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First devised in 1845 Queens College Belfast as a campus of the Queens University of Ireland alongside the Queen Colleges of Cork and Galway, was intended to provide higher education for Catholics and Presbyterians as a counterpart of the Trinity College, Dublin, then an Anglican institution.
The main building of Queens was designed by the famous Belfast Architect of the period, Sir Charles Lanyon, who also designed Belfast Prison and court house, Belfast Castle and the palm house at Botanic gardens.
With the disolution of the Royal University of Ireland Queens College became a University in its own right and has grown considerably ever since.
Queen's first opened its doors in 1849 with 195 students, today there are more than 25,000 postgraduate and undergraduate students. It has more than 3,500 employees, including nearly 1,600 teaching and research staff, making Queen's one of the largest universities in the United Kingdom.
While the best known image of Queen's is the dignified facade of the Lanyon Building, the university currently occupies more than 250 buildings including 120 listed buildings and such prominent centres of research and learning as the medical teaching facilities at Belfasts Royal Victoria and City Hospitals along with the Marine Biology Station in Portaferry.
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