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Paxton Street, BELFAST, BT5 4NU

The 1877 street directory shows Paxton Street, with 20 odd-numbered houses, running off Templemore Park but there is no Templemore Park shown as a street in its own right. The 1901 edition shows it, with 62 houses, running from Castlereagh Street, via Templemore Avenue, to Lord Street. Templemore Avenue is shown with only five houses in 1877. The 6 inch map (undated) on the OSI site shows the general area as fields with a few mills. There is a James Kelly Image shown as living at no 21 in 1877. This photograph, from Templemore Avenue, shows the rebuilt part between it and Lord Street. Image shows the view from Castlereagh Street.

In Templemore Avenue (the bit between the Albertbridge Road and Castlereagh Street). Built in 1928/30, to a design by PM Jury of Blackwood and Jury, using Buckley (Flint) bricks - an alien brick which does not clash with the Belfast brick used in many of the surrounding streets. Parked cars make the entire church hard to photograph. This is the tower. continue to Image

See Image One of the church’s gargoyles (ears covered to mask the din of the passing traffic) by S&T Hastings of Downpatrick.

This evangelical church traces its origins back to a tin roofed mission hall built in 1890 at the corner of Thorndyke Street, off Templemore Avenue. That building was destroyed in the Blitz of 1941 which killed almost a thousand people and damaged fifty thousand houses - some 50% of the total. The new purpose-built Iron Hall dates from 2004.

See Image Conversion work is continuing. The development, marked as “The Avenue” is described by the agents as “An exclusive development of eight luxury, turnkey apartments. CPS are delighted to offer to the market these unique properties, constructed by “Cornerstone (NI) Ltd” an exciting developer with a focus on quality and sustainability. This ambitious conversion of a historic red brick and sandstone building has created a range of turnkey, clean-lined and light-filled apartments on a tree-lined avenue with views of the iconic Harland & Wolff cranes. A sense of history with a modern twist. Location is key with these wonderful apartments, this area in particular has been transformed in recent years and is now a hub of activity, extremely popular with young professionals and those working in the City Centre, only a 15 minute walk”. I have no connection with the property and cannot enter into correspondence.

A street, built before 1901, running from Lord Street to Templemore Avenue (background) and now rebuilt in two completely different architectural styles.

See Image and Image (both November 2013). Chatsworth Street from Lord Street. Redeveloped in the same style.

Mural reproducing the Ulster Covenant in Thorndyke Street, Belfast. The Ulster Covenant was signed by just under half a million of men and women from Ulster, Ireland, on and before September 28, 1912, in protest of a Home Rule bill introduced by the British Government in that same year. Sir Edward Carson (see Image and Image) was the first person to sign the Covenant at the Belfast City Hall. The signers were all unionists, who were against the establishment of an Irish parliament in Dublin. Some even signed in their own blood to show their dedication to the cause. The Ulster Covenant is immortalised in Rudyard Kipling's poem "Ulster 1912". See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulster_Covenant for more information.

The Foyle boom broken, the fleet sails towards a welcome from the besieged pro-Crown citizens in the city.

A vacant and boarded-up end of terrace house, built before 1901. At the time it was common to name terraces in addition to the street name and number. The names gradually fell into disuse. This seems to have been Daisy Terrace. Image is on the left.