Europa Hotel, Crown Bar and Grand Opera House
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Cache is placed in Glengall Street, Belfast, near the Europa Hotel and the Crown Bar, two must sees for Belfast. It is a magnetic nano, containing just a log.
This is a very busy area, so discretion is required. It is wheelchair accessible.
from Wikipedia
"The Europa Hotel is a four star hotel in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The hotel has 240 bedrooms, and claims to be the largest in Northern Ireland. It opened in July 1971.
The Europa was damaged 33 times by Provisional IRA bombs between 1972 and 1994, and was known as "the most bombed hotel in Europe". The nearby Grand Opera House was also extensively damaged on several occasions.
Bill Clinton stayed in the hotel during his 1995 presidential visit, and Hillary Clinton during her visit as secretary of state in 2009. Two series of a BBC documentary series Lobby Lives were filmed at the hotel, which is very popular with celebrities who visit Belfast. The hotel is part of the Hastings Group.
The Crown Liquor Saloon is a public house in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Refurbished to a high standard in 1885, it is an outstanding example of a Victorian gin palace, and is one of Northern Ireland's best-known pubs.Originally opened by Felix O'Hanlon and known as The Railway Tavern, the pub was then bought by Michael Flanagan. Flanagan's son Patrick renamed and renovated the pub in 1885.
The Crown owes its elaborate tiling, stained glass and woodwork to the Italian craftsmen whom Flanagan persuaded to work on the pub after hours. These craftsmen were brought to Ireland to work on the many new churches being built in Belfast at the time. It was this high standard of work that gave the Crown the reputation of being one of the finest Victorian Gin Palaces of its time.
The exterior is decorated in polychromatic tiles. This includes a mosaic of a Crown on the floor of the entrance. The interior is also decorated with complex mosaics of tiles. The red granite topped bar is of an altar style, with a heated footrest underneath and is lit by gas lamps on the highly decorative carved ceilings.
The Crown has ten booths, or snugs. Built to accommodate the pub's more reserved customers during the austere Victorian period, the snugs feature the original gun metal plates for striking matches and an antique bell system for alerting staff. Extra privacy was then afforded by the pub's etched and stained glass windows which feature painted shells, fairies, pineapples, fleurs-de-lis and clowns
The Grand Opera House is a theatre in Belfast, Northern Ireland, designed by the most prolific theatre architect of the period, Frank Matcham. It opened on 23 December 1895.
According to the Theatres Trust the "magnificent auditorium is probably the best surviving example in the United Kingdom of the oriental style applied to theatre architecture".
It was renamed the Palace of Varieties in 1904, although it reverted to its original name in 1909. Variety programmes dominated in the 1920s and 1930s and the theatre saw performances by Gracie Fields, Will Fyffe and Harry Lauder. It became a repertory theatre during World War II and at the celebrations to mark the end of the war, Eisenhower, Montgomery and Alanbrooke attended gala performances at the theatre. The Grand Opera House was acquired by the Rank Organisation, which led to its use as a cinema between 1949 and 1972, after which it was almost demolished, only to open again in 1980.
Despite the onset of The Troubles, the theatre was listed in the 1970s and has been restored extensively since. The building had been damaged by bombs on several occasions usually when the nearby Europa Hotel had been targeted. It was very badly damaged by bomb blasts in 1991 and 1993. The theatre continued to thrive, however, hosting musicals, plays, pantomimes and live music.
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