Crown Entry – A History of Schools, Houses, Business and Rebellion
The Belfast Entries
Of all of Belfast’s old entries, Crown Entry is arguably one of the most innocuous, yet it has a long and busy history and was the site of one of the most momentous events in the story of the town.
Many of the entries grew up as lanes and alleyways between the gardens of the prestigious townhouses and businesses of High Street (see post High Street Belfast – A History). They mostly lead onto Ann Street (see post Ann Street Belfast – The Early Days).
Gradually as the town became more populated, the ‘entries’ became residential and commercial throughfares in their own right. As trade and business prospered these city-centre locations were valuable real estate, and became the hub of Belfast’s thriving commercial district.
Crown Entry
Crown Entry was located at 17 High Street, a narrow passageway opening onto Ann Street, near the town’s market place, today’s Cornmarket. In 1767 the High Street end of the entry was known as Pringle’s Entry. The name Crown Entry is believed to have originated due to its close location to the site of Belfast’s first Customs House, built in the 17th century.
In the late 18th century the 5th earl of Donegall, landlord of Belfast, began to expand and improve ‘his’ town. He leased land in and around Belfast on the condition that new streets be constructed and houses built or improved. Certain stipulations and regulations were imposed to ensure uniformity of form and standard. In High Street, Belfast’s most important avenue, buildings were to be a height of 25ft. Rules for the intervening lanes and alleyways were less stringent but still expected to fit in with the surrounding area.
“Representative of the period is a lease dated 20th July 1767, wherein Montague Trimble is charged with rebuilding a tenement in Crown Entry with side walls ‘Twenty eight feet high above the Surface of the Ground”
Kenneth McNally The Narrow Streets 1972
The entries were mainly places of commerce but at this time merchants and businessmen lived near or above their work premises, so the narrow streets were also residential. It seems unlikely to modern eyes that these compact alleyways were once popular housing.
“To be let and entered upon, from the first Day of November next, for such Term as may be agreed upon, three Dwelling-Houses, situate in the Crown Entry, Belfast. For further particulars enquire at William Wallage, junr.”
Belfast Newsletter, 8th October 1772
In 1822 Crown Entry contained 14 homes with 28 male residents and 42 female. By the 1830’s there were 16 buildings in the street. The tallest reached 32ft, these were at the High Street end of the alley. The houses then ranged in height from 30ft to 13ft 6 inches.
Crown Tavern and the United Irishmen
One of the most important aspects of the entries were as social venues and meeting places. Crown Entry was the site of the popular Crown Tavern facing onto High Street. This was obviously a popular meeting place. It was here in 1791 that the Society of United Irishmen was inaugurated. This body arose from the more radical elements of the Volunteer movement.
“The original members of that society numbered thirty-six, and their declared object was to procure a complete reform in the Legislature founded on a communion of rights and a union of power among Irishmen of every religious persuasion”
D J Owen History of Belfast 1921
Having been thwarted by political means the Society gradually took on a more ‘direct’ approach, seeking a complete separation from England, with Ireland being governed by Irishmen instead of “Englishmen and the servants of Englishmen, whose object was the interest of another country, whose instrument was corruption and whose strength was the weakness of Ireland”.
In 1793 the Society of United Irishmen was declared an illegal organisation. Anyone found guilty of administrating the Test, that is the oath of allegiance to the Society, would be executed (see post William Orr – Trial and Execution 1797). The government responded with martial law and the brutal period known as the Dragooning of Ulster.
As is often the way when faced with repression, the outcome was outright rebellion. The insurrection of 1798 failed and the leaders mercilessly hunted down and executed. The men were hung on the scaffold and their heads placed on spikes outside Belfast’s market house within sight of the Crown Tavern.
Other Crown Entry Residents
As well as the historic Crown Tavern, other venues offering refreshments in Crown Entry over the years included the Crown Shell Fish Tavern at Nos 11-13 and Mrs Stewart’s Hotel and Dining Rooms at No 3, recommended by Thomas Gaffikin. This was also described by the historian Cathal O’Byrne as “a favourite place for local epicures to meet and eat”. By 1890 this had become Leonard McCaughey’s Crown Vegetarian Restaurant.
One early resident of Crown Entry was the illiterate tailor Corny Brennan. In recent times a local entrepreneur had [has?] plans to open a social venue in his honour in the entry.
“….the tailor Corny Brennan, who did not read or write, so could only pretend to use a measuring tape when assessing his clients, with predictable results”
Marcus Patton Central Belfast, A Historical Gazetteer 1993
Printing
The Belfast entries have always been popular locations for printing and newspaper enterprises.
