Control centre where plans for Titanic were drawn up to be turned into boutique Belfast hotel

This article originally appeared on Culture24.

Heritage Enterprise programme to create luxury hotel at Belfast site after restoration deemed unviable

The Harland and Wolff headquarters where more than 1,000 ships were designed, including the Titanic, Olympic and HMS Belfast, will be turned into a four-star, 84-room boutique hotel in Belfast under plans by the Titanic Foundation which have won £4.9 million in backing.

Repairing the derelict former control centre of the largest shipyard in the world, which has been vacant since 1989 and declared “at risk” for nearly a decade, has been deemed commercially unviable.

Instead, the Heritage Lottery Fund money will help turn the two disused Drawing Offices into spaces for public use, with the board room, telephony room, entrance lobby and fixtures and fittings remaining as reminders of the site’s industrial importance.

“It has been a long process but worth it,” said Kerrie Sweeney, the Chief Executive of the foundation.

“We will safeguard the drawing offices for future generations 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.”

The project is expected to create more than 100 jobs.

What do you think? Leave a comment below.

More from Culture24's Transport and Industry section:

UK's last surviving Steam Tug-Tender to be restored and opened to public

The English Railway Station: See photos from 200 years of British railway history

UK's oldest surviving yacht prepares to emerge from its subterranean home

Source: http://www.culture24.org.uk//history-and-heritage/transport-and-industry/art517801-control-centre-where-plans-for-titanic-were-drawn-up-to-be-turned-into-boutique-belfast-hotel