Patrick Comerford
It is said that great cities are defined by their great buildings and great streets. In Belfast, Great Victoria Street was once one of the city’s most elegant streets, lined with great buildings, although many of these disappeared in recent years, and the street is now pock-marked by vacant lots and building sites.
Like many journalists, I have mixed memories of the Europa Hotel. During my CND campaigning days and a student placement in Belfast in 1980s, I became familiar with places like the Crown Bar and neighbouring Robinson’s.
And everyone who has travelled into and out of Belfast has memories of Great Victoria Street Station, which closed permanently four months ago.
Despite some appearances of dereliction, Great Victoria Street remains one of the busiest streets in the heart of Belfast city centre and it is one of the main thoroughfares in and out of the City.
During our recent weekend stay in Belfast, we were staying off Botanic Avenue, and I walked a few times that weekend along Great Victoria Street, which begins at Shaftsbury Square, and runs straight down into College Square and the heart of central Belfast’s shopping district, including Royal Avenue and other streets off Donegall Square.
Great Victoria Street should not be confused with Victoria Street, another city centre street with a similar name. Victoria Street, which is marked by the Jaffe Memorial Fountain – which I was discussing last night – was created in 1843, linking Cromac Street and Corporation Street.
On the other hand, Great Victoria Street was built in 1823 and became known as Great Victoria Street in honour of Queen Victoria in 1848, after the opening of the new railway line connecting Belfast and Dublin. A year later, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert visited Belfast in 1849 during their first official engagement in Ireland.
The first railway terminus in Belfast opened on 12 August 1839 on the site of a former linen mill, beside where Durham Street crossed the Blackstaff River at the Saltwater Bridge, now Boyne Bridge.
A new terminal building, probably designed by the Ulster Railway engineer John Godwin, was completed in 1848. Godwin later founded the School of Civil Engineering at Queen’s College, later Queen’s University Belfast. The station was originally called Belfast but was renamed Belfast Victoria Street in 1852 and then Belfast Great Victoria Street in 1856.
The Ulster Railway became part of the Great Northern Railway (GNR) in 1876, making Great Victoria Street the terminus for a network that extended south to Dublin and west to Derry and Bundoran.
Great Victoria Street station was modernised in 1961, and a bus centre was incorporated into the facility. Then in 1968, a large section of the 1848 terminal building was demolished to make way for the development of the Europa Hotel, which opened in 1971.
The station was attacked several times during the ‘Troubles’, and the remaining parts of the station were damaged by two bombings in 1972. A car bomb on 22 March 1972 injured 70 people, a train was destroyed and the station was significantly damaged. Another bomb explosion on 21 July destroyed four busses but caused no casualties. It was one of 20 bombs planted by the IRA that day, which became known as Bloody Friday.
Northern Ireland Railways closed both Great Victoria Street station and the Belfast Queen’s Quay terminus of the Bangor line in April 1976, and replaced them both with a new Belfast Central Station, now known as Lanyon Place. The remainder of Great Victoria Street station was demolished.
A new development was commissioned for the site in the late 1980s and involved reintroducing the Great Northern Railway. The Great Northern Tower was built on the site of the old station terminus in 1992, and the second Great Victoria Street Station opened in 1995, metres away from the site of its predecessor.
Great Victoria Street was the busiest railway station in Northern Ireland when it closed, with a peak of 5,347,662 passengers passing through the station in 2018-2019.
The station closed four months ago (10 May 2024) to make way for a new public transport hub, Belfast Grand Central Station, that is to combine rail and bus services. The Europa Bus Centre, once Belfast’s main bus station, closed last month (7 September 2024), and bus services were transferred to the new station the following day. The Europa Bus Centre is being transformed into a new food market known as Great Victoria Street Market under plans by the developer McAleer and Rushe.
The landmark buildings that survive on Great Victoria Street include the Grand Opera House, Belfast, an ornate late Victorian theatre, the Crown and Robinson’s, ornate late Victorian pubs, the Europa Hotel, the most bombed hotel in Europe and Great Victoria Street Presbyterian Church – although the original, Victorian Great Victoria Street Baptist Church has been levelled in recent years, leaving yet another large car parking lot as a blight on the streetscape.
The Crown Bar, the most famous pub in Belfast, is at 46 Great Victoria Street. It was opened by Felix O’Hanlon as the Ulster Railway Tavern in 1849, facing the new railway terminus. It was later bought by Michael Flanagan. His son Patrick Flanagan, who had studied architecture in Spain and Italy, renamed it in 1885 and decided to replace the old interior with the glorious wood-pannelled version that survives to this day.
Flannigan had contracted the Belfast architects Edward and James Byrne to design the façade. The elaborate tiling, stained glass and woodwork were created by Italian craftsmen Flanagan had persuaded to work on the pub after hours. Many of these craftsmen had come to Belfast to work on the new churches being built in the city at the time. The high standards displayed in their work made the Crown one of the finest Victorian pubs.
Sir John Betjeman and others persuaded the National Trust to buy the Crown in 1978, and a £400,000 renovation and restoration project brought the bar back to its original Victorian state. Further restoration was carried out in 2007 at a cost of £500,000. Its fittings include 10 ‘snugs’ and it has been a location in many film and television productions.
A few doors away, Robinson’s dates from 1895 and has an interesting collection of memorabilia from the Titanic, including the ‘Philomena Doll’ recovered from the wreckage, letters and postcards written onboard and first and second class china used on all White Star Liners.
The Grand Opera House on Great Victoria Street has provided a variety of entertainers that have ranged from Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy to Nellie Melba, Vera Lynn and Luciano Pavarotti.
The building was designed by Frank Matcham,the most prolific theatre architect of the period, and it opened on 23 December 1895. It was originally called the New Grand Opera House and Cirque, but it was renamed the Palace of Varieties in 1904, and the name was changed to the Grand Opera House in 1909.
The stage has also welcomed Laurence Olivier, Lyn Redgrave, Albert Finney, Geraldine McEwan, Anthony Hopkins, Liam Neeson, Rowan Atkinson, Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, Ian McKellen, Darcey Bussell and Lesley Garrett.
The building has been damaged by bombs on several occasions, usually when the nearby Europa Hotel had been targeted. It was badly damaged by bomb blasts in 1991 and 1993. More recently, the Grand Opera House was restored and developed, and reopened in 2020.
The Europa Hotel was bombed no less than 33 times during the ‘Troubles’. President Bill Clinton chose to stay at the Europa during his 1995 Christmas visit, a year after the 1994 ceasefire was signed. Bill and Hillary Clinton stayed in the hotel several times since, and their rooms have since been named the Clinton Suite. Today the hotel hides its tough past and shines bright like a beacon in its pride of place.
No 113 Great Victoria Street is the site of the Belfast’s first purpose-built synagogue, built by the merchant David Jaffe. He is commemorated by the Jaffe Memorial Fountain on Victoria Street – but more about Belfast’s synagogues in the days to come, hopefully.
