42 Botanic Ave, Belfast BT7 1JQ
There is no other bar in Northern Ireland sited quite like this one – deep in the vaults of an impressive old red brick Non-Conformist church. Entrance is by a flight of iron steps under an archway and through etched glass swing doors. The interior design is supposed to remind you of a traditional turn of the century theatre bar. The centre of the bar, with its original green pillars, represents the stalls, while flanking both sides are low balconies in the music hall style. At the bottom, to your left, is the traditional bar, and a small stage area draped with curtains. Above this, suspended from the ceiling, is an 8 by 6 foot screen on which wishy-washy video pictures are projected (no sound). Around the walls are – as you might expect – original old Empire and Alhambra playbills, plus a wonderful and very large selection of prints recalling Belfast in the late 19th and 20th century up to the war years. Here can be seen prints of horsedrawn cabs, barefooted children at the turn of the century, Smithfield market, the old linen mills and their workers, and various prints of life in the North during both World Wars; truly a fine selection that any museum would be proud of.
I particularly liked the Empire’s memorial collection to the ill-fated Titanic, preserved in a special framed wooden cabinet. Around the cabinet are pictures of its construction and launch, but the most cherished relics are inside the sealed cabinet. They include 4 White Star dinner plates and a selection of postcards. One particularly held my attention: postmarked Queenstown (now Cobh, County Cork), 3.45 p.m., 1.4.1912, from the Titanic Smoke Room, addressed to Master Tom Richmond, 14 Lennox Road, Paisley, Lothian, Scotland.
“Dear Tom, Having a good time on this big ship and run about with a nice little girl. Wish you had come with us. We are coming to the Irish Coast, the last call until we arrive in New York.”
Whether or not he made it to the land of opportunities, we’ll probably never know. Another poignant story is the one behind the brass nameplate from lifeboat No. 12, purchased from an antique dealer. Originally in the owner’s possession for over 25 years, the nameplate belonged to an Irish bride named Margaret Devaney, who had sailed with her husband on the Titanic and was placed in Lifeboat 12. Her husband remained on the ship, and perished along with 1500 others. The young girl asked the seaman who rescued her for a memento of the marriage, and he duly prised the nameplate off the lifeboat and presented it to her.
An unusual and interesting bar, well worth a visit alone to see the super collection of prints that bring back memories of an era long since gone.