Tuesday 7 April 2009

Gelston's Corner Chimes


If you happen to pass the corner building at number two, Belmont Road, Belfast, popularly known as Gelston's Corner, at the appropriate time you'll have noticed that the clock has been re-instituted and it now chimes merrily generating the same notes as Big Ben.

It's good that this building has been renovated and restored. The clock has never told the time within my memory till now; I wonder if it originally chimed like Big Ben...

Many's a time I've darkened the threshold of that building, when it operated as a dentist's surgery. I always dreaded those visits; they actually had to physically restrain me when I was a little boy! Dr Herriott arrived and administered some sort of gas in order to knock me out.

Around the corner, on the Belmont Road itself, a relatively recent, contemporary bistro restaurant now operates called Bennett's On Belmont.

2 comments :

Robert JE Simpson said...

Certainly I never remember it chiming when I was around in the 80s... noticed it for the first time when we were looking at moving back into the area a few months ago - very pleasant it is too.

Timothy Belmont said...

A quirky feature of the locality!