Old Map of Belfast in 1851 by Tallis & Rapkin - Donegall Square, Shankill, Ballymacarrett

Engraved by John Rapkin and published by J. Tallis & Co. in 1851 as part of the same Illustrated Atlas series that covered cities such as Newcastle and Dublin, this map presents Belfast at a pivotal moment in its growth. The town was fast becoming the industrial capital of the north of Ireland, its streets radiating out from Donegall Square and the banks of the River Lagan. Around the border of the sheet, small engraved vignettes show the public buildings Belfast was most proud of, offering visitors a taste of a town transformed by the linen trade and by the newly founded Queen's College. It is a detailed and handsome record of Belfast just as it was tipping into the industrial age.

Cave Hill rises unmistakably to the north of the town, its basalt profile long said to have inspired the outline of a sleeping giant, while the Lagan winds south-east past the newly built Queen's Bridge toward Ballymacarrett on the County Down bank. The map traces the growing residential streets of the Falls and Shankill roads, already home to a fast-expanding working population, alongside the more genteel development around the Botanic Gardens, laid out just over two decades earlier. Donegall Square anchors the town centre, close to the warehouses of the linen trade that had made Belfast's fortune, and the map's engraved detail hints at a place growing faster than almost anywhere else in Ireland at the time.

This detailed reproduction makes a striking wall art piece, and a distinctive way to bring Belfast's history into a home. For anyone with family from the Falls, the Shankill, Ballymacarrett or further afield, it makes a heartfelt birthday or Christmas gift, and it's equally at home as a housewarming present for someone moving into their first house in the city. It also makes a memorable work leaving gift for a colleague relocating from Belfast, or an anniversary present for a couple who met or married there.