New Holiday Resort

[winningways]

What next ? Opportunity for the "Best" holiday.

 

Was surprised to read this but sure many will want to go .

 

 

George Best's House Becomes Holiday Home

 

Last Updated 06:05 19/08/2012

Vicki Hawthorne, Ireland Correspondent

Tourists in Belfast are being offered the chance to stay the night in the childhood home of football legend George Best.

 

For between ?60 and ?125 a night, visitors can spend up to two weeks in the modest, three-bedroom terrace on the Cregagh Estate in east Belfast.

 

The Best family moved to the newly-built property in 1949 when George was just two, and George's father Dickie lived there until his death in 2008.

 

The footballer, who also became known as 'El Beatle', lived at number 16 Burren Way until he was 15, when he moved to play for Manchester United.

 

George Best's Football Career

The house has been turned into tourist accommodation by a not-for-profit organisation.

 

Maurice Kinkead from the East Belfast Partnership said: "The model we have at the moment, we think, maintains something of the heritage and the culture and the history of this particular building.

 

"It allows people to come in and see it and we think it's very sustainable and local residents, the local community, and the family - which is very important to us - seem very happy with that."

 

George's bedroom has been decorated as it would have been when he lived there through the 1950s and 1960s.

 

There are numerous family photographs on the walls, including one of George and his mother as well as one of George outside the house with family members.

 

George Best's brother-in-law Norman McNarry is also very involved in the project to keep the legend's memory alive.

 

He said: "We were faced with a choice and that choice was; will we simply get rid of the house and it's removed out of the family completely then, or will we perhaps be involved in this project that is ongoing now, which means that people can come here and enjoy George, can enjoy the circumstances that George grew up in, can be part of the George experience."

 

When George Best died in 2005, and at his own request, his funeral cortege left from his childhood home at Burren Way. The small front garden was covered in flowers and football memorabilia, pictures of which were broadcast around the world.

 

Throughout its history and George's heyday, number 16 Burren Way was often surrounded by press and photographers. Family members remember keeping the curtains closed to avoid the media camped outside.

[Neilson's Shank]

Saw this on Sky news this morning, slow news day?