Windsor House

Coordinates: 54°35′42″N 5°55′55″W / 54.595°N 5.932°W / 54.595; -5.932

Windsor House, May 2010

Windsor House (officially known as 9-15 Bedford Street) is a 23-story, 80 m high-rise building on Bedford Street in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The building was the tallest storeyed building in Ireland before being surpassed by Obel Tower (also in Belfast) and stands at 85 metres (262 feet) tall, with 23 floors.

Constructed in 1974^[1] 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.^[2] 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 (200 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).^[3] The planning application was approved 20 October 2015 and redevelopment work commenced in July 2016. Following a £30m refurbishment, the new hotel will open in 2018 as the Grand Central Hotel.^[4]

See also

• List of tallest buildings and structures in Belfast
• Architecture of Belfast

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Windsor House, Belfast.

References

External links

• Grand Central Hotel official website