History of Belfast, in and County Antrim

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head>  <script>(function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start': new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0], j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src= 'https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f); })(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-5RQZ6X79');</script>  <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> <title> History of Belfast, in and County Antrim | Map and description </title> <link rev="Headscape" href="https://headscape.co.uk/" title="Headscape Web design: strategy, usability, design, development, marketing." /> <meta name="description" content="A vision of Ireland through time..." /> <meta name="keywords" content="Vision of Ireland, University of Portsmouth" /> <meta name="version" content="v2.7.2" /> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <link rel="shortcut icon" href="#"> <meta http-equiv="imagetoolbar" content="no" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/css/basic.css" media="all" />  <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/css/default.css" media="all" />  <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/css/print.css" media="print" />  <style type="text/css" media="screen">   </style> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.7.1.min.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/js/default.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/js/validate.js"></script>  <link rel="canonical" href="https://www.visionofireland.org/place/20523" /> <style type="text/css"> </style> </head>  <noscript><iframe src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-5RQZ6X79" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript>  <div id="header" class="row"> <div id="headerOverlay"> <div class="rowInner"> <img id="printLogo" src="/images/logoPrintIreland.gif" alt="Vision of Ireland logo" /> <a id="vobLogo" class="ireland" href="/">A vision of Ireland through time</a> <p id="strapLine">A vision of Ireland from 1821 onwards.<br /> Including maps, statistical trends and historical descriptions.</p> <a id="helpLink" href="/about">Help using this website</a> </div> </div> </div> <div id="navigation" class="row"> <ul class="rowInner"> <li><a href="/">Home</a></li> <li class="current"><a href="/place/">Places</a></li> <li><a href="/atlas/">Statistical atlas</a></li> <li><a href="/maps/">Historical maps</a></li> <li><a href="/census/">Census reports</a></li> <li><a href="/travellers/">Travel writing</a></li> <li><a href="/learning/">Learning zone</a></li> <li><a href="/data/">Data access</a></li> </ul> </div> <div id="breadcrumbs" class="row"> <ul class="rowInner"> <li><a href="/">Home</a></li> <li><a href="/place/20006">Ireland</a></li> <li><a href="/place/"></a></li> <li><a href="/place/20017">County Antrim</a></li> <li><a href="#">Belfast</a></li> </ul> </div> <div id="page" class="row"> <div class="rowInner cols5bkg"> <div class="cols5"> <div class="unit"> <h4>Place:</h4><br/> <h3>Belfast  County Antrim </h3> </div> <ul id="subNavigation"> <li class="currentParent"><a href="#">Location</a></li> <li><a href="/place/20523/writing">Historical places and writing</a></li> <li><a href="/place/20523/units">Units and statistics</a></li> <li><a href="/place/20523/links">Related websites</a></li> <li><a href="/place/20523/names">Place names</a></li> </ul>   <div id="sideAds" style="margin-bottom: 30px"> <center> <script async src="https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1952517583355649" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>  <ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:inline-block;width:160px;height:600px" data-ad-client="ca-pub-1952517583355649" data-ad-slot="6865430494"></ins> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script> </center> </div> </div> <div class="cols13 lastCol"> <div class="content"> <form class="searchBox"> <div class="interactiveMaps"> <a href='/maps;jsessionid=6781E2DB0BE08FF4385B26D578803BBC?layer=europe&xMin=2992779.66449&yMin=3167864.39460&xMax=3029779.66449&yMax=3204864.39460'> <img height="300px" width="370px" src='http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/cgi-bin/mapserv?map=/usr/local/share/map-files/bound_map_page.map&layer=europe&mode=map&map_imagetype=png&mapext=2992779.66449+3171364.39460+3029779.66449+3201364.39460&map_size=370+300' alt="location