BBC Radio 4 visits Banana Block
BBC Radio 4’s Farming Today visited Banana Block in early 2022 to explore how part of the former Strand Mill had become a new home for events, food and growing.
In February 2022, Banana Block reached a national radio audience when BBC Radio 4’s Farming Today visited Portview to explore one of Belfast’s more unusual regeneration projects.
Reporter Kathleen Carragher met Banana Block programme manager Claire Hall to hear how a previously derelict area of the former Strand Mill had been transformed into an events and artisan food space.
The feature highlighted the mix of activity already taking place inside the building, including mushroom growing and cheese making, while also exploring the history behind the Banana Block name and the story of bananas being successfully grown in East Belfast more than a century earlier.
The broadcast came only a few months after Banana Block opened its doors and provided valuable outside recognition of the new use being created within Portview.
It also captured something central to the project: Banana Block was not about restoring an industrial building to look as it once had. It was about taking the stories and character of the former mill and using them as the starting point for new enterprise, food, culture and public activity.
The original Farming Today report remains available through Yamal Productions as part of its programme archive.
