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War Memorial Building, Belfast

War Memorial Building, Belfast is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand War Memorial Building, Belfast rather than just read about it. In short: The War Memorial Building is a grade B2 listed building in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The building, modernist in design, was constructed in 1959–1962 on the site of a hotel destroyed during the 1941 Belfast Blitz.

War Memorial Building, Belfast — main illustration
War Memorial Building, Belfast — illustration

Key takeaways

  • War Memorial Building, Belfast belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
  • Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
  • Connect War Memorial Building, Belfast to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
  • Reproduce the core statement of War Memorial Building, Belfast from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The War Memorial Building is a grade B2 listed building in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The building, modernist in design, was constructed in 1959–1962 on the site of a hotel destroyed during the 1941 Belfast Blitz. The building was formally opened by Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and housed organisations and charities related to the British armed forces. The site currently lies empty and has been placed on the Heritage at Risk Register. The current owners have applied for permission to convert the building into a 120-bedroom hotel.

Design and construction The building's address is 9–13 Waring Street in the Cathedral Quarter. The site was formerly occupied by the Queen Anne Hotel and a number of shops which were destroyed by German bombing during the Belfast Blitz in 1941. The site was redeveloped after the war as a war memorial for Northern Ireland and to provide office space for charities and organisations associated with the armed forces. A design competition was won by English architect Michael Bowley. His design was modern in style with a five-storey concrete façade. The building was built between 1959 and 1962, with construction supervised by architect Granville Smyth.

Use as offices The War Memorial Building was opened by Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother in 1963. The building housed the offices of the Council of the Northern Ireland War Memorial, who also used part of the building to house an exhibition on the role Northern Irish people played during the Second World War. The separate Royal Ulster Rifles regimental museum was also located in the building. On 18 February 1970 the War Memorial Building was the site for the swearing in of the first 19 recruits to the 7th Battalion, Ulster Defence Regiment. The first two men sworn in were symbolically a Catholic new recruit and Protestant British Army veteran. The occupants of the building gradually vacated it with the Council of the Northern Ireland War Memorial moving to nearby Talbot Street in 2006 and selling the building. The Council took with them original features including a stained-glass memorial window by Stanley Murray Scott, a Belgian-marble memorial plaque, copper frieze by James McKendry and rolls of honour for the two world wars. The building continued to be used as offices and was owned by a number of people, including Liverpool-based property developer Lawrence Kenwright. In 2010 the empty ground floor was marketed as a potential site for a bar and restaurant but was instead, from 2011, leased as offices for Colliers.

Redevelopment proposals In 2015 then owner CBRE Group put the War Memorial Building up for sale with an asking price of £850,000. In 2021 Northern Irish firm SOM Properties purchased the building. The building, which is grade B2 listed, is currently empty and has been placed on the Heritage at Risk Register. Following several plans to convert the structure into a hotel SOM Properties applied for planning permission for a conversion in September 2022. The application outlines a refurbishment into a 120-bedroom hotel with a rooftop bar and restaurant. The plans include for a 6-storey extension at the rear with the creation of a courtyard, and removal of most of the concrete façade. The plans would also reopen Sugar House Entry, one of the Belfast entries that was blocked up in the 1970s for security reasons. Sugar House Entry was formerly home to a number of inns, one of which was the first meeting place of the Society of United Irishmen.

References

Illustrations

War Memorial Building, Belfast: The building in 2009. Sugar House Entry is a narrow passageway between the building and the one on the right
The building in 2009. Sugar House Entry is a narrow passageway between the building and the one on the right

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with War Memorial Building, Belfast

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what War Memorial Building, Belfast claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to War Memorial Building, Belfast before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about War Memorial Building, Belfast ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of War Memorial Building, Belfast

In research
War Memorial Building, Belfast appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry
Engineering practice reuses War Memorial Building, Belfast in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom
War Memorial Building, Belfast is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 20th-century architecture in Northern Ireland, Buildings and structures completed in 1962, Buildings and structures in Belfast, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life
Look for War Memorial Building, Belfast outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.
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How to study War Memorial Building, Belfast in 20 minutes

  1. Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
  2. Close the page and write down what War Memorial Building, Belfast means in your own words.
  3. Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
  4. Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
  5. Explain War Memorial Building, Belfast out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is War Memorial Building, Belfast in simple terms?

The War Memorial Building is a grade B2 listed building in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The building, modernist in design, was constructed in 1959–1962 on the site of a hotel destroyed during the 1941 Belfast Blitz.

Why does War Memorial Building, Belfast matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study War Memorial Building, Belfast?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on War Memorial Building, Belfast.

Tags

  • 20th-century architecture in Northern Ireland
  • Buildings and structures completed in 1962
  • Buildings and structures in Belfast
  • Grade B2 listed buildings
  • Listed monuments and memorials in Northern Ireland
  • Modernist architecture in the United Kingdom

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