Opened 1893 | ||
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Similar Malmaison Hotel - Belfast, Ten Square, Europa Hotel - Belfast, Grand Opera House - B, Belfast Central railway st | ||
The Grand Central Hotel, on Royal Avenue in Belfast, Northern Ireland, opened in 1893. The building existed as a hotel until 1972, when it was taken over by the British Army as a military base from which to patrol the city centre during the height of the Troubles.
The hotel contained around 200 guest bedrooms and had many famous guests staying under its roof, including the Beatles and the Rolling Stones in the 1960s.
In 1972, the Army acquired the building, converting it to a military barracks which was in place until the early 1980s.
The troops based there were protected by anti-rocket screens constructed around the front of the building on the main street to repel everything from bricks and bottles to paint and blast bombs. One of the most bombarded hotels in the world, it was attacked more than 150 times by the Provisional IRA and other groups.
In the late 1980s, the hotel was no longer required as a military base. It was acquired by developers and partly demolished to make way for the CastleCourt shopping centre which was completed in 1990.
