New boutique hotel and restaurant for Harp Bar site
A new hotel, bar and restaurant is set to open in Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter this summer.
The Ducales Group, who own St Anne’s Square, has announced a multi-million-pound investment into its latest hospitality development, The Foundry, which will transform the site of the original Harp Bar on Hill Street.
The Foundry will boast a 350 capacity bar and restaurant and 20 boutique hotel rooms across three floors.
General manager Jim Crawford-Smyth, above, said, “We are very excited to reinvent this historic Belfast site. We have spent a lot of time curating the concept of the hotel, while still ensuring the site itself retains its legendary status.
“With The Foundry we are challenging the traditional take of a boutique hotel while also reflecting and accommodating the bustling social scene within Belfast city centre. It is our hope that the new bar and restaurant will present the perfect hangout space, with a relaxed, sophisticated atmosphere with good food and drinks on offer.”
With the street’s former name being Foundry Street, the new venue pays homage to the history of its home and will create 40 local jobs.
In the late seventies and early eighties, the Hill Street site housed the Harp Bar, known for being the go-to for the NI punk scene with many popular bands such as The Undertones, The Outcasts, and Stiff Little Fingers regularly coming through its doors to play.
The Ducales Group brought on board the expert eye of Gordon Devenney of O’Donnell O’Neill Design’s Belfast studios, to design the building’s interiors.
The group has also commissioned commercial street artist, Visual Waste, to help with the building’s interiors to ensure The Foundry will be a real head turner.
Gordon Devenney said: “A lot of history has happened on this site that we wanted to make sure we didn’t forget and so have tried to encapsulate what that was all about whilst still injecting a modern yet classic twist with The Foundry.
“It has been a lot of fun to work with the guys on this project. The Foundry will be like no other venue or hotel in Belfast.”
