Green light for 120-bed hotel in old war memorial building

A new 120-bedroom hotel in the listed former war memorial building in Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter has been granted planning permission.

The Waring Street museum and office building has been at the centre of a number of stalled hotel bids through various owners dating back to 2015.

SOM Properties, owned by Seamus and Orla Murray, have now secured planning approval to demolish a link building to the rear and construct a new six-storey extension and courtyard.

Mr Murray is best known for his Toomebridge-based joinery business Edgewater Contracts, which specialises in hotel fit-outs.

They have appointed Consarc to design the new venture, best known for the regeneration of The Merchant Hotel, Titanic Hotel and Ashford Castle in Co Mayo.

Alongside a new street level restaurant, the plans also include a roof-top bar/restaurant and the developer also ewanst to see the reopening of the historic Sugarhouse Entry which runs alongside the hotel site between High Street and Waring Street.

The entry, which has been closed since the 1970s for security reasons, was once home to a number of inns, including ‘Dr Franklins’, named for Benjamin Franklin and kept by Peg Barclay.

The tavern is said to be the first meeting place of the United Irishmen and regularly hosted meetings of the society, which styled themselves as ‘The Muddlers Club’, the name adopted by the nearby Michelin star restaurant.

The war memorial building was constructed between 1959 and 1961 as part of the post-war regeneration of the area.

The new Waring Street venture is among a number of new hotel projects proposed for the Cathedral Quarter.

Ducales, which owns St Anne’s Square, has secured permission its redrafted bid for a 20-bed hotel on Hill Street, on the site of the original Harp Bar.

Moxy by Marriott has also been linked to a proposed hotel project in the former Nambarrie Tea building on Waring Street.