Harland & Wolff, Titanic and Olympic smoking room tiles

[William Oakes]

During my recent visit to Belfast Ireland, in October 2023, I visited the former Headqurters of Harland and Woflf.
It is now a hotel called the Titanic Hotel.
I explained that I was a Titanic researcher from the United States and I was given free reign to roam about.
The drawing office is mostly original except that now it has a bar located in the middle of the room.
The bar is tiled with the same tiles that were used in Titanic’s swimming pool.
That got me to thinking about the massive amount of tiles that Harland and Wolff must have purchased.
I’m certain that there were minimum order quantities back then just as there are today for businesses.
It is a pretty safe bet that Harland and Wolff purchased a large quantity in return for a better price.

Back in the 1990’s Harland and Wolff launched a “Maritime Heritage collection."
One of the items offered was a piece of Titanic smoking room tile.
These have become more scarce as time has moved on, but still a controversy rages over this tile.
Many say it is from Olympic.
Still others say it is from Titanic, but that it was removed and replaced with red and blue tile. (I highly doubt that this was removed but I don’t doubt that Titanic’s smoking room tiles were red and blue.)

As I continued my walk around the building I visited Lord Pirrie’s office, and Thomas Andrew’s office, and the presentation room.
I paid particular attention to the flooring.
On the stairs and the landing near Mister Andrews office are tiles that are identical to mine, but in a slightly brighter shade.
These tiles look like one big piece, but in actuality they are four interlocking pieces. When disassembled they would be very easy to paint.
So, I'm wondering, do you think Harland and Wolff purchased a large quantity of a basic shade of tile and then used their labor pool to paint them in the different colors that they desire.
I’m curious to hear what you think?

 

[brionboyles]

Very informative post! Thank you!

 

[Wnmac]

During my recent visit to Belfast Ireland, in October 2023, I visited the former Headqurters of Harland and Woflf.
It is now a hotel called the Titanic Hotel.
I explained that I was a Titanic researcher from the United States and I was given free reign to roam about.
The drawing office is mostly original except that now it has a bar located in the middle of the room.
The bar is tiled with the same tiles that were used in Titanic’s swimming pool.
That got me to thinking about the massive amount of tiles that Harland and Wolff must have purchased.
I’m certain that there were minimum order quantities back then just as there are today for businesses.
It is a pretty safe bet that Harland and Wolff purchased a large quantity in return for a better price.

Back in the 1990’s Harland and Wolff launched a “Maritime Heritage collection."
One of the items offered was a piece of Titanic smoking room tile.
These have become more scarce as time has moved on, but still a controversy rages over this tile.
Many say it is from Olympic.
Still others say it is from Titanic, but that it was removed and replaced with red and blue tile. (I highly doubt that this was removed but I don’t doubt that Titanic’s smoking room tiles were red and blue.)

As I continued my walk around the building I visited Lord Pirrie’s office, and Thomas Andrew’s office, and the presentation room.
I paid particular attention to the flooring.
On the stairs and the landing near Mister Andrews office are tiles that are identical to mine, but in a slightly brighter shade.
These tiles look like one big piece, but in actuality they are four interlocking pieces. When disassembled they would be very easy to paint.
So, I'm wondering, do you think Harland and Wolff purchased a large quantity of a basic shade of tile and then used their labor pool to paint them in the different colors that they desire.
I’m curious to hear what you think?

I have personally owned one of these sepia and light gray tiles for several years in my collection. Upon extensive research and findings which are just opinion and with some validity from research have led me to believe these tiles were made during the Olympics building and since Titanic and Olympic were going to be the exact same ship from the start color wise and all, these were left over from Olympics building and were used on the Titanic but later removed because of a color change and then stored, later used to tile the offices at H&W. I have also seen where others have purchased some of these tiles and were told by H&W they were actually laid on the Titanic but with Andrews making changes daily to the titanic these were later taken off around April 8th and 9th ( Titanic was already away from Belfast by this time) for a color change in the smoking room for the Red and Blue color scheme. It was very expensive to make these tiles because they were all cut by saw and pieced together making them expensive. Britanics tiles were totally different in pattern and color than Titanic's and Olympics. I am certainly open to others opinions.