Fountains, Belfast City Cemetery, Falls Road, Belfast, County Antrim, BT12 6DE

Two ornamental cast-iron fountains, possibly dating to around 1880, made by George Smith & Co. of the Sun Foundry in Glasgow, are located within Belfast City Cemetery on the Falls Road. The larger fountain stands in the centre of the original cemetery at the junction of sections D, E, G and H, while the smaller fountain is positioned roughly midway between the vaults and the boundary wall on the Falls Road.

The larger fountain is a three-tiered structure set on a circular lawned platform. The stem culminates in a female figure holding a small circular dish. The second tier features a circular dish decorated with flower buds and supported by female figures. The lowest tier consists of a larger hexagonal dish with lion heads, supported on a base ornamented with four volutes and bronzed gargoyles set on a moulded plinth.

The smaller fountain is a single-tier structure positioned on a hexagonal stepped granite platform. The stem supports a circular dish and culminates in a painted ball finial. The base is square in plan with four painted colonnettes set on a polygonal stepped plinth.

The fountains were installed at a time when Belfast's rapid nineteenth-century expansion had created acute pressure on burial grounds. Following overcrowding at existing graveyards including Shankill, Friar's Bush and the New Burying Ground on Clifton Street, Belfast Corporation accepted a 101-acre site on the Falls Road in 1865, offered by Thomas Sinclair. The purchase was completed in December 1865 for £12,000 with an annual ground rent of £73 5s. 4d. Forty-five acres were designated for the cemetery, with the remainder becoming Falls Park. The Corporation awarded the design contract to William Gay of Bradford on 25 January 1867. The cemetery opened on 1 August 1869, with the first burials three days later.

Although sources give 1880 as the date for the fountains' placement, the Cemetery Committee minutes do not record them in that year. The minutes do show that on 21 May 1890 the Committee examined designs for an ornamental fountain and selected one at a cost of £220, though there is no certainty this refers to either fountain. The fountains appear marked but unnamed on the 1901 six-inch Ordnance Survey map.

George Smith & Co. was responsible for several other fountains and sculpted metalwork in Belfast, including the Jaffe Fountain and the lamps on Queen's Bridge, as well as the Alexander Hamilton Memorial Fountain in Larne.

These fountains form two of the most prominent features of the cemetery and have group value with other listed structures within it, including the entrance gates and other memorials.