Titanic Quarter Belfast

Summary

Harland & Wolff’s shipyard peninsula — the slipways where Titanic and Olympic were built, with paint halls, dry docks, and the distinctive twin cranes that define Belfast’s skyline.

About this location

The Titanic Quarter occupies the former Harland & Wolff shipyard on Queen’s Island, a man-made peninsula on the east side of Belfast Lough. The shipyard was the world’s largest in the early 20th century and built the Olympic class liners, including Titanic. The surviving physical fabric is extraordinary in scale: the twin gantry cranes Samson and Goliath dominate the skyline at 96 and 85 metres respectively; the slipways where the ships were built are now a concrete esplanade; the paint hall is an enormous single-volume shed building of 35,000 square metres.

The Titanic Belfast visitor centre opened in 2012 and the wider quarter has been developed for tech, residential, and hospitality use, but the industrial core — slipways, paint halls, dock infrastructure — remains available for film production through the site management. Game of Thrones used the paint hall (now a dedicated studio facility branded Titanic Studios) for major interior sets. The deep-water docks and dry docks around the peninsula provide working industrial options.

Belfast City Council’s filming unit facilitates location enquiries across the Quarter. The production-friendly environment in Northern Ireland (supported by Northern Ireland Screen’s financial incentives) means the area is well-versed in serving large-scale productions. Northern Ireland’s generous location incentive structure makes Belfast competitive with any UK equivalent.