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Windsor House (Belfast)

1974 establishments in Northern IrelandBuildings and structures completed in 1974Buildings and structures in BelfastHotels in BelfastNorthern Ireland building and structure stubs
Skyscrapers in Northern Ireland
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Windsor House (officially known as 9-15 Bedford Street) was a 23-story, 80 m high-rise building on Bedford Street in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The building was the tallest storeyed building in Northern Ireland before being surpassed by Obel Tower (also in Belfast) and stands at 85 metres (279 feet) tall, with 28 floors. The total structural height is actually taller than the Obel, if you include the two plant floors and radio mast it stands at 93m(305ft) tall. Constructed in 1974 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. 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 (304 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). The planning application was approved 20 October 2015 and redevelopment work commenced in July 2016. Following a £30m refurbishment, the new hotel opened in 2018 as the Grand Central Hotel.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Windsor House (Belfast) (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Windsor House (Belfast)
Bedford Street, Belfast Donegall Pass

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N 54.595 ° E -5.932 °
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Grand Central Hotel

Bedford Street 9-15
BT2 7EG Belfast, Donegall Pass
Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
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Northern Bank robbery
Northern Bank robbery

On 20 December 2004, a total of £26.5 million in cash was stolen from the headquarters of Northern Bank on Donegall Square West in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Having taken family members of two bank officials hostage, an armed gang forced the workers to help them steal used and unused pound sterling banknotes. The money was loaded into a van and driven away in two trips. This was one of the largest bank robberies in the history of the United Kingdom. The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), the Independent Monitoring Commission, the British government and the Taoiseach (prime minister of the Republic of Ireland) all claimed the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) was responsible. This was denied by the IRA and by Sinn Féin. Throughout 2005, the police forces in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland made arrests and carried out house searches. A sum of £2.3 million was impounded at the house of a financial adviser, Ted Cunningham, in County Cork and Phil Flynn was forced to resign as chairman of the Bank of Scotland (Ireland), because he was a director of one of Cunningham's companies. Cunningham was convicted in 2009 of money laundering, had his conviction quashed in 2012 and was convicted at retrial in 2014. Chris Ward, one of the bank officials threatened by the gang, was himself arrested in November 2005 and charged with robbery. The prosecution then offered no evidence at trial and he was released. Northern Bank announced soon after the heist that it would replace its £10, £20, £50 and £100 notes. Alongside the murder of Robert McCartney, the robbery adversely affected the Northern Ireland peace process. It caused a hardening in the relationship between the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and the Sinn Féin representatives Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness. Although Cunningham and several others were eventually convicted of crimes uncovered during the investigation, nobody has ever been held directly responsible for the robbery.

Belfast Cenotaph
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Great Victoria Street, Belfast
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