A Growing Story

Bringing life to an urban desert in the heart of Belfast City Centre.

Brink! has partnered with Grow and quarto to bring people together on the derelict Belfast Stories site to explore the varied heritages of growing and eating food and other plants through an entire growing season in this city centre location.

A Growing Story will explore in this space what can happen when we understand our city centre differently, make it grow and play, experiment andeducate there. This heritage project is at the heart of Brink!’s plan.

The aim is to turn a derelict Belfast city centre site into a thriving meanwhile space for growing food, creating art, connecting people and demonstrating what is possible in the face of climate change.

Growing together, sharing together

The area surrounding this brownfield site has historically been home to the Central Library, Belfast’s newspaper district and the historic Smithfield Market. As industries declined and moved elsewhere, the site was left abandoned and neglected, becoming a symbol of urban decay. Issues of dereliction, poor planning, poverty and a lack of green spaces in our city centre, are all pressing issues that need to be dealt with.

By exploring Belfast’s varied community heritages of food growing, cooking and eating, traditional knowledge and skills can be celebrated and promoted to build a more sustainable future and climate-resilient food systems

Supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, and DAERA, the project called ‘A Growing Story’ will run through 2024, to explore what can happen when we understand our city centre differently, make it grow and play, experiment and educate there.