“The entries were a source of a great deal of the literary outpourings of the late eighteenth century in Belfast”
Kenneth McNally The Narrow Streets 1972
Letterpress Printers and Lithographers
In the early 1820’s brothers Robert and Daniel Read left their County Antrim home for a career in Belfast. Their older brother Patrick, had already established a retail tobacco business in nearby Castle Place.
The lads were apprenticed in the printing trade and by 1840 had a printing firm at 12 Crown Entry.
By 1845 the business was described as Letterpress Printers and Lithographers and had extended into the adjacent building. The brothers had a prosperous trade printing religious books and pamphlets.
Belfast Morning News
The office of the Belfast Morning News was situated at Crown House in Crown Entry. This was a rather grand 3-storey rendered building. The windows on the ground floor were round headed with decorative interwoven patterns. The cornicing was supported by ornate modillion brackets.
On 2nd July 1855 the first edition of the Belfast Morning News appeared on the streets of the town. It was published 3-times-a-week and was Ireland’s first penny newspaper.
From the start the Belfast Morning News (subsequently the Morning News) was extremely popular, not only in the town but throughout the north of the island. By July 1856 stamp duty returns show that the Belfast Morning News was selling 2,000 copies more than all the other Belfast newspapers combined. That is the Belfast Newsletter (daily), the Banner of Ulster, the Northern Whig and the Belfast Mercury (tri-weekly), and the Ulster Advertiser and Mercantile Journal (weekly).
In less than 20 years the circulation of the paper rose from 7,000 to 12,500 copies sold every day. On 20th August 1872, under the new editorship of J P Swann, the Morning News became a daily newspaper.
“Undoubtedly, however, a major catalyst in the decision to ‘go daily’ was the growing interest in popular politics… Belfast was the centre of intense political activity and the public appetite for news and views seemed insatiable”
A Century of Northern Life, editor Eamon Phoenix, 1995
During this period a notable journalist Robert Arthur Wilson, writing under the pseudonym ‘Barney Maglone’ became a much-loved and lucrative feature of the paper (see post ‘Barney Maglone’ – The Life of Robert Arthur Wilson). He was often to be found in the conducive atmosphere of the Crown Tavern.
“At the time of which we write, the Crown Tavern beside the ‘Morning News’ Office in Crown Entry was owned by one Tom Kane, a well-known figure in the business circles of the day, and in one of the old inn’s snuggeries most of what was best of ‘Barney Malone’s’ work was written”
Cathal O’Byrne As I Roved Out, 1946
In 1882 the Morning News was acquired by Dubliner Edmund Dwyer Gray, proprietor of the Freeman’s Journal. The newspaper was nationalist and pro-Parnell in tone. Gray also bought the weekly Ulster Examiner. In the late 1880’s both newspapers were published from the new offices at Nos 1-5 Commercial Court.
In 1892 the Morning News amalgamated with the Irish News, launched in 1891 by the Rev Patrick MacAlister, and is today, the most widely read newspaper in the north of Ireland.
The Vindicator
Another newspaper located here on the corner of Crown Entry and Ann Street was the Vindicator. It was founded in 1839 by Charles Gavin Duffy a poet and lawyer from Dublin and Downpatrick theologian Dr George Crolly.
The paper came out on a Wednesday and Saturday and supported Daniel O’ Connells repeal policy and urged for Catholic emancipation. O’Connell sought to repeal the Act of Union of 1801 and establish an Irish government separate from England for Irish affairs and elected by all Irishmen regardless of creed.
Duffy was succeeded as editor by Keiran Thomas Buggy from Kilkenny in 1842. K T Buggy was an accomplished political journalist, as well as an author, poet and impressive public speaker.
“An orator of great power and eloquence, he spoke in London and Edinburgh as well as throughout Ireland, where his scorching wit and keen intellect were utilised with courage”
Paul Rouse Dictionary of Irish Biography
Buggy died suddenly on 18th August 1843; he was only 26. His funeral was attended by thousands of mourners; he was buried in Friar’s Bush cemetery (see post Friar’s Bush Graveyard – A Fascinating History).
“One great square monument with a spire and a decoration – a harp surrounded by a wreath of shamrocks – was erected, the inscription informed us, by the ‘Repealers of Belfast’ to the memory of K T Buggy, Esq., editor of the ‘Vindicator’.
And as we stood among the long lush grasses, before the great, solid, towering structure, we thought again of those stirring times, of the struggle for Repeal, of Catholic Emancipation, of O’Connell….”
