As we come through the other side of a difficult number of years for Northern Ireland, more and more people are making their way back to Belfast city centre - whether it be tourists or workers heading back to their offices.
Belfast is a vibrant and unique city that has the potential to truly transform with the right projects and developments in place to make our capital an area to be proud of.
Over the last year, a number of social spaces have been popping up across Belfast that are reimagining the landscape of the city and giving Belfast back to the people.
Read more: New outdoor social space opening in Belfast city centre this summer
Chris McCracken, MD of the Linen Quarter BID, has been instrumental in the creation of three parklets in the heart of the city centre and also creating 'FLAXX at Linen Quarter' on Brunswick Street - an open aired hub to rejuvenate a forgotten space.
Speaking to Belfast Live, Chris said that the aim of the Linen Quarter BID is to "make the city centre more about people" and these parklets have been a breath of fresh air in their mission.
Chris said: "Parklets first originated in San Franciso where they were trying to reclaim road space and make the city more about the people which quickly spread over to major cities like London where we really picked it up.
"We wanted to do our own design and not just copy other people so we did a bespoke design for the Belfast parklets and have rolled out three to date.
"There's one on Linenhall Street outside the BBC and that's a parklet and work area and that's for people to have a takeaway coffee. There's the parklet at the top of Linenhall Street and that's more people who want to purchase something from the nearby establishments and sit out - there's a lovely view of City Hall.
"There is also the Parklet At Pugs which is for people wanting to enjoy an outdoor drink and then our final space is FLAXX which isn't a parklet but a whole space for people to use."
A survey last year showed that since installing the first parklet on Linenhall Street "over 90 per cent" of people wanted to see these changes in the city.
"You just have to look on social media to see how much people want the city to change - there is an international trend to return cities to people and we've had 50 years of making them about cars and that's a trend people of Belfast want to be a part of as well," Chirs explained.
"The feedback has been very positive."
Pug Uglys is one of the businesses that have directly benefited from the city centre parklets as their new outdoor space has been welcomed by both staff and customers. Director Paul Langsford said that it has become a saving grace in the wake of the pandemic.
Paul said: "Since the Covid-19 pandemic first hit outdoor space has been paramount and hasn’t been easy to obtain, especially in Belfast City Centre - innovation really has been the key and it’s great to see bodies such as the council and Linen Quarter Bid innovating in this way.
"So this is an amazing and most welcome addition for the Linen Quarter, bringing a vibrancy to this quarter of the city and particularly for our bar Pug Uglys.
"The parklet really will go a long way to helping us get back on our feet after the nightmare that the hospitality industry has suffered over the last couple of years as customers have loved being able to drink and eat outdoors at Pug Uglys."
Chris continued: "We are making the city centre more about people and we want people to come to enjoy the space and socialise with friends. It's really good for offices as well and what we are doing is providing social facilities for people that work in the area so that they can come and have a team meeting, or work on your laptop and have an outdoor coffee.
"The Linen Quarter had 50 years of decline and it was a forgotten part of town and when we took over in 2018, a large stretch of the Linen Quarter has been colonised by street drinkers and a lot of anti-social behaviour and some of those problems still exist and we are working with agencies on that.
"We have reimagined these spaces and brought them back into public use for public benefit instead of people having concern walking through these areas, they are able to stop and linger in a beautiful space, stop for a coffee or play a game of French boulles."
Chris said that these parklets and social spaces are only the beginning of their vision for the city and hope that the future of Belfast is bright and can reach its full potential.
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