Ulster Museum celebrates 50th anniversary of building

The Ulster Museum building merges old and new in Belfast's Botanic Gardens

The Ulster Museum in Belfast is celebrating an important anniversary this year.

1972 saw the opening of a modern extension to the rear of the original 1929 museum on Stranmillis Road.

Children on school trips have grown to know and love Peter the polar bear, Takabuti the Egyptian mummy and treasure from the Spanish Armada.

The extension was described by the 20th Century Society as "inspiring, uplifting and idealistic".

An early concept drawing of the museum from 1964 by Paddy Lawson

However, it continued, "alternatively, some would argue that it is hard to relate to, overbearing and uncommunicative… both arguments carry weight".

The extension was designed by Francis Pym following a competition announced in 1964 and is in a style of concrete architecture known as "brutalism".

Pym's collaborator Paddy Lawson, a 22-year-old architectural assistant from Portaferry County Down, fulfilled the roll of de facto architect on site, overseeing all aspects of the design.

It was one of 12 buildings that year to win a Royal Institute of British Architects award.

The original 1929 building appeared somehow incomplete

Opening in 1972, the worst year of the Troubles, the museum remained one of the few visitor attractions in Belfast for decades.

The museum has about 8,000 square metres of public display space covering the history of Northern Ireland from the earliest times to the very recent past, collections of art, mostly modern and historic and contemporary fashion and textiles.

The new museum entrance emerges from behind a pile of rubble

It features material from the collections of fine art and applied art, archaeology, ethnography, treasures from the Spanish Armada, local history, coins, industrial archaeology, botany, zoology and geology.

The museum was founded in 1821 as part of the Belfast Natural History Society and the original Georgian building can still be seen in College Square North.

A bird's-eye view of the concrete east wing of the museum

Two hundred years later, in 2021, the Ulster Museum had 127,000 visitors.

It closed for three years between 2006 and 2009 for a £12m redevelopment that opened up the centre of the building.

The refurbishment reconfigured the galleries and added a new restaurant, the Wynne and Pym Cafe, named for the museum's two architects.

Meet Peter the Polar Bear - a firm favourite with younger visitors

William Blair, director of collections and National Museums of Northern Ireland, is keen to point to future developments.

"The 50th anniversary of Ulster Museum offers an opportunity not only to look back, but also, more importantly, to look to the future. Northern Ireland is changing, and so too are our audiences and their needs and expectations."

The building gained a light-filled central space in 2009

A number of special events marked the anniversary including Power to the Young People, which connected more than 4,000 young people with heritage, through creative media and the latest digital technologies.

The exhibition was on display from June to September this year, under the themes of climate justice, arts and wellbeing and LGBTQIA+ rights.

Mr Blair drew attention to the museum's Global Histories exhibition as an example of how the museum is addressing issues such as the legacy of conflict, the environment, and social change.

"This has been co-created in collaboration with local ethnic minority communities, who have shared their expertise on how we can better interpret our collections and connect them to contemporary issues and their lived experience," he says.