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FEATURES
AIDAN CAMPBELL LOOP #33 | OCT 17
History
LOCAL HISTORY
By our incredible resident historian Aidan Campbell. What he doesn’t know about East Belfast isn’t worth knowing.
BACK CATALOGUE
Check out his extraordinary volumes of work in his back catalogue of books. All the details are set out below.
Fares Please
ALL ABOARD I recall hearing the bus conductor calling out as he collected fares on board trolleybuses in Belfast during my childhood in the early 1960s. The trolleybus gilded silently and comfortably around the town and were a hybrid form of public transport between the electric tram and the modern bus. Electric trams had operated on the streets of Belfast since 1905 and were discontinued in 1953. Trolleybuses operated in West Belfast experimentally from 1938 and the first East Belfast route was to Cregagh in 1941.
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uite a crowd boarding the Cregagh trolleybus at Cromac Square, when it was a square, approaching East Bridge Street in 1950. This area has been re-developed in recent years and the road network greatly expanded. The building in the background to the left is the post office and it has since been demolished – as have all the buildings in the view. St George’s Market is just to the right of the bus but notice the square-sets on the road surface and the tramlines.
dressed for the weather. Looking towards the Hillfoot Road the address of the houses in the right background are at 433-435 Cregagh Road beside Everton Drive. Notice the group standing on the old tram lines.
This is how Cregagh trolleybus terminus looked in 1958. At the far left the wall of Castlereagh Rural District Council Offices looks very new and this part of Cregagh Road has a modern look to it although some square-sets remain on the road surface. The Hillfoot Road in the distance has not yet been widened to form the A55 On a wet day in 1941 trolleybuses dual carriageway and a magnifying were introduced to the Cregagh route. glass will reveal the signage at the At the terminus beside Cregagh front of ‘Speedy’ Graham’s wee shop. Park and not far from the Hillfoot In 2017 the former council offices or Knockbreda Road, members are now occupied by the Museum of of Belfast Corporation turn out to Orange Heritage, Schomberg House at celebrate the occasion and are suitably 368 Cregagh Road.
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT. IMAGES COURTESY OF 1. STEPHEN CRAIG FROM B.C. BOYLE COLLECTION 2. PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE OF NI 3. RONNIE ROSS 4. MIKE MAYBIN 5. STEPHEN CRAIG FROM B.C. BOYLE COLLECTION 6. BELFAST TELEGRAPH
Trolleybuses replaced trams on the Ormeau Road route in 1948 and they in turn were replaced by diesel buses in 1958. Notice the old-style gas-lit ‘Keep Left’ signs on the roundabout which were then a fairly recent road traffic management innovation. In this mid-1950s scene of Rosetta roundabout the trolleybus is heading towards the terminus at Fortbreda. In the background is the towering presence of ‘Nazareth House’ at 352 Ormeau Road. It was established by the Sisters of Nazareth in 1876 and originally known as ‘The Convent of the Good Shepherd.’ By 1895 the Belfast Street Directory described Nazareth House as ‘home for the aged, infirm and infantile poor’. The original buildings have since been demolished and a modern development now occupies the site.
Local folklore records the story that during the war years Parliament Buildings at Stormont were painted with a specially formulated dark paint as part of the camouflage ‘blackout’ regulations (above). Unfortunately the man who created the formula died without leaving details behind and there was quite a job getting the supposedly ‘removable’ paint, which was made of bitumen and cow manure, removed after the war was over and the stonework has been left scarred. Consequently the exterior façade has never regained its original white colour. Stormont Parliament Buildings were officially opened by Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII) on 16th November 1932. The original plans for a large domed building were scrapped following the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and a smaller
domeless edifice in the Greek classical style fronted in Portland stone, was erected on the site. Looking towards the Comber Road on the right and the Upper Newtownards Road on the left during a winter’s day in 1943 at the time the trolleybus service was introduced. Trolleybuses had just replaced trams on the Dundonald route. The turning circle is at the road junction occupied by Bell’s public house, soon to become the Elk Inn, and this was also the hairpin bend of the Ulster Grand Prix motor race meeting which was last held in 1936. The hillside to the left was the location of a dairy farm owned by the Kirkwood family and known as the ‘Beeches’ until the early 1960s when the new Ulster Hospital was opened.
Aidan Campbell has previously published 12 East Belfast local history books entitled: Beaconsfield, Knock, Cherryvalley, Gilnahirk, Castlereagh, Cregagh, Stormont, Sydenham, Belmont, East Belfast Revisited Volumes 1 & 2 and Ballymacarrett. Also Belfast Through Time and Newtownbreda. He regularly gives illustrated talks to local groups and societies. The books are available at Hillmount Garden Centre, Marie Curie Hospice and Hamilton News Cregagh with profits donated to local charity. BOOK SALES ONLINE : EASTBELFASTHISTORY.COM