Cathedral Quarter Artists and Businesses Left Homeless After Their Building is Set Ablaze
Abby Davidson
In the early hours of October 3 the historic Cathedral Buildings on Donegall Street in Cathedral Quarter was found ablaze by many of the small business owners and artists who had made their home in the building.
The fire took over 50 firefighters, two aerial appliances and eight fire appliances to tackle and destroyed several premises. Others have been forced to close.
An estimated £3 million of damage has been caused by the fire. An 18 year old male was arrested and charged with arson with intent to endanger life shortly after the incident. He has also been charged with burglary and possession of a Class B controlled drug.
Elly Makem, an illustrator who had their studio in the building tweeted their devastation at the event.
“Every sketchbook I’ve ever owned, every piece of equipment I’ve gathered over the last 8 years, a £3,000 iMac, physical and digital work made for clients, my entire lively hood for nearly two years that I worked to build. Gone.”
Another business affected by the fire is press company Excalibur Press. They issued a statement on their social media to their clients.
“We are absolutely devastated and heartbroken after our beautiful building Cathedral Buildings in Donegall Street was victim to arson yesterday morning.
We aren’t holding out much hope that anything can be saved from our 4 offices which included a photography/videography studio.”
The damages that many of these businesses now face are unsalvageable with a huge amount of irreplaceable work lost and leaving them distraught.
One such business belongs to Aidan Mulholland who ran a violin repair business on the top floor of the building. The 30 year old business lost up to £60,000 worth of stock including a 19th century English Cello worth around £10,000, a bow worth £5,000 and nearly 30 violins.
Digital Arts Studio, a charity that supports artists who produce digital work, also lost their studio space to the fire. Their studio contained a huge amount of equipment that helped local artists. The studio tweeted this message out.
“I’m sure most people have seen the pictures of Cathedral Buildings on fire by now. This means we are homeless but we will be working hard to try to still support our artists. Thanks so much for the calls and offers of support. We will keep you posted..”
In response to the situation a group of Cathedral Building artists started a Gofundme campaign to raise money to support them and cover some of their losses. So far the fundraiser has received over £15,000 of donations. The fund will support artists Elly Makem, Ellen Blair, Suzi Magee, Dermot Gibson, Sam Patton and Jennifer Mehigan. Several other creators have also set up funding campaigns which are receiving wide support from the surrounding community.
Although these donations will be gratefully received many of the artists lost irreplaceable pieces of their portfolio including artwork, sketchbooks, and research.
Neighbourhood, who have their cafe unit at the bottom of the building, posted a short statement on their Instagram to their customers following the event. They end their message with a sentiment of hope, “We’ll be back soon.”
Featured image courtesy of Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service.
Abby Davidson is Deputy Head at The Scoop and a Liberal Arts student at Queen’s University Belfast