BELFAST: In 1989 Harland and Wolff, the company that built the Titanic and whose giant yellow cranes still dominate Belfast’s skyline, closed the doors on a dockside building that was its headquarters for more than a century. Few places evoke more clearly the decline and fall of Northern Ireland’s once great shipbuilding industry and the waning of Belfast’s economic star than this Victorian redbrick.
In Drawing Office One, the huge, vaulted room where bowler-hatted draughtsmen once sketched plans for the Titanic, paint is flaking from the walls, the windows have cracked and damp patches streak across the floor. Outside, weeds sprout from the historic — and protected — slipways where the world’s most famous cruise liner and her sister ship Olympic were built.
But not for much longer.
Under a one billion pound ($1.75 billion), 20-year project, the flagging “Titanic Quarter” will be revamped as a new 75-hectare (185-acre) precinct, with apartment blocks, offices and a tourism centre.
Plans are afoot to turn the former Harland and Wolff headquarters into a four-star hotel and vast acres of wasteland, currently pitted with rubble from demolished sheds, will be transformed into vibrant, tree-lined streets.
“It’s a natural place for Belfast to expand,” Titanic Quarter chief executive Mike Smith said. “The underlying mood is one of confidence in the city and I think the timing is good for us.”
SINKING ECONOMY: Built in 1911, the Titanic was the largest floating vessel of its time. It was a massive, visual testament to the strength of Belfast’s shipbuilding industry and to the city’s importance as a hub for trade and industry within the British Empire.
The euphoria was short-lived. Titanic sank on its maiden voyage in 1912 with the loss of 1,500 lives, and so became a fitting symbol not for Belfast’s greatness but for its decline.
The linen, rope and ship-making industries that made it one of the United Kingdom’s fastest-growing cities during the 19th century started to move elsewhere and the economy suffered as violent conflict between Protestants and Catholics flared.
Almost 3,600 people died during Northern Ireland’s “Troubles” over three decades, hobbling investment and stifling growth. But paramilitary ceasefires during the 1990s and a 1998 peace deal have injected life into the economy.—Reuters
