Titanic pump-house to be transformed into top tourist attraction
This looks impressive! 🥃
Last updated 17th Nov 2021
Did you know that in the heart of Belfast’s Titanic Quarter, sits the world’s only authentic Titanic landmark?
The Pump-House, along with its neighbouring dry dock, first opened in 1911. It sits within walking distance of Titanic Belfast, the world’s biggest Titanic exhibition centre and Northern Ireland’s number one tourist attraction, clocking up more than 800,000 visitors per annum in the days before Covid.
Well 110 years later, the space has been given the green light to be converted into a tourist attraction and whiskey distillery.
Belfast drinks company Titanic Distillers plan to keep the original pump equipment and associated internal historic features of the building.
Included in the plans are the installation of three large stills on a mezzanine floor overlooking the original pumping engines which are situated deep in the pump-well.
Once completed, visitors to the Pump-House will ‘clock in’, as workers did a century ago, to view the workings of the distillery and hear the story of Belfast’s whiskey tradition, why it disappeared and how it has returned with the city’s first working whiskey distillery in more than 100 years.
Visitors will be able to relax in the adjacent tourism centre, which will include an on-site ‘speakeasy’ bar and café with free wi-fi, gift shop, exhibition space and an enlarged mezzanine floor with tasting rooms.
The exterior of the pump house would remain largely untouched under the plan but will be open for tourists to view the famous Thompson dry dock, which was built in 1911 to accommodate the massive White Star transatlantic liners Olympic and Titanic.
“We are very excited that our planning application has been approved,” said Titanic Distillers Director Richard Irwin.
“Titanic Distillers is inspired by the people who worked in Belfast’s shipyard more than a century ago - and now tourists will be able to walk in their footsteps in the very pump-house and dry dock that represent such an authentic part of the Titanic story and indeed the history of Belfast.”
Titanic Distillers Director Peter Lavery reflects on just how important whiskey has played on the city of Belfast. “In the days before Prohibition, Belfast was once the largest producer of Irish Whiskey on the island of Ireland.”
“We want to revive this great distilling tradition and bring Belfast back to the forefront of Irish Whiskey production, while at the same time telling the story of a glorious past when Belfast led the way globally - not just in shipbuilding but across many areas of industry, manufacturing and innovation.”
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