CastleCourt is a shopping centre on

Royal Avenue Royal Avenue is a street in the heart of Belfast city centre, Northern Ireland. It runs for about 500 metres from the junction with Castle Place and Donegall Place to the junction with Donegall Street. It lies between the Cathedral Quarter, Bel ...

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

. It is

's fourth largest shopping centre. As of 2007, it had approximately 16 million visits a year, and sale densities ranked in the top 10% in the UK.

History

The centre was built by John Laing on the site of the former

Grand Central Hotel The Grand Central Hotel, later renamed the Broadway Central Hotel, was a hotel at 673 Broadway at West 3rd Street, in Manhattan, New York City, that was famous as the site of the murder of financier James Fisk in 1872 by Edward S. Stokes. ...

. The nature of the development made it a target for the

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

: the centre was bombed five times during its construction, four times after it opened, and suffered

incendiary bomb Incendiary weapons, incendiary devices, incendiary munitions, or incendiary bombs are weapons designed to start fires. They may destroy structures or sensitive equipment using fire, and sometimes operate as anti-personnel weaponry. Incendiarie ...

attacks. It is now the fourth largest shopping complex in Northern Ireland. When it opened in 1990,

Debenhams Debenhams plc was a British department store chain that operated in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark, as well as franchised locations across Europe and the Asia Pacific. The company was founded in 1778 as a single store in London and gr ...

was the anchor tenant at the centre and the first in Ireland, stores included

Eason Eason is a surname of English and Scottish origin. In the case of English, it may be a variant of Eastham (disambiguation), Eastham or Easton (surname), Easton; in the case of Scottish, it is a variant of Esson (disambiguation), Esson. A variant of ...

Boots A boot is a type of footwear. Most boots mainly cover the foot and the ankle, while some also cover some part of the lower calf. Some boots extend up the leg, sometimes as far as the knee or even the hip. Most boots have a heel that is clearl ...

Next NeXT, Inc. (later NeXT Computer, Inc. and NeXT Software, Inc.) was an American technology company headquartered in Redwood City, California that specialized in computer workstations for higher education and business markets, and later develope ...

Virgin Megastores Virgin Megastores is an international entertainment retailing chain, founded in early 1976 by Richard Branson as a record shop on London's Oxford Street. In 1979 the company opened their first Megastore at the end of Oxford Street and Tottenh ...

, Ratners,

Early Learning Centre The Early Learning Centre (ELC) is a British retailer that sells toys aimed at younger children. It is part of The Entertainer (through its parent company TEAL Group Holdings). It was a subsidiary of Mothercare until 2019. History The orig ...

, Nice, Petal, United Colors of Benetton and The Original Art Shop. The centre was brought by the

Westfield Group Westfield Group was an Australian shopping centre company that existed from 1960 to 2014, when it split into two independent companies: Scentre Group, which owns and operates the Australian and New Zealand Westfield shopping centre portfolio; ...

and

MEPC plc MEPC is a British-based property investment and development business. It is headquartered in Milton Park, Oxfordshire. It used to be listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It is however now owned b ...

(later with Hermes Retail Estate) in 2000, renaming it Westfield CastleCourt. Westfield sold its share of the centre fully to Hermes Retail Estate in 2012, effectively renaming it back to just CastleCourt. In 2005, CastleCourt was refurbished, which included the removal of the fountains, an enlarged food court and a

Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational List of coffeehouse chains, chain of coffeehouses and Starbucks Reserve, roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gor ...

cafe overlooking the entrance. In 2021, a multi-plan development was announced for the former Debenhams which closed the same year. The multi-plan development included a new cinema operated by

Omniplex Cinemas Omniplex Cinemas is a cinema chain which started in the Republic of Ireland in 1991. Following this they expanded to Derry in Northern Ireland in 1993. In late 2023, it entered the markets in England and Scotland by acquiring the former Empire C ...

called The Avenue, a new Starbucks (relocating from their former presence in the centre), New Look (which also takes up the store space of Hawkin's Bazaar), the return of

TK Maxx TK Maxx is a discount clothing and homewares retailer, founded in 1994. It is currently based in Watford, England. It is owned by American retailer TJ Maxx, who could not trade under the initials "TJ" in the United Kingdom due to the British d ...

in the centre after moving to Donegall Arcade on 9 April 2009, the first Northern Irish Vanilla store and a 50,000 sq ft adventure centre.

References

External links

castlecourt-uk.com
— official website {{Westfield United Kingdom Shopping centres in Northern Ireland Buildings and structures in Belfast Tourist attractions in Belfast Westfield Group 1980s establishments in Northern Ireland