map -- click to enlarge"/> </a> </div> <div class="map"> <img alt="" src="/images/mapPlacesDark.jpg"/> <ul class="mapPoints"> <li><a style="top: 148.64348531019894px; left: 90.33341992129264px;" href="#"> <span>Belfast, County Antrim</span></a></li> </ul> </div> <p style="text-align:left">          <b>Click on the map for other historical maps of this place</b></p> </form> <p>In 1887, John Bartholomew's <i>Gazetteer of the British Isles</i> described <span class="searchPhrase">Belfast</span> like this: </p> <blockquote> <div class="textColumns2"> <p><b>Belfast</b>, parl. and mun. bor., manufacturing and seaport town, and the principal town of Ulster, chiefly in Shankill par., co. Antrim, but partly also in Holywood and Knockbreda pars., co. Down, at the influx of the Lagan to Belfast Lough, 113 miles N. of Dublin by rail, 129 from Glasgow, and 160 from Liverpool -- mun. ...</p> <hr class="readMoreColumns2" /> <p>bor., 5991 ac., pop. 208,122; parl. bor., pop. 221,600; 6 Banks, 11 newspapers. Market-days, <i>Tuesday</i> and <i>Friday</i>. On the land side the city is bounded and sheltered by a lofty and picturesque ridge of hills, which ends abruptly in the basaltic eminence of Cave Hill (1185 ft.). It presents a clean, prosperous, and business-like appearance, and possesses wide and regular streets, elegant and substantial buildings, and beautiful environs. An insignificant vil. in 1612, when Scotch and English colonists first settled there, Belfast is now the chief seat of the trade and mfrs. of Ireland, and the second port next to Dublin. Of its numerous educational institutions, the most important is Queen's College, opened in 1849; it has professorships in arts, law, medicine, and science, including engineering and agriculture. The staple mfrs. are linen and cotton; and bleaching, dyeing, and calico-printing are extensively carried on. Some of the flax-mills are very large. There are flour and oil mills; chemical works; iron foundries; breweries, distilleries; alabaster and barilla mills; shipbuilding (on Queen's island), rope, and sailcloth yards. Pork curing is an important branch of trade. The docks and wharfage have become very extensive. Steamers sail daily to and from Liverpool, Glasgow, Fleetwood, Barrow, and Ardrossan; and once or twice a week to Dublin, Cork, Bristol, London, Havre, &c. (For shipping statistics, see Appendix.) The borough returns 4 members to Parliament -- 4 divisions, viz., East, South, West, and North, 1 member for each division.</p> </div> </blockquote> </i> </b> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> <html> <head> <style type="text/css"> .boxFull { overflow: hidden; padding: 15px 10px 10px 10px; margin-top: 10px; } .tab {margin-bottom: 15px; } </style> </head> <body> <div class="boxFull"> <strong>How to reference this page:</strong> <br/><br/> <p>GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Belfast, in and County Antrim | Map and description, <em>A Vision of Ireland through Time</em>.</p> <p>URL: https://www.visionofireland.org/place/20523</p> <p>Date accessed: 16th February 2025</p> </div> </body> </html> <hr/> <h3> <a href="not_found/BELFAST/place_page;jsessionid=6781E2DB0BE08FF4385B26D578803BBC">Not where you were looking for?</a> </h3> <p> Click <a href="not_found/BELFAST/place_page;jsessionid=6781E2DB0BE08FF4385B26D578803BBC">here</a> for more detailed advice on finding places within <i>A Vision of Ireland through Time</i>, and maybe some references to other places called "Belfast". </p> </div> </div> </div> <br class="clear" /> </div> <div id="footer" class="row"> <div class="rowInner"> <a href="https://www.jisc.ac.uk" id="footerLinkJ">JISC</a> <a href="https://www.port.ac.uk" id="footerLinkP">Portsmouth</a> <a href="#header" class="backToTop">Back to top</a> <ul> <li><a href="/about/credits">©2009-2024 University of Portsmouth and others</a></li> <li><a href="/about">About this site</a></li> <li><a href="/expertsearch">Expert search</a></li> <li><a href="https://headscape.co.uk">Web design by Headscape </a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </body> </html>

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History of Belfast, in and County Antrim | Map and description