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.