Victoria Square Shopping Centre

The basics

Victoria Square Shopping Centre is situated in a heavily-trafficked area of central Belfast. Some guided walking tours of the city center include a visit to Victoria Square’s dome, which provides an excellent overview of the city for first-time visitors. Some coach tours of Belfast and the Causeway Coastal Route also make brief stops here, allowing visitors to stretch their legs and soak up the views.

Hop-on hop-off bus tours typically stop at or near Victoria Square, and many visitors come here to shop for fashion, beauty, and homewares. The mall is also home to the 19th-century Jaffe Memorial Fountain, which was erected by former Lord Mayor of Belfast, Otto Jaffe, in memory of his father.

Things to know before you go

• Entry to the dome and the shopping center is free.
• The shopping center is wheelchair-accessible.
• There are family toilets, parking (including parent and child spaces), and family feeding rooms at the center.

How to get there

Victoria Square Shopping Centre is in the southern part of Belfast city center. There is an underground parking lot at the shopping center. Numerous Translink Metro bus routes stop on nearby Chichester and Victoria Streets. Walking from Belfast Lanyon Place station takes about 10–15 minutes.

When to get there

The shopping center is busiest in the run-up to Christmas and during the end-of-summer and post-Christmas sales. For a little more elbow room while you shop, come midweek. View the exterior of the dome at night, when it is attractively lit up with bluish-purple lights; its glowing silhouette has fast become an icon of the Belfast night skyline.

Views from the Dome

The glass dome overlooks some of the most readily identifiable features of Belfast’s skyline. The Harland and Wolff cranes–a pair of giant yellow gantry cranes known locally as Samson and Goliath–can be seen from the dome, as can the green copper dome of Belfast City Hall.