Each panel has been hand-painted by local artist Jonny McEwan and individually and together are intended to provide a variety of perspectives on a Belfast sky. So far as any of us is aware the process is a true innovation and will form a unique facade to our building making it a new art installation for the city.

We’ve uploaded some photographs of Jonny at work which you can access by following the link to our photo gallery on the home page.

A glance at these photos will show clearly the immense challenge Jonny faced in the project. Because he was essentially ‘painting’ with powdered glass the colours were blind until the firing process was complete. With the samples we’ve received and the evidence of these photos I hope you can see why we’re excited at how our building will look.

Last Wednesday we were delighted to host a visit from Joris Bunschoten, Director of the Vertical Planting Company (website HERE) in Holland. He will be directing the installation of a 3 storey high vertical garden which he has designed and which was inspired by the lines of the Irish landscape. The design outline can be downloaded from the Vertical Planting website, or from HERE.

We believe this is the first such wall in Northern Ireland, and may even be the first in Ireland. We have no doubt it will be an iconic presence on the street and in Belfast and is sure to put Skainos on the map.

Altogether there will be 4,500 plants in the wall and planting will begin on 16 April. By August/September it is estimated that 90% of the wall will be covered.

The congregation at East Belfast Mission gathered after worship to dedicate the new church building in Skainos on Sunday 8 January. The short service was delivered by the Methodist President Rev Ian Henderson and the group that gathered included people who had been present at the last dedication of a new church in 1952.

It is a unique feature of the history of this congregation, whether as Ballymacarrett Methodist, or Newtownards Road Methodist or East Belfast Mission, that it has always been willing to re-shape itself for ministry and mission. This is most clearly demonstrated in the fact this is the fifth church to be built on this site. Three of the previous buildings were demolished voluntarily in response to changing needs. Only once was the church building brought down through no choice of the congregation. It happened in the Belfast blitz in 1941, when bombers trying to hit the shipyard managed to destroy large parts of the Newtownards Road.

But this past Sunday represents a significant milestone on this new journey for the congregation after 12 years of dreaming, hoping, planning and hard work.

We’re excited here at Skainos to take delivery today of the first pieces of Jonny McEwan’s artwork for the facade of the Skainos building. There will be 42 panels on the Newtownards Road elevation, each one made up of four panels similar to the photo above). These are vitreous enamel panels, fired in a factory on the Isle of Wight, and each one is hand painted by Jonny, prior to the firing. As far as we are aware this has never been done before and will ensure that the front of the Skainos building is itself, an original work of art.

The concept for Jonny, (whose work can be seen HERE) was to capture the various moods of an East Belfast sky. The brief also includes several solid yellow panels to recall the famous East Belfast shipyard cranes.

Here at Skainos we tweeted the above photo just moments ago, and Jonny responded immediately from the factory floor to say that the 22nd set of panels has just gone into the kiln for firing.

Can’t wait to see more!

Progress continues apace on the Skainos site. So much so that one of the real pleasures of the job is bringing people on to the site for the first time and gauging their reactions. This past week has been particularly busy leading EBM staff, Skainos Board, new tenants and Skainos supporters around the site. The weather wasn’t always conducive meaning the conditions underfoot weren’t always comfortable, but with work now well on in building internal walls, it’s easier now to see how the building will work.

The photo above is of EBM’s Stepping Stone staff on a recent site visit.

Skainos were delighted to host Lord Freud, Minister for Welfare Reform in the UK Parliament, in a tour of the construction site. Lord Freud was visiting East Belfast Mission’s Stepping Stone project and expressed interest in seeing Skainos close up.

From the left: Lord Freud, Gary Mason (Skainos Chair), Neil Morris (Skainos Finance & Legals).

Those with longer memories of life on the Newtownards Road will frequently reminisce about the shops and business that gave such vitality and energy. Places like Mahood’s Bicycle Shop or Burke’s Draper and Outfitters at number 213-223, or Irvine’s Shoe Shop at the Arches.

No story is complete without ice cream from Desano’s or Fuscos, after fish and chips from somewhere like the Fish Supper Saloon at Hanvey’s, 83 Newtownards Road or maybe Vincent’s Fish Restaurant.

The Bloomfield Bakery at the corner of the Newtownards Road and Bloomfield Avenue was the largest in the city and had at one time over 80 carts and 100 horses serving the city. They also had the contract to provide the bread and sundries for the 36th Ulster Division prior to the Division going to France in 1915.

The Road even had its own organ builder by the name of F Pancott, and at 439 was the British and Argentina Meat Company.

The Strand Spinning Mill now called Portview was a very modern Mill that gives employment to many women and young girls it was the last purpose built Mill to be built in Belfast.

Beside the mill was Browns. Having outgrown the Bloomfield Road premises Browns moved to the Newtownards Road in 1936. Surveying 50 years of activity in 1954, from furniture removers to taxis and wedding limousines to funeral services, Elizabeth Brown wrote, ‘During the past 50 years our path has often been beset by obstacles which at times seemed insurmountable, but God’s grace supporting human perseverance brought us safely through. Celebrating 100 years in 2004, the then director, James Brown, agreed.

At number 74 was the Medical Institute for Working People run by Dr Cardwell and in Cuba Street the first commercial Motor Carriage to be built in Ireland. It was known as the Chambers car and one can be seen at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum at Cultra. There was also a gentleman who operated a bakery from the front and undertakers from the rear of his premises.

And finally, many people have stories of queuing up on a Saturday morning outside of Pat Jordan’s bakery for apple tarts or tatie bread. The business, which was listed in a 1920 street directory, still exists today and is operated by the same family. Those in the know say the apple tarts are still as good.

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thanks to local historian Bobby Cosgrove for his invaluable help in compiling these stories

Following the most recent Site Prorgess Meeting a new set of photographs have been uploaded to the Skainos Flickr site and to the Skainos facebook page. As can be seen daily from the webcams the project is now a substantial presence on the Road, and it’s now possible to see the layout of apartments in the Baskin Street Unit and on the ground floor of the new Hosford House.

The photo above perhaps doesn’t look like much, but it shows the floor plates of Block E, the day nursery. During August the most significant progress will be seen on this side of the development. The construction of the steelwork has begun and by the end of the month we expect that both sides of the whole project will have reached their full height.