Neighbourhood cafe owner ‘devastated’ by building blaze

The owner of a popular cafe in the heart of Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter has told LCN of his devastation after waking up to the news that the historic building which houses his new business was on fire.

More than 50 firefighters spent hours bringing the blaze at the Cathedral Buildings on Donegall Street under control, with an  18-year-old suspect later arrested on suspicion of arson endangering life with intent.

Oisin McEvoy, who opened Neighbourhood with his business partner Ryan Crown last November, told LCN: “It’s a nightmare and we haven’t been allowed near the unit for safety reasons.

“We don’t think there is any fire damage to the cafe but there will be lots of flooding from gallons and gallons of water being dumped on top of us… and smoke damage of course.

“We have to see what can be done insurance wise and make sure we look after our staff for however long it is. The brakes are on a for little bit and all we can do is see where we are at this time next week and next month.

“We have got so many messages from people and that’s great to hear, but it is terrible.”

In last month’s LCN Oisin and Ryan told about their hopes for the cafe which already has a loyal clientele

“We knew the Cathedral Quarter was a great area but there was the sense of a new neighbourhood being created with 15,000 students and all the staff moving in and living here almost overnight,” explained Ryan.

“It created a real buzz but when we opened during Covid you could not see that straight away, with people working from home and studying remotely, but even in the past few weeks you can see the change and Oisin and I believe we have found our perfect location.”

Oison added: “We were so excited to bring something new to the city centre that that outweighed the worries. We had to have level heads yes but we wanted to bring a new experience to this part of the city which we could see was taking off.”