THE Accidental theatre
12-13 Shaftesbury Square
Accidental is a three-storey, semi-circular, neo-Georgian brown brick building, situated between Botanic Avenue and Bradbury Place and fronting onto Shaftesbury Square. The building has existed from as early as 1860, with it originally being a drapers & poulterers, owned by William & Elizabeth Munce. In September 1916 it was sold to Northern Bank and remained a bank for nearly 100 years, being redeveloped in the 1960s with new cladding and some structural changes.
In February 2017, Accidental and Amadan moved into the building to develop it as a community and artistic hub. After much repair work we managed to establish the building under the tentative title of Shaftesbury Fringe (we couldn’t quite agree on a better title, though we still like The Pineapple). In 2018 Accidental took over running the building solo, as Amadan moved to help found the Vaults in East Belfast.
Designed to be self-sustaining, Accidental is a different type of venue, made possible through hard work, a lot of love and an unwavering determination. Over the past years we’ve survived industry challenges, the pandemic and post-pandemic eras and the cost of living crisis.
We’ve strived to improve this old and iconic building, with the help and hard work of fantastic volunteers, staff and communities from across Ireland and the world. With very limited funding, we’ve managed to make long needed improvements to the building, so we could offer even more support to our widest community. We’ve lead the way in embracing a future in which digital technology can enable more artists and fellow charities to thrive and connect with audiences around the world.
In 2025, after several years of hard fundraising efforts, and with the support of:
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Swire Charitable Trust
Garfield Weston Foundation
William A Cadbury Charitable Trust
Clothworkers’ Foundation
We were able to purchase the building outright! Securing it for generations to come and saving this building as a community asset for evermore.
Artists & Residents
There are many different companies & practitioners busy creating their own work in the building seven days a week and their beautifully crafted work will appear in our building or across the city. The building gives our artists and artists from across the city a place to test out and showcase their work. Building their audience, grow their creative business and invest in their talent.
All whilst giving audiences in Belfast brand new things to experience, stories to hear and adventures to start from. We believe that if you don't keep evolving how stories are told people will stop listening. So this building and the art that is created here is doing just that, evolving, growing and finding new ways to create new stories.
If you want to get involved and help influence what happens next in the building then simply get in touch and tell us what you'd like to get involved in.