The Northern Whig

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View of the building from Waring Street.

Belfast Assembly Rooms, centre, and The Northern Whig, right.

Soviet statue in the Northern Whig bar.

The Northern Whig is a bar housed in a historical building in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

It is situated in the Cathedral Quarter, just to the north of the city centre. At various times during its history it has been a gentleman's club, a newspaper and is currently a bar owned by Botanic Inns.

1 The Northern Whig Club
2 The Northern Whig Newspaper
3 The bar
4 External links

[edit] The Northern Whig Club

The original Northern Whig Club was formed in Belfast in 1791 by the Society of the United Irishmen. They met in various locations around the Bridge Street area in Belfast. In 1795 various members including Theobald Wolfe Tone and Henry Joy McCracken met at Cavehill to the north of Belfast, a meeting that was a pivotal step towards the 1798 Rebellion.

In 1819 construction began on the current Northern Whig building in Bridge Street, taking it's name from the original club. The foundation stone was laid on St. Patrick’s Day, and the building was completed in 1821 as a hotel and gentlemen's club. In 1798 McCracken had been tried and hanged at the Belfast Assembly Rooms, across the road from the building. The Assembly Rooms building was used as a branch of the Northern Bank during the 20th century, but is currently vacant.

[edit] The Northern Whig Newspaper

In 1823 a newspaper, also called the Northern Whig was founded in Belfast, and was owned for a period by John Arnott, founder of the Arnott's department Stores. In 1922 the company moved to the Bridge Street building, where they remained until 1963 when the newspaper ceased production. The company then became a commercial printing firm and moved to north Belfast. Along with much of nearby High Street, the building was damaged during the Belfast Blitz in 1941.

The company still exists as of 2006.

[edit] The bar

From 1963 until 1997 the building housed offices. In 1997 it was bought by the Mooney family's Botanic Inns, and after extensive renovation turned into a bar. The bar features a number of Soviet era statues. Originally housed in the Prague Communist Party headquarters, they were commissioned to celebrate the Russian Revolution of 1917.