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Titanic Belfast is a visitor attraction in Northern Ireland, which opened in 2012. A monument to Belfast's maritime heritage on the site of the former Harland & Wolff shipyard in the city's Titanic Quarter where the was built. It tells the stories of the Titanic, which hit an iceberg and sank during her maiden voyage in 1912, and her sister ships and . The building contains more than of floor space, most of which is occupied by a series of galleries, private function rooms and community facilities.
The derelict land was renamed the "Titanic Quarter" in 2001 and was earmarked for regeneration. Development rights over 185 acres was subsequently bought by Harcourt Developments at a cost of £47 million, with 23 more acres set aside for a science park. The redevelopment plans included houses, hotels and entertainment amenities plus a maritime heritage museum and science centre. In 2005, plans were announced to build a museum dedicated to Titanic to attract tourists to the area, with the aim of completing it by 2012 to mark the centenary of Titanics maiden voyage and sinking.
Among ideas considered for the attraction were reconstructing the massive Arrol Gantry in which Titanic, Olympic and Britannic were constructed, or building an illuminated wire frame outline of Titanic in the dock in which she was fitted out. In June 2008, details of a project – known then as the " Titanic Signature Project" – were announced. Northern Ireland's Tourism Minister, Arlene Foster, announced that the Northern Ireland Executive would provide 50 per cent of the attraction's funding through the Northern Ireland Tourist Board, with the remaining 50 per cent coming from the private sector, in the shape of Titanic Quarter Ltd (a sister company of Harcourt Developments) and the Belfast Harbour Commissioners. Additional funding was pledged by Belfast City Council.
The task of creating the visitor attraction was taken on by Harcourt Developments, who enlisted the help of the American architect Eric Kuhne and British exhibition designers Event Communications. The building, now known as Titanic Belfast, was expected to attract 425,000 visitors annually, of whom between 130,000 and 165,000 would come from outside Northern Ireland. It is intended to serve a similar transformational function to that of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, designed by Frank Gehry, as a focus for the regeneration of the city. It forms part of the Titanic–related heritage sites in Titanic Quarter, including the disused headquarters and drawing offices of Harland & Wolff, the – the last surviving White Star Line ship – and Hamilton Dock, Titanics Dock and Pump house and the Titanic Olympic and Britannic slipways.
Titanic Belfast had a record-breaking year in 2017/18 with 841,563 people visiting the tourist attraction and the year before saw the Titanic Museum take home the World's Leading Tourism Attraction Award at the World Travel Awards (2016). In the same year, Titanic Belfast saw 84% of its visitors coming from outside Northern Ireland.
It was the most visited tourist attraction in Northern Ireland in 2023 with over 800,000 visitors.
The Titanic visitor centre has received fifteen awards since its opening in 2012. Titanic Belfast has been credited for helping to transform tourism in Northern Ireland for the better over the past few years. The tourist attraction has also welcomed many famous visitors including Queen Elizabeth II, the man who discovered the Titanic, Robert Ballard, and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush.
The building also provides education, community, retail and restaurant facilities plus a community resource centre.
In front of the building is Titanica, a sculpture by Rowan Gillespie depicting a diving female figure. Made of bronze, it is mounted on a brass base, evoking the design of figureheads on ships' prows, and is meant to represent hope and positivity. The figure was dedicated by representatives of the Anglican, Catholic, Methodist and Presbyterian churches on 27 March 2012, a few days before the opening of Titanic Belfast.
The first gallery recreates scenes from Belfast at the time of Titanics construction in 1909–11. It illustrates the city's major industries before leading through an original set of gates from the Harland and Wolff shipyard into an interactive floor presenting Titanics construction plans, along with original drawings and scale models of the ship.
The second gallery is dominated by a steel scaffold standing , which alludes to the Arrol Gantry built to aid the construction of Titanic and Olympic. The actual gantry was four times the height of the gallery's representation. A lift carries visitors to the top of the gantry, where scenes of shipbuilding are displayed through audio and images. The visit continues on a six-seater car which takes the visitor on a ride through a recreation of a shipyard which moves through a scale replica of Titanics enormous rudder.
The Launch gallery portrays scenes from the Spring day when Titanic was launched into Belfast Lough, watched by 100,000 people. It overlooks the slipway from which Titanic was launched and a window enables visitors to see the slipways and docks as they appear now.
The fourth gallery presents a large-scale model of Titanic to illustrate how the ship appeared to its passengers and crew, depicting all three classes of cabins. A central feature in the gallery presents a 360-degree computer-generated tour around Titanic through all the levels of the vessel, from the engine room to the dining saloons and the bridge.
The ship's disastrous maiden voyage is depicted in the fifth gallery, which depicts the ship's boat deck. Visitors can walk across the wooden deck, sit on benches or look out at a view across the docks and harbour. The gallery also presents photographs of the ship by the Jesuit photographer Father Francis Browne, who was aboard Titanic for the leg from Southampton to Cobh in southern Ireland.
The sixth gallery portrays the sinking of the Titanic with the background sound of Morse code SOS messages being sent to other ships. Images of the sinking are combined with audio of survivors telling their stories and illustrations of the confused press reporting of the disaster. The iceberg is evoked by a wall of 400 replica life-jackets, on which an image of the sinking ship is projected.
The aftermath of the sinking is documented in the seventh gallery, which is dominated by a full-size replica of one of the lifeboats used to evacuate passengers from the ship. The American and British inquiries into the disaster are portrayed on either side of the lifeboat through videos and information panels. Visitors can use interactive screens to search the passenger and crew lists to find out if one of their relatives was aboard the ship. The gallery also presents information on the subsequent histories of Harland and Wolff and Titanics sister ships.
The disaster gave rise to numerous legends and myths, perpetuated through films, plays, books and poems. With Celine Dion's song My Heart Will Go On playing in the background, visitors are able to explore aspects of the popular culture inspired by Titanic. Interactive screens also enable the visitor to explore myths about the ship.
The last gallery presents Titanic as she is now, below the surface of the North Atlantic. Presented in conjunction with the discoverer of the wreck of Titanic, Dr Robert Ballard, the gallery illustrates his expeditions to the ship through footage, audio and images. A fish-eye view of the wreck is set under the glass floor. Below the floor is the Ocean Exploration Centre, Titanic Belfast's principal educational facility, which shows marine biology and exploration in Northern Ireland's coastal waters as well as Ballard's various expeditions around the world.
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