Café To Boost Refurbished City Hall

The multi-million pound Belfast City Hall refurbishment is to have an entirely new facility when it re-opens - a new coffee shop.

Recalling Belfast's spinning and weaving heritage, the new coffee shop will be called The Bobbin and will be open to customers when the City Hall itself re-opens at the beginning of October.

More than 1,400 people voted in an online poll to name the facility with The Bobbin topping the poll with almost half the votes cast via the Belfast City Council website.

White Linen proved the second most popular choice, with almost 460 votes, followed by The Foundry and then The Blackstaff.

The new name was inspired by the city's history as a centre of the linen industry, which was the first in Belfast to become mechanised during the industrial revolution in the 1820s.

The bobbin - a spindle or cylinder, with or without flanges, on which yarn or thread is wound - was a lowly but essential part of the linen industry.

Bobbins were also used on a larger scale in other industries like the Ropeworks, another of Belfast's world-beating industries.

The Lord Mayor of Belfast, Councillor Naomi Long, (pictured at the City Hall putting an Ulster linen tablecloth to good use as she enjoys a cup of coffee) welcomed linking the title of the new coffee shop to the city's proud industrial heritage.

"It is important that we recognise the contribution of ordinary working men and women who helped shape Belfast into the city that it is today," she said.

"Thanks to the hard work and creativity of her citizens, Belfast was recognised on a world stage for its industrial innovation.

"Now, centuries later, another chapter in history is being made, built on those same strengths - and this vote was a great opportunity to let people have their say in the naming of what undoubtedly will become an important attraction for both local people and visitors alike," she said.

The Bobbin coffee shop, and its associated exhibition space, will open to the public in October.

Belfast City Hall has been closed since October 2007 for major refurbishment.

The £11m renovation project included re-roofing, asbestos removal, drainage improvements, the installation of computer and associated network systems and the replacement of heating, mechanical and electrical systems.

Public-facing services, such as the Cemeteries Office and Registrar of Births, Deaths, Marriages and Civil Partnerships, will return to City Hall at the end of September.

A full programme of activities for all the family to celebrate the City Hall re-opening is being planned for mid October.

Meanwhile, the Ulster Museum is to re-open on 22 October, officials have said.

Visitors to the museum can look forward to seeing a new exhibition featuring a 70 million-year-old dinosaur.

Staff are also bringing back other artefacts which have been in storage for three years.

The museum's Dr Jim McGreevy said the date marked the 80th anniversary of the original Stranmillis Road building's official opening.

(BMcC/KMcA)