Work starts on Titanic hotel project
Work has begun to fully restore the former Harland & Wolff headquarters building and drawing offices in Belfast’s Titanic Quarter. The iconic buildings, where RMS Titanic and 1,000 other ships were conceived and designed, will include a new boutique hotel and public heritage space.
The development of the four-storey, 84-bedroom hotel is being managed by Titanic Quarter Ltd, who have said that it will be the world’s most authentic Titanic-themed hotel.
Titanic Foundation, with the help of a £4.9m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund’s Heritage Enterprise programme, is supporting the restoration of the drawing offices. The scheme, which will include three pavilions, will be publicly accessible for tours, events and exhibitions. Both projects are due to open in 2017, creating 100 new jobs.
Kerrie Sweeney, chief executive of Titanic Foundation, says that the drawing offices are one of Northern Ireland’s “most significant and important historical buildings”:
“It is a building of global significance where over 1,000 ships were designed including Titanic, Britannic and Olympic,” she adds. “Today marks a key milestone in its long-awaited restoration.
“It’s almost 30-years since the drawing offices were used as a commercial premises, but now, thanks to the support from Heritage Lottery Fund and the partnership between ourselves and Titanic Quarter Ltd, we have the opportunity to bring them back to their former glory. This will give the public the opportunity to experience over a century of innovation and exceptional craftsmanship and allow the redevelopment of the rest of the building into a unique hotel.”
The boutique hotel will be operated by the same company behind Liverpool’s hugely successful Titanic Hotel in the city’s historic Stanley Dock area. Since opening in 2014, the hotel has won many awards, including winner of the ‘Luxury Hotel of the Year’ award at the 2016 Luxury Travel Guide Global Awards.
Located on Belfast’s Queen’s Road, the building is adjacent to Titanic Belfast and the slipways where Titanic was built and launched. Since it opened in 2012, Titanic Belfast has attracted over two million visitors from 124 countries and generated £105m in additional tourism spend for the Northern Irish economy. It’s estimated that half-a-million visitors have come to Northern Ireland with Titanic Belfast as their primary reason.
Our picture is taken inside the drawing offices and includes James Eyre, Titanic Quarter’s commercial director; Kerrie Sweeney, Titanic Foundation’s CEO; Angela Lavin, Heritage & Lottery Fund and Northern Ireland’s Enterprise Minister, Jonathan Bell.
