The Fight to Save the Rotterdam (update)

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It's been a few weeks since I posted about the Save the Rotterdam Bar Campaign, so it's about time for an update.

Now when I wrote that post I tried to write a passionate and sensible piece, not just about the plight of the Rotterdam Bar, but about how soulless developers were changing Belfast beyond recognition. I thought I had helped spread the word about what was happening and how unjust the whole situation was/is. I thought the people behind the Save The Rotterdam campaign would have been pleased with a bit more publicity with their campaign.

I was well wide of the mark. See what thinking does, eh? The reaction on the Save the Rotterdam myspace was, well, less than enthusiastic.

"Hey, e fuckwit caling themselves welldonefillet called us wailing hippies! LOL check out the shit on www.welldonefillet.blogspot.com
while they seem to like the Rott and all, I dont see them getting off their arses and joining in with us lamenting hippy types as we're referred to( funny how a hippy can run a couple of effin; businesses, and the rest of them likewise)
God, its easy to knock those who do the job when all welldone fillet wants to do is sit on their holes whining.
At least if we're going down.. we're goin' down with some honour as having actually had the integrity to fight for what we love and believe in. So, screw you, filletboy."

I was dumbstruck to say the least and at first I ignored it. I read and re-read what I had written and felt that there was nothing in that piece that I would change and there was nothing wrong with it. I had just been called a "fuckwit" so I wasn't in the mood for compromise. That was a couple of weeks ago.

But then I kept getting text messages and so on from friends and family telling me they had seen it. I decided that I needed to address the issue. I needed to put my point across that I was trying to help and that I didn't understand why they were so annoyed at what I had written.

So yesterday I made contact with the lady who responded on the Save the Rotterdam Bar myspace to my original piece. She wrote passionately about what the Rotterdam Bar means to her and her friends. Not just because it was their "local" or because of the great nights they had there but also because of it's rich history and it's importance to Belfast. If the Rotterdam is lost then nothing and I mean nothing is sacred anymore to the developers and money men.

I want to clarify and correct a few things I said in my original post on the Rotterdam Bar.

Writing "....I was more than a bit cynical. Lets be honest would the owners of the building really be swayed by online petitions and what they would view as "the lamenting voices of hippy types" when millions of pounds were at stake?" isn't really a very good way to help a fledgling campaign (as it was then) get off the ground. I apologise for that. At times like these cynicism isn't going to help now is it? And calling people hippies isn't on either.

And if that isn't going to help then "It's too late to save the Rotterdam...." is just down right daft. And again, I apologise. That was a very stupid thing to say when the campaign was just getting started and really there is no room for doubters, how ever well intentioned.

But more importantly the campaign has gone from strength to strength. There has been great coverage in the media both in Ireland including local newspapers and Hot Press magazine and local radio, and in England including a piece in last weeks Observer newspaper. The Campaign are urging people to do the following, and I urge you to do the same.

1. E-mail alan.turkington@doeni.gov.uk and tell him to make the Rotterdam a listed building and state why you think it should be.
   
2. Contact the Planning Department of Northern Ireland
   2nd Floor Bedford House
   16-22 Bedford Street
   BT2 7FD
   Tel: 028 9025 2903
   And share your opinions with them on why the Rotterdam needs to be kept as it is.
3. Sign the petition
   
4. Write letters to the Belfast Telegraph, Irish News, Belfast Newsletter, and any other local paper.
5. Contact Stephen Nolan, he loves a good fight.
   

The fight is on! All ideas are welcomed! The fight has, and I don't often quote the Carpenters, "only just begun". It's building momentum but needs more people to voice their unhappiness and leave everyone from the developers to the planning department to the general public at large in no doubt that this is unjust, not needed and just plain stupid. When heritage is lost you don't get it back.

Now I'm off to think about what I've done wrong.

Saving the Rotterdam bar. Saving Belfast

The Rotterdam

Earlier this month Belfast's Rotterdam Bar was shut for the last time. It's to be knocked down to make way for apartments. This is an absolute travesty. In the rush to rebuild Belfast, after 30 plus years of blowing things up and the subsequent lack of development that followed, it seems that nothing can be allowed to stand in the way of "progress". It's not just The Rott, as it was known, Pat's bar too will be swept aside to make way for luxury apartments. Got to be honest with you Belfast needs more luxury apartments like it needs more rain. These luxury apartments that are going up everywhere are rarely owner occupied. They are bought up by developers and leased out for ridiculous amounts thus excluding all but the very well heeled.

Pats Bar

Of course there is a campaign to Save The Rotterdam. All too little too late. The Rotterdam's a goner and there is no turning back. Money talks and that's that. When I first heard about the campaign to save the Rotterdam I was more than a bit cynical. Lets be honest would the owners of the building really be swayed by online petitions and what they would view as "the lamenting voices of hippy types" when millions of pounds were at stake? I don't think so. But that's still no reason not to voice our objections. They need to be made aware that people are fucked off by this. Fucked off by this in the worst way.

Belfast does need lot's and lot's of regeneration and investment. But this is no reason to rip out it's heart and soul. Sympathetic building and design can add to an area without losing it's history and character. At the current rate of development Belfast will soon become just another homogenised lump. No different from any other town or city. There is no doubt in my mind that Belfast and Northern Ireland as a whole will develop and succeed on the back of growing tourist industry. But if the developers are allowed to carry on with ridiculous plans like these then tourist guides will be reduced to spending their day saying "so and so used to here, and so and so used to be there".

Why is the Rotterdam important and what makes it worth saving I hear you ask? The Rott is situated in the Sailortown area of Belfast. It is said to be 180 years old. It was used to hold convicts before their eventual deportation to Australia. The chains used to hold them where still on site. It was an Irish bar without the Oirish thing going on. It was also a vibrant and important music venue. It was a bar of unique character and charm that set it above the theme/style bars that now clutter Belfast.

In our race to re-develop Belfast and remove the depression of 30+ years of carnage we shouldn't throw out all the things that make Belfast unique and different. It's too late to save the Rotterdam and Pat's bar but we can still tell them how we feel. And when they rebuild and re-open them I wont be darkening their doors. Mark my words there will be bikes and fake hams hanging from the ceilings. Cuntish, soulless Bastards.

Save The Rotterdam Bar myspace site.

Online Petition

FastFude message board discussion

I'm off to smack a PETA member. Is this the most sensible post I've done yet? Normal order to be resumed shortly.