South Belfast : HISTORY
The old Belgravia Hotel.
Aidan Campbell has previously published 11 east Belfast local history books entitled: Beaconsfield, Knock, Cherryvalley, Belgravia as it stands today.
Crescent Arts Centre Upper and Lower Crescents were completed with grand housing in the 1850s containing what has been described as ‘highly imposing stucco terraces in the Bath manner’. At 1 University Road (below) on the corner of Lower Crescent stands the present Crescent Arts Centre which during major renovations was awarded the UK ‘Man and the Biosphere’ Urban Wildlife Award for Excellence in 2010 for preserving the 136 year old breeding colony for threatened swifts. This was the home of Victoria College, Belfast’s premier girls’ grammar school which was founded as the Ladies Collegiate by Mrs Margaret Byers at Wellington Place in 1859, moved to Lower Crescent in 1873 and Cranmore in the 1970s. Queen Victoria graciously granted the royal title in 1870.
BELGRAVIA When the large terraced development of ‘Belgravia’, on the corner of Ulsterville Avenue and Lisburn Road was constructed in the late 1870s the occupants represented a crosssection of the burgeoning middle-classes in late Victorian Belfast. Worthy occupants included doctors, railway managers, grain merchants, flour merchants, linen merchants, fireclay and alabaster merchants and a missionary. By the 1940s it is described as Belgravia Hotel (above) and by the 1950s Belgravia Private Hotel which became a residential hostel for elderly people run by the Northern Ireland Housing Association. This lovely building was destroyed by a bomb during ‘The Troubles’ in the 1980s and the Belgravia was totally rebuilt in 1985 containing sheltered and retirement housing (left).
Gilnahirk, Castlereagh, Cregagh, Stormont, Sydenham, Belmont and East Belfast Revisited Volumes 1 & 2. Newtownbreda in south Belfast was published in 2015. Aidan regularly gives illustrated talks to local groups and societies. The books retail at £10.00 each and most are available at Hillmount Garden Centre, Marie Curie Hospice, Hamilton News Cregagh and Pat’s Newsagency Saintfield Road with profits donated to local charity. Book sales online at: www.eastbelfasthistory.com
The Crescent Arts Centre was the former home of Victoria College.
The Crescent Arts Centre today.
South Belfast Life 21