The Lagan canal (site of), Stranmillis, Belfast (September 2018)

Image: © Albert Bridge Taken: 21 Sep 2018

The former Lagan Canal, at the Lockview Road, 60 years after formal abandonment, now in-filled and used as a car park. Little trace remains except, perhaps for some minor relics https://www.geograph.org.uk/snippet/2402 here Image (August 2008). The northern entrance to no 1 lock was approximately opposite today’s Lockview Court. The southern entrance was just west of the weir Image - not to be confused with this lock Image which allowed river traffic to bypass the weir on the east. In 1900 the Lagan Navigation (the river and the canal) handled just over 100,000 tons of goods. By 1950 traffic dropped to around 20,000 tons and had disappeared completely by 1955. The 1951 street directory, for the Lockview Road, shows “6a. Inland Navigation Co., R. L. Kemp, Proprietor  6b. Lagan Navigation Co. - S. Mairs, F.C.C.S., secretary; F. Patterson, Bank Ranger”. The area, once industrial is now residential and recreational with the car park used mainly by walkers and cyclists heading towards the towpath. There were significant changes with demolition and clearance for construction of the Governor’s Bridge. For further reading see “The Canals of the North of Ireland” by WA McCutcheon, David & Charles, 1965.

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