South side Travel Video Guide

South side Travel Itinerary

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The south side is the older half of Belize City: in the early days the elite lived in the seafront houses while the backstreets were home to slaves and labourers. These days it's the city's commercial centre, containing the ugly new market building just over the Swing Bridge, the main shopping streets, banks and travel agencies. Albert Street , running south from the Swing Bridge, is the main commercial thoroughfare. On the parallel Regent Street are the former colonial administration and court buildings, collectively known as the Court House . These well-preserved examples of colonial architecture, completed in 1926, with columns and fine wrought iron, overlook Battlefield Park (named to commemorate the noisy political meetings that took place there before independence), a patch of grass and trees with an ornamental fountain in the centre.

A block behind the Court House, on the waterfront, is the Bliss Institute , funded by the legacy of Baron Bliss , an eccentric Englishman with a Portuguese title. A keen fisherman, he arrived off the coast of Belize in 1926 after hearing about the tremendous game fishing in local waters. Unfortunately, he became ill and died without ever having been ashore. Despite this he left most of his considerable estate to the colony and, in gratitude, the authorities declared March 9, the date of his death, Baron Bliss Day. The Bliss building is now a performing arts centre hosting exhibitions, concerts and plays.

At the end of Albert Street is St John's Cathedral , the oldest Anglican cathedral in Central America and one of the oldest buildings in Belize. Looking like a large English parish church, it was begun in 1812, its red bricks being brought over as ballast in British ships. Here, between 1815 and 1845, the kings of the Mosquito Coast were crowned amid great pomp, taking the title to a British Protectorate that extended along the coast of Honduras and Nicaragua.

On the way to the seafront from the cathedral you'll come to the well-preserved, white-painted, green-lawned Government House, now renamed the

House of Culture (daily 8.30am-4.30pm; free entrance to grounds, US$2.50 to the house). A plush red carpet leads down the hall to a great mahogany staircase, the walls lined with prints and photos of sombre past governors. Much of the collection of this former museum (including silverware, glasses and furniture used during the colonial period) has moved to the Museum of Belize, leaving the House of Culture free to host painting and dance workshops, art exhibitions and musical performances.

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