Royal Belfast Academical Institution

1807-1814 - Sir John Soane, John McCutcheon and James Boyd. This school opened in 1814 for the purposes of educating the sons of Belfast's wealthy merchants and professional gentlemen. It then contained four departments, the Writing, Mathematical and Mercantile; English and Classical Schools. The building is one of the relatively rare examples of Georgian architecture in Belfast. Until the mid nineteenth century it served as both a school and a university. It is now a non-denominational grammar school for boys.

Royal Belfast Academical Institution was attended by William Pirrie, the man who created Titanic, from the age of 11 to 15, when he enrolled as an apprentice at Harland and Wolff. His uncle, John Carlisle, was head of the English Department at the time. Carlisle’s son, Alexander, was the original designer of Titanic. Thomas Andrews, who succeeded Carlisle as designer, was also educated here from the age of 11 to 16, when he too enrolled as an apprentice at Harland and Wolff. Next door, the Municipal Technical Institute, now the Belfast Institute, opened in 1907 to provide suitably trained employees for Belfast’s leading industrial and manufacturing companies, including Harland and Wolff.