Town Foray

I cycled into town for a spot of research at the Linenhall Library this morning. Unusually, a fire alarm was sounding and everybody was required to evacuate the premises.

While I waited outside, at Donegall Square North, I admired the top of the Scottish Provident Building, one of Belfast's finest late-Victorian edifices.

Opened in 1902, its six-storey Glasgow sandstone façade contains four panels reflecting Belfast's industrious roots of shipbuilding, printing, rope-making and spinning.

Dolphins, sphinxes, lions' and queens' heads, and yet more carved heads denoting England, India, Canada, Sudan, Ireland and Scotland, can also be spied on its exquisite Edwardian exterior.