The Europa Hotel is built on the site of the Great Northern Railway Companys Belfast Terminus. Built in 1840 it was eventually demolished in the early 1970’s and planning permission was soon granted to the Ulster Transport Authority for a hotel of 200 bedrooms and 5 suites. Construction by Farrans commenced in late 1969 under the guidance of Sydney Kaye, Eric Firkin and Partners of London, the architects of the Europa. Over two years the hotel rose to twelve storeys to become Belfast's tallest building. The topping out occurred on 18th December 1970 and the hotel opened the following July.

Upon opening the Europa was quite unique for Belfast. The curved tower built upon a two storey podium was Belfast’s first architectural triumph for many years. The hotel was also very different on the inside as all the bedrooms contained en suites; a first for any Belfast hotel.

On 1 February 1983 the Europa became the Forum Hotel as owners Grand Metropolitan Trading re-branded all of their hotels under this name. The new name didn’t last long however as in October 1986 the Europa changed hands and the first thing that new owner Colin Noble (Emerald Group) did was to revert back to the Europa name. The hotel received a £1.7million revamp of the bedrooms.

2 August 1993 marked the first day of Hastings Hotel Group as Europa owners after two years in the hands of the receiver. The bombs had caused around £3million worth of damage and as such the hotel sold for just £4.4million. The hotel closed and did not reopen until January 1994. The architects during the refurbishment, Robinson McIlwaine and contractors, Grahams of Dromore set about transforming the boarded up building into a 4 star hotel. Most of the work was completed in February 1994, providing 184 bedrooms, 5 suites constructed out of 10 old bedrooms and a restored Grand Ballroom. The bill eventually reached £6million for all the refurbishment work. The new Europa was just in time for a new Belfast as the IRA ceasefire soon arrived.

A real coup for the Europa came on 30th November 1995 when Bill Clinton arrived at the Europa. Not only was this the first time a serving US President had stayed at the hotel, but it was the first time a serving President had visited NI. The Clintons entourage took 3 floors of rooms as the President himself stayed in room 1011, which became known as the Clinton Suite and officially opened on July 1st 1996.

The next major step in the Europa Hotels storied history came in 1999 when the Hastings Group announced a £6million extension for the Europa to provide 56 new bedrooms in a new block behind the existing building. Now providing 240 rooms the Europa would become Northern Ireland’s largest hotel and the third largest in Ireland. Construction lasted from September 1999 to late 2000.


2008 Extension:
The Europa applied in December 2007 for an extension of 35 bedrooms over seven floors above the existing five-storey rear elevation of the hotel. Construction work commenced in early 2008 and is expected to take 10 months to complete. Architects, Robinson Patterson will be designing and overseeing the project. (ref: Z/2007/2972)