Listening before designing: how East Belfast helped shape Portview’s future
How residents, tenants, young people and partners helped shape the future of Portview.
A masterplan shaped with people
The future of Portview was never intended to be decided only through drawings and technical reports. A major part of the 2020 Heritage Project focused on listening to the people who knew the Mill, used the site or lived around it. Across five themed workshops and four What’s the Story? public events, 182 people took part. A further 44 strategic stakeholder engagements connected Portview with local organisations, public bodies, education partners and others with an interest in East Belfast’s future.
Memories, needs and new ideas
The engagement worked at different levels. People with historic connections to Strand Spinning Mill contributed memories and material that could inform future interpretation. Existing tenants discussed practical needs and the value of working alongside other creative and technical businesses. Young people and community organisations were invited to think about future learning, skills and employment opportunities. The process also generated practical ideas — from shared spaces and makers’ activity to markets, food events, pop-up cinema and stronger links with the surrounding neighbourhood. Some were long-term ambitions; others were deliberately identified as quick wins that could begin testing a more open, active Portview.
Why that still matters
For Portview, this work changed the regeneration conversation. The Mill was not being considered simply as a property asset, but as part of a wider East Belfast story — one connected to industrial heritage, enterprise, skills, community identity and the regeneration of the Newtownards Road. That is the principle behind community-based heritage regeneration: protecting a historic building while asking how its future can create opportunities for the people and places around it. The ideas gathered in 2020 helped shape later projects and remain useful evidence as Portview continues to develop the next phases of the site.
