DAN KEENANstays at the The Fitzwilliam Hotel in Belfast
I SUPPOSE IT takes a certain kind of nerve to book a swanky hotel break so close to the office. After all, there’s a therapeutic benefit to jumping in the car, leaving the city lights in the rear-view mirror and arriving at your oasis of choice to forget about everything for a night.
It’s different when you merely leave your car at the office and walk down the road. But you can get away from it all by crossing the street.
The Fitzwilliam Hotel in Belfast identifies itself as a sister of Dublin’s Fitzwilliam Hotel. Whatever about hotels having siblings, there is a strong sense of the same only different about this place. Perhaps it is indeed possible to be at once distinctive yet be part of a brand.
Although one of a number of new top-end hotels that signify the city’s reinvention and growing sense of self-belief, the Fitzwilliam stands out thanks to its bold styling and ability to hit the ground running so shortly after opening its doors.
If design is your thing then there’s plenty to keep you interested here. And even if you prefer to relax in a chair, fall into your bed or soak in your bath rather than just look at them, you will not be disappointed either.
The hotel has gone for a bold, even cool look that strikes you the minute you step off Great Victoria Street. The double-height lobby is large and open and overlooked, mezzanine-style, by business accommodation and the signature restaurant.
Glass walls, ceramic floors and daring chandelier lighting are strikingly different from the carpets and cushions so favoured by many other four- and five-star places. The furniture is functional and comfortable and arranged in lines and patterns. I like it – but my mother would hate it.
Despite the impression that geometry is of prime importance, the hotel is also welcoming and relaxed – even more so after nightfall, when the fireplace and bookshelves beckon.
Check-in is quick and efficient – almost too matter- of-fact – and you make your way along quiet corridors of mirrored dark-wood doors to your room without fuss or any sense of having been sold a hollow welcome.
Your room will shatter any doubts you may still have that this is an Identikit hotel. Spacious, light-filled and uncluttered, these are calm places that you can retreat to – great to look at but also good to be in. Brown-black wood, olives, mustards and moody lighting counter the rather busy graphic patterned carpets and the hotel’s fondness for stark checked cushions. All the rooms have proper sofas and plenty of desk space if the office won’t leave you alone. Wi-Fi broadband is complimentary.
You have a flat-screen TV – but why come here to watch telly? There’s a mini hi-fi, radio and MP3 player, a tea and coffee tray, a corkscrew and glasses – bless them – and all cleverly secreted away. There may be all the facilities of an airport without spoiling the integrity of a bedroom. Everything has its place.
There is room to move, not merely sidestep the furniture.
The heat is, mercifully, controllable. But the air conditioning was a little noisy to leave on all night, and the windows were locked shut.
Bathrooms, styled in black and white, are stylish and functional. The deep bath has tealight candles, while the separate walk-in shower has room for two and a shower head the size of a dinner plate. Wonderful.
These rooms are private; your neighbours go unseen and unheard. Their doors do not slam shut, conversation does not echo, plumbing does not churn and rattle.
The downstairs bar is atmospheric, chic and metropolitan but somewhat spoiled by too-loud music and the pointlessness of a big TV with the sound turned off.
The restaurant marks a mood change. The dark woods, burnt oranges and mellow colours give way to warm oak and bright-red upholstery. Groups can dine at long refectory-style tables seated in dramatic high-backed chairs. Couples can hide comfortably in snugs. Staff are helpful and efficient, polite without prostrating themselves.
Breakfast is impressive and informal, a mixture of help yourself and good service. There is everything you could want, and it would be easy to linger for an hour.
We did not dine here despite the lure of the Kevin Thornton-signed menu. The Grand Opera House is next door, and the renowned Crown pub is across the road.
It came as a welcome change for this writer to view Belfast as a place to enjoy rather than merely work in. Everyone should try it – if only to make up their own mind.
WhereFitzwilliam Hotel, Great Victoria Street, Belfast, 048-90442080, fitzwilliam hotelbelfast.com.
WhatThe latest top-rated hotel in the city that's unlike the others.
Rooms 130, ranging from executive to double- bedroomed penthouse suite.
Best rateTwo nights' BB with dinner one night £220-£410 (€250-€460) for two. Parking £15 (€16.75).
Bars and restaurants:Menu by Kevin Thornton. Trendy (if noisy) bar.
Children-friendlinessDoesn't advertise itself as family-friendly, and I saw no children, but if Mum and Dad can afford a suite . . .
AmenitiesJust about everything except a pool.