page_title: Royal Avenue, Belfast
section_title: The Troubles
hierarchical_section_title: Royal Avenue, Belfast / History / The Troubles
caption_attribution_description: English: Former Grand Central Hotel, Belfast. It was hoped that the three railway companies serving Victorian Belfast would be united at a central station in Royal Avenue. The traders could not agree so the owner of the site built the 200-bedroom Grand Central Hotel instead. It opened in 1893 and traded until 1971 when the decline in business following the bombing campaign forced it to close. It was an army barracks from 1972 until the early 80's. After that the ground floor was let as shops. It was demolished 511371 and replaced by the Castle Court shopping centre 627502.
context_page_description: Royal Avenue is a street in Belfast, Northern Ireland. In the Cathedral Quarter in the heart of Belfast city centre, as well as being identified with the more recent Smithfield and Union Quarter, it has been the city's principal shopping thoroughfare since its establishment in 1881.
  Today Royal Avenue is one of Belfast's main commercial centres and is home to the £40 million shopping complex Westfield CastleCourt. The top end of Royal Avenue was formerly named John Street and the bottom end was named Hercules Street.
context_section_description: Throughout the Troubles, Royal Avenue was targeted by the Provisional IRA due to its economic importance as a commercial zone and the presence of the British Army military barracks. The barracks itself was bombed many times in the mid-1970s, despite the anti-rocket metal mesh put up to fortify the edifice. Security gates placed at the junction of Royal Avenue and Donegall Place were closed every evening at 6:00 p.m., sealing off the area by what was known locally as a "ring of steel".
  On 25 November 1975 when Francis Crossan, a 34-year-old Catholic civilian, was abducted by the notorious Shankill Butchers gang, themselves members of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), from Library Street, a side street that leads immediately off Royal Avenue at the Central Library. Crossan was heading towards Royal Avenue when he was hit over the head with a wheel brace, then dragged into a waiting black taxi where he sustained a vicious beating before being fatally stabbed. He was found, with his throat deeply slashed, in an entry near Bisley Street on the Shankill Road. Crossan became the first victim of the lethal gang, which was led by Lenny Murphy. Crossan, who lived in the Suffolk district of South-West Belfast, had been walking home after spending the evening in the Holy Cross Bowling Club in the Ardoyne area of North Belfast from where his family originated.
  On 24 February 1988 two Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) soldiers, James Cummings and Fred Starrett, were killed when a 200-pound remote-controlled IRA bomb, hidden behind hoardings on a construction site, detonated at a Royal Avenue security gate manned by the UDR. The blast caused considerable damage to the area surrounding the bomb site.
  Royal Avenue was yet again attacked by the IRA on 1 January 1993 when an explosive device containing one pound of Semtex was left inside a hairdresser's salon but the device was successfully defused.
caption: The former Grand Central Hotel, which was converted into a British Army barracks in 1972, was the site of many bombing attacks during The Troubles.
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