Europa Hotel

A beacon of joy and hope in Belfast, the Europa Hotel has come to symbolise the resilience of the city and its people. 

In 2021 the Europa Hotel celebrated its 50 year anniversary and to mark this special date we developed
an interpretative intervention within its lobby to introduce visitors and guests to the hotel’s fascinating and colourful history.

Designed to integrate seamlessly into the hotel’s interior an elegant grid-like display takes its inspiration from the facade of the building.
This framework is populated with images from the hotel’s past and visitors will discover anecdotes from some of the characters who worked and stayed there. 

You’ll see Harper Brown, Europa’s first manager, sitting with bomb disposal expert, Lt Col George Styles. During that troubled time,
the hotel was the most bombed in Europe and dubbed the
‘Hardboard Hotel.’

Glazed vitrines house unique artefacts. These include special ties with their own stories to tell and a letter from Bill Clinton, the first serving US President to visit Northern Ireland, who stayed at the hotel with his wife Hillary (and a huge presidential entourage!). 

A touchscreen presents a multimedia timeline of the hotel’s 50-year history, showcasing printed ephemera, photographs and documentary video. A 2.5D parallax slideshow of historic imagery of Belfast creates a visually rich context for the rest of the display.

A specially commissioned illustrated diorama takes visitors back to Belfast at the turn of the century, before the Europa was built – its location has always been the centre of the action.

The Europa is a Belfast icon. Guests love its story, the characters that have stayed here and indeed worked here.

– Martin Mulholland,
Head Concierge