Student housing plan puts Belfast live music hub in peril
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Version 0 of 1. An award-winning pub that PJ O’Rourke described in his 1988 book Holidays in Hell as providing “one of the most pleasant evenings of my life” is under threat from the bulldozers to make way for new student quarters in Northern Ireland. The Sunflower, in Belfast, was voted Ulster pub of the year in November and is beloved by local music fans for its live events. However, it may now face the wrecking ball after businesses and properties around the area were earmarked for a radical building programme that will see up to 10,000 students and staff from the University of Ulster moving into the district. Pedro Donald, the pub’s owner, only learned about the plans to divest his pub and other shops and businesses when key holders in the area were invited to an exhibition by the Department for Social Development (DSD) in Belfast Central library in November. He described the plans to force out his bar along with other long-established businesses as “illogical and absurd”, especially given The Sunflower was already popular with students. Donald has been credited with regenerating The Sunflower pub since taking it over three years ago. He kept the security grilles on the bar’s entrance after they became part of the Black Taxi tours around the city, where visitors are shown around areas significant during the Troubles. “We were only in our third year of running the bar when we were awarded pub of the year back in November. Then a few weeks later we find out we will have no pub in the future. “We had been invited to a display in the library to show us plans for this area. At first we were delighted as this area does need to be redeveloped. But when I started looking at the maps and blueprints for Kent and Union Streets, where we are based, the pub wasn’t there. Instead there were drawings for a block of flats,” he said. A petition started by Stuart Lunn, one of the musicians who regularly plays at The Sunflower, to persuade the department to save the pub from the demolition teams, has so far attracted 5,000 signatures, including 50 Shades of Grey actor Jamie Dornan and the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn. “In three years, The Sunflower has become the hub in Belfast for people who want to hear live music,” said Lunn. “The number of bars famous for that has dwindled down to next to nothing in the city centre so it would be an act of cultural vandalism if the bar was forced out of this area. “In this pub, it doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from. It has an atmosphere that welcomes everyone who loves music being played live. I wasn’t going to sit back and do nothing, we all have to save this pub,” he said. A spokesperson for the DSD stressed that there would be a full public inquiry before any final decisions are made about the area. “The department has selected Northside Regeneration Ltd as the preferred developer for a proposed comprehensive development of a set of sites in the north of Belfast city centre. “If the developer is successful in securing planning permission for the development, as well as in satisfying a number of other conditions around funding and viability, the department will consider taking forward a statutory development scheme. This would include the Union Street location.” |