Around 41 jobs are to be created at Belfast’s first working distillery in nearly 90 years when it opens its doors in the Titanic Quarter at the end of this month.
Titanic Distillers, the company behind the project, said it has invested some £8 million in converting the Titanic Pumphouse into a new distillery and visitor centre which will produce its own spirits. It has installed three new stills situated on the mezzanine floor overlooking the original pumping engines, used to pump water out of the neighbouring Thompson Dry Dock. The dock first opened in 1944 to service and accommodate White Star liners Olympic and Titanic.
Behind Titanic Distillers are three local entrepreneurs, Peter Lavery, Stephen Symington and Richard Irwin.
“It’s been quite a journey to get this far but we’re finally here and we can’t wait to open our doors to the public on April 28,” Peter Lavery said. “Whiskey has played an important part in the history of our city but there hasn’t been a working distillery here since the 1930s, so we are delighted to revive this great distilling tradition - bringing Belfast back to the forefront of Irish Whiskey production, while at the same time telling the story of a historic past when we led the way globally - not just in shipbuilding but across many areas of industry, manufacturing and innovation.”
Despite such a long period with no whiskey distillery in the city, a second is set to open in the city at the Crumlin Road Gaol in the building’s renovated A Wing. Behind that venture are the Belfast Distillery Company which is already producing McConnell’s Irish Whiskey.
