and a major force in the city’s cultural and intellectual life. He co-founded the Ulster Gaelic Society, was President of the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society, and founding editor of the Ulster Journal of Archaeology. MacAdam was said to be fluent in a dozen languages, his linguistic skill perhaps most evident in his Comparative Lexicon now held at the Linen Hall Library. Not to be outdone, Robert’s older brother, James, was also interested in the Irish language and a renowned geologist and botanist, one of the founders of Belfast’s Botanic Gardens and the first librarian of Queen’s College (later Queen’s University) Belfast. His extensive palaeontology collection is now housed at the Ulster Museum. Both brothers, like many Belfast Presbyterians at this time, considered their beliefs entirely compatible with a passionate Irish cultural identity.
Through its ‘Foundry Quarter’ initiative, Townsend Enterprise Park intends to draw on this rich heritage of innovation, business acumen and cultural enlightenment to help empower and unite the community.
Find out more about Townsend Enterprise Park’s heritage work, and stay up to date with future plans on their website.
Townsend Enterprise Park was co-founded by Townsend Street Presbyterian Church, with the sites straddling the peace line and forming a cohesive and supportive community at the heart of the street. As custodians of the former Church, we at the Ulster Orchestra look forward to sustaining these close ties as we pursue our heritage work, building on the strong foundations established through Sound Links.
In 2024, we embarked on a National Lottery Heritage funded project exploring the history and heritage of Townsend Street Church and the surrounding area, as well as the orchestra’s own rich history as it approaches its 60th anniversary season in 2026. An integral part of the project will see us develop interpretation and an exhibition space onsite to celebrate and share the rich history of the Grade B+ listed Church, Schoolhouse and Memorial Hall and the key figures who built and shaped the site over the past 150 years. Through this, we will celebrate the heritage of these buildings and their architectural treasures, which include beautiful stained glass windows designed by Wilhelmina Geddes and Ethel Rhind, who were members of the pioneering An Túr Gloine cooperative studio in Dublin, as well as the church’s fine pipe organ, installed as a memorial to the fallen after the First World War. We are also building partnerships with local community groups and arts organisations to develop a living heritage programme exploring a range of themes through music and other media. We are currently designing a number of potential projects inspired by a range of source material, including the life and work of Wilhelmina Geddes, the work of West Belfast composers, and the music and songs of the linen mills and dancehalls.
Throughout this project, we are also developing the orchestra’s own archive, and capturing memories and experiences of former players and our audiences to help tell the orchestra’s story.
