About
Harland & Wolff’s Headquarters have been restored to their former splendour, and are now a showcase for the Titanic Hotel Belfast. The Titanic Hotel is proud to welcome visitors into this architecturally spectacular and historically important building. The Drawing Offices were built in the late 1880s when Harland & Wolff was emerging as one of the world’s leading shipbuilders. Decisions were made here that changed the course of shipbuilding across the world.
Visionary designers created the largest, most innovative and most luxurious ships of the time. RMS Titanic was renowned as the ‘Ship of Dreams’ Hotel guests will discover the unique history of the world’s greatest shipbuilders and the remarkable men who steered Harland & Wolff to prominence. Titanic might have become their ‘most famous ship’, but the company built over 1700 other vessels, including The Olympic, sister ship to the Titanic and many other record breakers. Guests can learn about the spectacular Drawing Offices where these ships were designed, these are now a focal point of the hotel, incorporating the main cocktail bar and function room, as well as the triumphs and tragedies during the wartime years of the shipyard.
In 1885 Harland & Wolff was able to build its two magnificent Drawing Offices as a statement to the shipping world. And so it proved, for here many of the world’s largest and most innovative and luxurious ships were designed over the next century. As the shipyard grew, the building expanded. In 1910, a three-storey building housing the administrative office was built to the south of Drawing Office One. The next year the old one-storey entrance block was demolished and replaced by the three-storey building we see today on Queen’s Road. Towards the end of the decade, a further extension was added to the north-east of the building. A fourth floor was added later to house men and women’s tea rooms and ladies toilets.
The Drawing Offices are renowned for their beauty and they were certainly intended to impress. The main purpose of their striking design, particularly the huge windows and skylights, was to let in as much natural northern light as possible. The two rooms were even built far enough apart to avoid one casting a shadow on the other when the sun was low. Fully restored to their former beauty, the Drawing Offices are a perfect location from which to plan your visit to the Titanic Building, The Dry Dock and HMS Caroline. All only a short walk away.
Other attractions on the doorstep of the hotel include the SSE Arena, We Are Vertigo (Ireland’s only indoor Skydiving facility) and SS Nomadic.