The Maritime Hotel — Van Morrison and Them, Belfast

The Maritime Hotel in Belfast's College Square North was the venue where Van Morrison and his band Them developed the rhythm and blues sound that would produce 'Gloria', 'Here Comes the Night', and 'Baby Please Don't Go' — recordings that placed Belfast in the middle of the British R&B explosion of the mid-1960s and established Morrison as one of the most powerful rock vocalists of his generation. Them performed a Monday night residency at the Maritime throughout 1964 and 1965, building an audience in a city that had never previously been on the British music map.

The Maritime was a ballroom in a hotel near Belfast's city centre, and the Them residency attracted young people from across the city who had no previous experience of live rhythm and blues. Morrison's performances were raw and physically intense — sometimes extending versions of songs to fifteen or twenty minutes, repeating verses and choruses until the music reached a kind of ecstatic climax. The energy and commitment of those Maritime nights was captured imperfectly on the early Them recordings but more fully in the legend that grew up around them.

The Maritime Hotel no longer stands — the building was demolished. The site in College Square North is now occupied by other buildings. Belfast has increasingly engaged with its music heritage, and Van Morrison's connection to the city — through the Maritime, through the streets of East Belfast where he grew up, and through the geography of songs like 'Cyprus Avenue' and 'Madame George' — is acknowledged in various heritage contexts. A blue plaque and various walking tour materials document the Maritime's significance.