A side of Belfast you’ve never seen
With a head for heights and a cocktail ordered, Anne Sheridan checks out...
ARE we in Belfast or New York,’ a friend mused while sipping a cocktail in the Observatory bar.
It may not have the skyscrapers of the Big Apple, but the new tallest bar on the island of Ireland is proof of Belfast’s towering ambitions and just how far the city has come.
Perched on the 23rd floor of the Grand Central hotel, the Observatory is the place to see and be seen.
Rightly describing itself as a ‘luxurious liquor lounge’, it offers unparalled and until now, an unseen cityscape of Belfast in its best light.
Some favour a treat of afternoon tea here, but we choose, naturally, an evening of bright lights and cocktails, which take their name and inspiration from the city’s most historic landmarks.
Harland & Wolff, the Botanical Gardens, the Titanic Quarter and many others are on the mixologist’s menu, and with a guide directing the sipper to what’s sweet and floral, sharp and warming, and also the most alcoholic and not.
Standing tall in Bedford Street, the Grand Central is the newest addition to the Hastings group of hotels.
One of the others, the Europa, once widely recognised as the most bombed hotel in the world, is only a stone’s throw around the corner.
It too offers its own unique charms, as does each hotel within the group, all gems in their own right.
Across the road from the Grand Central is the Crown Bar, on Great Victoria Street, an outstanding example of a Victorian gin palace, one of Northern Ireland’s bestknown pubs and frequented in the past by Brad Pitt and James Nesbitt.
But while Belfast has shaken loose from much of its modern history, this hotel also remembers a proud legacy. It is a reincarnation of a Victorian hotel with the same name. The original hotel was the brainchild of John Robb, who had planned to develop a massive central railway terminus on the site - based on New York’s famous Grand Central Station.
However, the plans did not receive support and he built a hotel.
By the time it shut down in 1969, Winston Churchill, Bob Hope, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones had all passed through its legendary doors.
Now reborn, it has been attracting a new crowd.
Cocktails, a superb dinner in the Seahorse restaurant, the views, and the must-eat the morning after – the Ulster fry – are among the many ticks in its score card.
But the king size ‘cloud beds’ in all of its suites left us wishing we had stayed for more than one night.
Should you manage to eventually remove yourself from the cloud beds, only a skip away is St George’s Market, Belfast’s only surviving covered Victorian market and considered one of the best indoor markets in the country, with close to 250 diverse stalls offering all manner of goods over weekend days.
Before dinner we enjoyed a whistle-stop tour around Belfast with the legendary guide Billy Scott in the famous black taxi tour, taking in the Falls and Shankill roads, and all the political tapestry in between.
But Billy is more than a guide of the minefields in Belfast politics – he speaks with wit, humour and character of all those who made Belfast what it is today.
There is the Lyric Theatre, where actor Liam Neeson started out in his career, and where Queen Elizabeth II shook hands with former IRA leader turned
BOB HOPE AND THE BEATLES PASSED THROUGH ITS FAMOUS DOORS
Sinn Féin politician Martin McGuinness.
Every corner of Belfast has a story to tell, and at every hand’s turn, Billy has a tale to entertain and others that give pause for thought.
Our journey in the cab lasted two hours, but we longed for much more and perhaps to take in some of the bars en route, if more time was permitting.
‘No topless sunbathing – Ulster has suffered enough,’ reads the sign across the Sunflower pub in Union Street. The murals alone are worthy of studied attention, showing Belfast’s struggle in an international perspective, with some inspired by Picasso.
No trip to Belfast would be complete without a visit to Titanic Belfast, the world’s largest Titanic visitor experience.
Having visited the exhibition in Cherbourg, I was expecting to be underwhelmed, or feel there was little else that could be added to a world famous and by now, welltrodden story.
But its interactive features, drawing in the voices of the men who worked in the Harland & Wolff shipyard, ensured it was an experience unlike any other, which left many emotionally moved.
It’s little wonder that it draws in the region of some 800,000 visitors to its 130,000sq ft of floor space year on year.
There are nine stages to its story, chartering its very beginning right through to its doomed maiden voyage.
The most surprising and illuminating feature was The Shipyard – a ride aboard a mini-car up and around a replica of Titanic’s rudder.
It is well worth the admission charge of £19 (€21), with a family fee for two adults and two children of £46.50 (€52).
After hours of touring the exhibition, there was only one thing left to do – sit back and enjoy afternoon tea (prices starting from £28.50 or €32, depending on how decadent your tastes may be.)
But it is not your average afternoon tea in any sense, you can even sip tea served in replica White Star Line crockery – along with enjoying a version of Titanic The Musical.
Away from such splendour, there is a bustling and vibrant nightlife and restaurant scene.
The past may be a foreign country, and in Belfast that history will never be covered from view. It’s now part of its story of survival.
The downside is that for too long, too many of us only a stone’s throw away have also viewed it as ‘foreign’ and in that same black and white light, synonymous with the Troubles.
Belfast could well be regarded as Dublin’s older, edgier sister, and it left us with only one burning question – why haven’t we visited much more often?