Hotel Where Everything’s Ship-shape
There are plans to create a five-star Titanic-themed hotel at the old headquarters of the Belfast shipyard, Harland and Woolf, where the doomed liner was built.
If the planning application goes through, there will be a 90-bedroom boutique hotel at Queen’s Island in the east of the city with a swimming pool, gym and spa facilities. It will form part of a redevelopment of 185 acres of former shipyard land.
The area is already known as the Titanic Quarter in memory of the liner which sank on its maiden voyage in 1912 with the loss of more than 1,500 lives.
A spokesman for the developers, Titanic Quarter Ltd, said: “Given the enormous global interest in the Titanic and the building’s close association with the ship, such a hotel will add to the Northern Ireland tourist experience.”
Northern Ireland’s capital, for so long blighted by sectarian violence, is now mostly at peace and welcoming tourists from all over the world. The recent Tall Ships Festival attracted 500,000 visitors in three days to the Belfast waterfront and developers believe the Titanic plan will draw around 400,000 people a year.
by Andy Moreton
