Windsor House (officially known as 9-15 Bedford Street) was a 23-story, 80 m high-rise building on Bedford Street in
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 dialect, Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is #Descriptions, variously described as ...
. The building was the
tallest storeyed building in Northern Ireland before being surpassed by
Obel Tower (also in Belfast) and stands at 85 metres (279 feet) tall, with 28 floors. The total structural height is actually taller than the Obel, if you include the two plant floors and radio mast it stands at 93m(305ft) tall.
Constructed in 1974
as an office building, Windsor House has a tall green elevator shaft and green side wall facade, as well as satellite and aerial masts, which stand a further seven metres in the air.
The building was badly damaged in an IRA bombing in 1992.
[ It was sold for £30m in 2006 to County Cavan building firm P Elliot. In March 2007 plans were made to convert the building into a block of flats. However, the conversion plans fell through.
In May 2015, Hastings Hotel Group, an NI-based hospitality company, purchased the building for £6.5m. A planning application was submitted on 23 June 2015, proposing refurbishment, partial demolition and rebuilding, extension and change of use of Windsor House for a hotel (304 bedrooms) with associated restaurant and bar facilities (on ground to 15th floor) and 18 serviced hotel apartments on the 16 and the 17th floors; creation of new retail unit on ground floor overlooking Franklin Street; retention and refurbishment and extension of office use (25,000 ft2) on upper floors (18th to 22nd floor).][ ] The planning application was approved 20 October 2015 and redevelopment work commenced in July 2016. Following a £30m refurbishment, the new hotel opened in 2018 as the Grand Central Hotel.[
File:DSCF1332.JPG, Windsor House in 2006
File:Windsor House, Belfast, May 2010 (02).JPG, Windsor House in May 2010
File:The Grand Central Hotel, Belfast (Oct 2018).jpg, The Grand Central Hotel after refurbishment, 2018
]
See also
* List of tallest buildings and structures in Belfast
* Architecture of Belfast
The architecture of Belfast comprises architectural styles ranging from Georgian through to modernist buildings such as the Waterfront Hall and Titanic Belfast. The city's Victorian and Edwardian buildings are notable for their display of a larg ...
References
External links
Grand Central Hotel official website
Buildings and structures in Belfast
Skyscrapers in Northern Ireland
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