Titanic hotel comes a step closer
Exciting plans for a four star hotel in the Harland and Wolff drawing offices where RMS Titanic was designed moved a step closer recently following a £4.9m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).
The cash will allow the B+ listed shipbuilders’ former headquarters building at Queen’s Island in Belfast to be transformed into an 84-bedroom boutique hotel with the potential to create more than 100 new jobs.
The grant will specifically focus on developing the two historic drawing offices as spaces for public use.
The boutique hotel will tell the story of Belfast’s industrial heritage, focusing on spaces within the original building – the board room, the telephony room and the entrance lobby – as well as fixtures and fittings that relate to the local shipbuilding industry.
The drawing offices were the control centre for the largest shipyard in the world. It was here that Belfast workers created and designed more than 1000 ships including the White Star Olympic-class liners, Olympic, Titanic and Britannic and naval warships such as the HMS Belfast. The building her been vacant since 1989 and has been considered ‘at risk’ for almost a decade.
The grant from the HLF is through its Heritage Enterprise programme, which is designed to help projects where the cost of repairing a historic building is so high that restoration simply is not commercially viable. Grants of £100,000 to £5m can bridge the financial gap, funding the vital repairs and conservation work needed to convert derelict buildings into new, usable commercial spaces.
Paul Mullan, who heads up the HLF in Northern Ireland, described the Titanic project as “exciting” and looked forward to the rebirth of the drawing offices as a major tourist attraction:
“This, like many of the city’s historic buildings, has incredible potential to act as a driver of regeneration and economic growth,” he added. “With Heritage Enterprise, HLF is helping local businesses tap into that potential by covering the high costs of restoring vacant and underused heritage buildings.”
Kerrie Sweeney, chief executive of the Titanic Foundation, said that she was “delighted” with news of the grant:
“Titanic Foundation in partnership with Titanic Quarter Ltd., has been working on this project over the last two years,” she went on. “It has been a long process but worth it. With the HLF’s support, we will safeguard the drawing offices for future generation and unlock the commercial potential of the entire building as a boutique hotel with heritage at its core. This is a truly unique and authentic project for Belfast that could not have happened without the support from the Heritage Enterprise scheme.”
