The name Grand Central Hotel Belfast refers to two separate hotels at different locations in the city. The first opened in 1893 and was converted to a military barracks in 1972, before being demolished in the late 1980s. The second is a converted office building nearby, previously known as Windsor House, which was converted to a hotel and opened on 20 June 2018.

First Grand Central Hotel

Former Grand Central Hotel, Belfast - geograph

The first Grand Central Hotel was located on

Royal Avenue Royal Avenue is a street in Belfast, Northern Ireland. In the Cathedral Quarter in the heart of Belfast city centre, as well as being identified with the more recent Smithfield and Union Quarter, it has been the city's principal shopping thor ...

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

, and opened in 1893. The hotel contained around 200 guest bedrooms and hosted many famous guests, including the Beatles and the Rolling Stones in the 1960s. The hotel was taken over by the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

in 1972 for use as a military base from which to patrol the city centre during the height of the

Troubles The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an " ...

. The troops based there were protected by anti-rocket screens constructed around the front of the building on the main street to repel everything from bricks and bottles to paint and

blast bomb An improvised explosive device (IED) is a bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action. It may be constructed of conventional military explosives, such as an artillery shell, attached to a detonating mecha ...

s. One of the most bombarded hotels in the world, it was attacked more than 150 times by the

Provisional IRA The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republicanism, Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, fa ...

and other groups. In the late 1980s, the hotel was no longer required as a military base. It was acquired by developers and demolished, along with a neighbouring building, to make way for the CastleCourt shopping centre which was completed in 1990.

Second Grand Central Hotel

The Grand Central Hotel, Belfast (Oct 2018)

The second Grand Central Hotel was originally constructed as Windsor House (officially known as 9-15 Bedford Street), a 23-story, 80 m high-rise building on Bedford Street in

. Following a £30m refurbishment beginning in 2016, the new hotel opened on 20 June 2018 as the Grand Central Hotel.

References

External links

*
Grand Central Hotel official website
Hotels in Belfast Hotels established in 1893 Hotel buildings completed in 1893 Hotels established in 2018 Buildings and structures in Belfast Skyscrapers in Northern Ireland {{NorthernIreland-struct-stub

First Grand Central Hotel

Second Grand Central Hotel

See also

References

External links