Belfast street odyssey: The Markets

I sometimes describe my work as being concerned with heritage, beauty and decay. Those three words would go a long way to summing up Belfast in general, but during this morning's walk round the Markets area I felt very conscious of them. I started in the beautiful St Malachy's Church...

...and spent a while at the abandoned St Malachy's Convent School beside it, thinking how much I'd love to go inside. 

There are still streets of untouched Georgian houses here, used as private homes despite being so close to the city centre.

And you don't have to walk far to get a sense of the politics and history of an area where more troubled days, despite all the recent improvements, are fresh in the collective memory.