Belfast City Hall to close for £10m refurb

Belfast City Hall is to close for two years for stg£10m refurbishment.

Over 400 office staff will move to temporary accommodation after the doors close next summer, it was confirmed today.

The electrics, plumbing and sewage system are to be replaced and the 100-year-old building is to get a new roof as well.

Weddings and civil partnerships arranged before July 1st will go ahead as planned. But other couples who had provisionally booked after that are being told ceremonies are being switched to a new purpose-built registry office in nearby Adelaide Street.

An estimated 50,000 people visited City Hall this year during centenary celebrations. It was designed by Alfred Brumwell Thomas and built in Portland stone with a 173 high dome to reflect the city's status which was granted by Queen Victoria in 1888.