Royal Avenue, Belfast

[citation needed] Today Royal Avenue is one of Belfast's main commercial centres and is home to the £40 million shopping complex CastleCourt.

[3] The hotel, which first opened its doors on 1 June 1893, became the "social hub of Belfast" and provided a temporary home for many illustrious guests, including King Leopold III of Belgium, Sir Winston Churchill, Gene Autry, Bob Hope, The Beatles, and the Rolling Stones.

[3] A year after the hotel closed down in 1971, it was converted into a fortified military barracks serving as battalion headquarters for regiments in the British Army that were based in Belfast city centre.

The film is extant and shows the street bustling with shoppers, workers, trams, carts, bicycles, and wagons.

[citation needed] On 29 October 1935, Royal Avenue was packed with thousands of mourners as the funeral cortege of Edward Carson made its way along the street.

The road was hit by bombs in the Belfast Blitz when the German Luftwaffe bombarded the city on the night of 15/16 April 1941 in an aerial attack that involved up to 200 bombers and lasted for six and a half hours; many of the buildings sustained considerable damage, although the destruction was much less severe than what was wrought in nearby Donegall and York streets.

[citation needed] 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.

[3] Shortly after midnight on 25 November 1975, Francis Crossin, a 34-year-old Catholic civilian, was abducted by the notorious Shankill Butchers gang.

Crossin was walking down the upper part of Library Street 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.

[13] The Art Deco building at the junction of North Street and Royal Avenue, which was formerly the headquarters of the Bank of Ireland before being left derelict, was taken over by the Occupy movement in early 2012.

Many scenes in the 2011 comedy film Killing Bono were shot in Royal Avenue to recreate Dublin as it appeared in the late 1970s/early 1980s.