Belfast’s Forgotten Streets and Corners
Cooney’s Court
Cooney’s Court was a large courtyard in the centre of Belfast that has a fascinating backstory and was witness to some momentous events in the history of the town.
The court was accessed by a narrow entry off Ann Street, between William Street South and Telfair’s Entry, (this was named after a Mr Telfair who had opened a school on the corner).
That this was a significant location in the heart of the burgeoning town is proven by the fact that it was chosen as the site of Belfast’s first Linen Hall. This centre of business existed from 1739 till 1754 and was intended to compete with the one in Dublin. The building was auctioned off in 1756.
Cooney’s Court was then the home of an artillery barracks and jail.
“The Barracks were originally situated in Cooney’s-court, a paltry-edificed parallelogram, off Ann Street….”
James Adair Pilson History of the Rise and Progress of Belfast 1846
In 1760 the French prisoners captured after Thurot’s landing at Carrickfergus were held here. The courtyard was then known as Train Barrack Yard.
Francois Thurot with 600 soldiers had landed at Kilroot, County Antrim, in February 1760. They marched to the nearby town of Carrickfergus and captured the castle. The French held the castle from 21st – 26th February, but in the face of a large local militia under the command of General William Strode and the approach of the English Royal Navy, they set sail again. However, the French fleet were defeated at the Battle of Bishop’s Court on 28th February off the Irish coast. Thurot and 160 of his men were killed.
Some of the French prisoners were detained in the jail in Cooney’s Court. Writing of the 1820’s historian Thomas Gaffikin remarked that “portions of the old barrack where the French prisoners were confined is still to be seen”.
While the majority of the French prisoners were repatriated, some preferred to stay and settle in Belfast, for example a certain Bourdot.
“But the fashionable hairdressers were Bourdot in Corn Market, and O’Brien in Castle Place. Bourdot’s father was a Frenchman who had been taken prisoner at Carrickfergus, when Thurot made the landing there.”
Thomas Gaffikin, Belfast Fifty Years Ago 1875
In 1787 a bank was established in Cooney’s Court. This was only the second banking establishment in Belfast at the time. It was known as the ‘Bank of the Four Johns’ as it was set up by John Ewing, John Holmes, John Brown and John Hamilton. Unfortunately, it was not a successful venture.
“Persons living have perhaps seen these notes, and the bank itself was a respectable establishment, but had, like the first one, but a brief career. Its location was at Cooney’s Court in Ann Street”
George Benn, A History of the Town of Belfast, Vol 1 1877
In the troubled times of the 1790’s the Barracks in Cooney’s Court were taken over by the government. Still it was from here that several large guns were smuggled out for use by the United Irishmen. It was also to this jail, off Ann Street, that Henry Joy McCracken, one of the leaders of the United Irishmen, was brought after his capture and held until his execution at the nearby Market House [see post Belfast’s Market House, the Town Hall and the 1798 Rebellion] on 17th July 1798.
In the more settled times after the Rebellion the government sold off the building.
“Quietness had come in 1806, so they advertise the building to be let for the unexpired years of the lease. The military must still have continued in it, as at the end of the advertisement it is said –‘An Artilleryman will attend to show the Concern’”
Georn Benn, A History of the Town of Belfast Vol 2 1880
As well as business and commercial locations, these city-centre lanes, entries and courts were residential areas. In 1822 Cooney’s Court contained 18 houses with 39 men and 42 women residents. Later the area was leased by businessman Courtenay Cooney and thus acquired the name Cooney’s Court. However, in 1849 Cooney’s Court was one of the streets most affected by the cholera outbreak in Belfast.
In 1852 there are only three enterprises listed in the courtyard – Robert Henderson a whitesmith, George Todd a shoemaker and James Agnew a carpenter. It also contained ‘several small houses’. In 1861 there are three residents listed for Cooney Court –Jane O’Hara a washerwoman at No 7, Victor Brighan a carter at No 9 and the workshops of Robert Henderson, who has added ‘bell hanger’ to his occupations.
However, only a few years later in 1868 Cooney’s Court appears to be semi-derelict. It contained the stores of Messrs. R Patterson & Co, ironmongers of High Street. The rest of the properties are described “remainder in ruins”.
Cooney’s Court is last mentioned in the street directory of 1877. By 1894 the site had been cleared and was the location of the Whitehall Buildings, 13 Ann Street. In 1896 it housed the offices of solicitors, accountants, the architect William J Moore [1873-1921] and Hamilton & Co apron and pinafore manufacturers.
Today the site is a nondescript shopping street, it is amazing that we pass by such history without a second glance!
Lettuce Hill
Lettuce Hill, also known as Lettuce Lane, was a narrow street leading off Mill Street, close to today’s city centre. Originally it was situated on the outskirts of the town close to the defensive military post on Barrack Street. The street is believed to have been named after Letitia, Countess of Donegall. Historian George Benn, muses that as the area was close to the Donegall’s private estates the area may have been a popular spot for that lady.