Cathal O’Byrne, As I Roved Out, 1946
Other Crown Entry Businesses
Among other business concerns situated in Crown Entry were Ann Jane McCracken’s millinery business (1852), Owen McCann fishmonger (1870), Alfred Poole stationer (1872), Criterion Wine Company Ltd, manager Mr J H Robinson (1880) and J Miller & Company, tobacco manufacturers (1890).
Crown Entry also had somewhat of an academic aspect. In 1778 a Mr Grier had school rooms here. While in 1794 Mr Alexander advertised his school on Crown Entry for the sons of the “respectable inhabitants of Belfast”.
James Sheridan Knowles
A famous resident of Crown Entry was the dramatist James Sheridan Knowles. He came to Belfast from County Cork with his father in the early 19th century with aspirations to be an actor (although he had trained in the medical profession). However, when this proved unfruitful, he opened a school in 1811 on Crown Entry. According to the historian George Benn the playwright resided in Crown Entry “the first door to the right on passing into the entry from High Street”.
In 1810 Knowles wrote the play “Brian Boroihme” for the Belfast Theatre. However, his first ‘hit’ was that of “Caius Gracchus” performed in 1815. Knowles wrote several other highly acclaimed plays such as “Virginius” and “The Hunchback” which were produced in Covent Garden, London. However, James was to turn his back on the ‘limelight’ and in later years became a Baptist minister.
As a schoolteacher in Belfast James Sheridan Knowles was popular but perhaps a bit lacking in authority.
“Soon after, I went to what was then the most popular school in the town, that of Mr James Sheridan Knowles. This was in 1812 or 1813. It was at this time in Crown Entry, and was attended by a very large number of boys.
Mr Knowles succeeded better as an elocutionist than in the more minute details of teaching, in which his judgement does not seem to have been very great”.
As told to George Benn A History of the Town of Belfast, Volume 1, 1880
Knowles seemed to have an unusual method of discipline. He did have a cane, but unlike many of his colleagues, he used it only occasionally. Instead, James hammered large hooks into the low ceiling of his classroom. From these he hung a rope with a loop on the end about 1 and a half ft above the floor. The “refractory” (i.e. resisting authority) student had to insert his foot into the noose and stand on one foot.
“It was amusing to see boys standing in this manner, hopping about when tired, or changing their position from time to time to get some ease or relief. We do not think this practice continued very long, for Mr Knowles was at all times most genial and companionable with his pupils”
Crown Entry – Latter Days
By the turn of the 20th century there are only two residential buildings recorded for Crown Entry.
At No 4 lived hotel keeper Miss Elizabeth Johnston from County Fermanagh. In the same house were barmaids Maria Mahood, Ellen King and Jessie Prince and general servant Selvia Bannister. This is listed in the street directory as the “Criterion Restaurant“. In later years it was the location of the Capstan Bar. Next door was the Oxford Club, proprietor P Daly.
At No 11 resided Patrick McIlhargy, a licensed vintner, and his wife Mary, together with two publican’s assistants John Quinn and Joseph McArdle. 19-year-old domestic servant Ellen O’Hagen also lived on the premises.
Conclusion
Many of Belfast’s entries in the past boasted fine examples of Victorian ornamentation. Unfortunately, in most cases, these decorations have been removed or covered over. Such is the case with Crown Entry.
Today the entry is only a sad reflection of what it once was, when schools, and shops and houses and businesses jostled for space in the narrow alleyway. The stories it could tell!
Related Posts
Help Us Find New Readers
Belfast Entries is hobby website produced entirely by a retired husband & wife featuring articles on our shared history, memories and entertaining stories of our past. The stories are free to all. If you like our posts please help us to grow our readership by sharing the posts. A growing readership would be very much appreciated.
If you enjoy Belfast Entries please consider a small donation
If you wish to To help us meet website creation/ maintenance costs please click the coffee cup below to learn how to make a small donation. Please note that every contribution is valued and that we will acknowledge your contribution below (forename only or “Anonymous” if you prefer).
Donations this month 3
Thank you Damian
Thank you Sinead
Thank you R. Meharg
We had 2 donation last month.
Copyright Notice
Belfast Entries posts & photos are our intellectual property and copyrighted to us. Where we use photos that do not belong to us, it is because we believe them to be in the public domain or shared under a Creative Commons licence with appropriate attribution. None of our content or images can be used without our consent. Note that a link to our Copyright & Takedown notice is included in the website footer on all pages.
0 Comments