Grand Opera House

The Grand Opera House on Great Victoria Street is Belfast's principal theatre, a magnificent piece of Moorish-influenced Victorian architecture designed by Frank Matcham and opened in 1895. The interior is extraordinary: horseshoe gallery, painted ceiling, gilded plasterwork, and elephant-head capitals on the stage boxes.

The theatre stages a full programme of touring productions — West End musicals, plays, opera, and ballet — and the standard is generally high. Even if nothing in the programme appeals, the building can be visited on tours. The location, directly opposite the Crown Liquor Saloon, makes it part of the Great Victoria Street double act — two Victorian monuments of different kinds facing each other across the street.

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A story
The Grand Opera House was bombed by the IRA in 1991 and again in 1993. Both times it was repaired and reopened. The building's persistence through the Troubles became a point of civic pride — it stood directly opposite the Europa Hotel (bombed 33 times) and carried on operating as a theatre regardless. The ornate Victorian interior was carefully restored after each bombing, and the theatre is now one of the best-preserved examples of Frank Matcham's work in the UK.