Belfast pub group plans new Cathedral Quarter hotel

The site of a proposed new hotel at 35-37 Donegall Street, Belfast

From left, Clover Group bosses Paul Langsford, Mark Beirne and Jim Conlon

The site of a proposed new hotel at 35-37 Donegall Street, Belfast

From left, Clover Group bosses Paul Langsford, Mark Beirne and Jim Conlon

The site of a proposed new hotel at 35-37 Donegall Street, Belfast

Margaret Canning Twitter Email

July 29 2022 02:06 PM

A Belfast pub group plans to build a new hotel in the Cathedral Quarter featuring a shipping containers-constructed courtyard.

3 Wise Men Pubs, part of Clover Group, has this week lodged a planning application with Belfast City Council to transform offices at 35-37 Donegall Street and part of Donegall Street Place.

The company wishes to build a hotel with a bar, restaurant and outdoor seating. It said there will be 23 self-contained “pod” hotel rooms and a courtyard where gigs, sessions and performances will be held.

It’s part of a total investment of £1.4m by the group, which will create 50 new jobs. It also plans to add a new venue called Brats to its Donegall Square venue, Margot’s.

Clover Group is led by Mark Beirne, Paul Langsford and Jim Conlon. It operates eight pubs across the city including Margot, Whites Tavern, Pug Uglys and The Jailhouse.

Mr Beirne said: “The vision across all our outlets has always been to provide unique, exciting and new experiences for our customers here in Belfast and those that are visiting our great city.

"Both Brat and our creative new hotel project will add new vibrant, hip and urban offerings that will appeal to broad range of people who are looking for the best fun and craic that Belfast and the Cathedral Quarter has to offer.”

The company said it will also open another venue, White’s Beer Hall, in High Street in September.

The location of the hotel puts it at the heart of development projects such as the new Ulster University campus and the proposed Belfast Stories visitor attraction.

Another property, at 113-117 Donegall Street, housing The Irish News, is due to go on the market for sale, as the newspaper is moving to the Fountain Centre on Fountain Street.

A design and access statement filed with the planning application by planning consultants O’Toole & Starkey notes that 35-37 Donegall Street is of no particular architectural interest and has no historic significance.

However, the site is part of the Cathedral Quarter and Cathedral Conservation Area.

The main entrance and hotel lobby would be on the ground floor of 35 Donegall Street, while a new stair core would link it with the back building of 37 Donegall Street and 7 Donegall Street Place — the location for the main restaurant and bar.

An outside terrace area would have seating and be covered by a marquee, while an extension to the buildings would also form a courtyard around the terrace, adding more seating.

The statement added: “This courtyard extension will be formed by stacked shipping containers within a metal structural frame with associated walkway and stair cores.”

The courtyard extension would not be visible to the public, but the statement said it would introduce “interest and vitality to what is presently a characterless backland area”.

According to Plan Belfast, which monitors applications in the city, the site had been put on the market in September 2019 for £450,000.

Belfast pub group plans new Cathedral Quarter hotel

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