“Might it be conjectured that this place in the seventeenth century was a resort of Letitia, Countess of Donegall, who lived so long in Belfast, and made it a favourite country retreat, so often as to cause it to be known by her name? It is but a guess”
Georn Benn, A History of the Town of Belfast Vol 2 1880
In 1702 a lease of 3 acres at Lettice Hill was granted to a Mr Hodgkinson at a yearly rent of £2 10 shillings. It was described as ‘gardens and orchards upon it, and that it adjoins my Lord’s meadows’.
Certainly, the area seems to have been a desirable location
“The property of Stewart Banks (a wealthy Belfast businessman) is to be sold, and is described as that property in Castle Street in which he lived, and other premises in Barrack Street and Lettuce Lane all with extensive gardens”
In his description of Lettuce Hill, local historian and raconteur Cathal O’Byrne, paints a pretty rural picture
“Across Mill Street, Lettuce Hill was a country lane, with little lime-white cottages set in gardens, some of them two-storeyed, in one of which a little dwarf woman, named Biddy Kennedy, kept a lodging house, which was known to all and sundry as ‘Caunty Biddy’s Lodgings’”
Cathal O’Byrne, As I Roved Out, 1946
However, as time progressed Lettuce Hill’s fortunes seem to take a downward turn. Historical gazetteer Marcus Patton mentions that for a time towards the end of the 18th century the street was known as Beggar’s Row.
Unfortunately, Lettuce Hill was one of the areas adversely affected by the unsanitary condition of the Blackstaff River which frequently overflowed its banks [see post Blackstaff River – Recreation, Pollution, Flooding and Death]
In 1852 Lettuce Hill is listed as containing two businesses, that of Samuel Boyd, a grocer and spirit dealer and John O’Neill a grocer, and 60 ‘small houses’. It seems these homes were deemed too insignificant to even have their residents listed in the street directory. A few years later, while Mr Boyd is still in business he is joined by some other enterprises.
In 1868 we have a full list of the ‘heads of households’, over 70 homes, on Lettuce Hill. These are mainly working-class folk and labourers, including –
Patrick Kerr No36 quay worker
Maria McCann No56 char woman
Michael Long No34 shoemaker
Robert Addison No65 wood carver
John McGuigan No77 weaver
One resident of Lettuce Hill is remembered for a sad event. Richard Turley was born on Water Street in Newry on 8th April 1875 to Felix Turnley and Ann, nee Monaghan. The Turleys emigrated to Liverpool and Richard became a sailor. However, by the turn of the century, Richard was living in Belfast and in 1907 married Eliza Madden in St Mary’s Catholic Church.
Richard and Eliza had two children Ann Elizabeth and Peter, who unfortunately died aged 11 months. It seems that Richard now tried to make a living on land as in 1911 he is listed as a general labourer. Whether this didn’t work out or the sea was ‘in his blood’ we will never know, but on 6th April 1912 Richard signed on as a fireman on the fateful ship, the Titanic. His body was never recovered.
In the early 20th century, Lettuce Hill and the surrounding district was demolished and new streets and houses built. Today, John Street stands where the old Lettuce Hill existed, it seems a shame they could not have kept the original name!
Bluebell Entry and Elbow Lane
The prettily named Bluebell Entry ran from Waring Street [see post Waring Street Belfast – One of Belfast’s Oldest Street with Links to Gulliver’s Travels] to High Street. As Belfast grew up on the banks of the River Farset, which still flows under High Street today, this was the earliest developed area of the town. Adjoining the Entry was the crooked street Elbow Lane. This obviously got its name from the bend in its layout, but how Bluebell Entry got its name is unknown, though it is nice to think that maybe, wild bluebells once bloomed here.
Both streets appear to have been thriving commercial and residential thoroughfares in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Notices in the local newspapers advertise both shops and houses for sale or rent. In 1822 the two streets contained 27 houses, the homes of 69 men and 81 women.
The historian George Benn mentions that at one point the lane was known as Custom House Lane.
“John Tisdall, who appears to have been at this time the chief auctioneer in the town, advertises the sale of houses in Blue Bell Entry, one of our extinct thoroughfares. This lane, otherwise called Custom House Lane, ran from Waring Street to High Street, and was a famous resort in its time”
George Benn, A History of the Town of Belfast, Vol 2 1880
However, by the mid-19th century this area was undergoing massive redevelopment. Both Bluebell Entry and Elbow Lane are last listed in the street directory in 1843. This old area was demolished to make way for the new commercial avenue of Victoria Street [see post Victoria Street Belfast – A History].
“The improvements of the town have removed many of the old thoroughfares, for example – Mary Street, Quay Lane, Store Lane, Weigh-house Lane, Forest Lane, Back Lane, Mitchel’s Entry, and Bluebell Entry, were all swept away by the formation of Victoria Street and Albert Square”
Thomas Milikin, Belfast Fifty Years Ago 1875
Paddy Gaw’s Corner
In the late 18th century, Nos 2-6 Castle Place at the junction with Cornmarket, were known as Paddy Gaw’s Corner. This was the site of the old castle gatehouse destroyed by fire in 1708 [see post The Last Days of Belfast Castle]. Mr Patrick Gaw acquired the lease from Henry Ellis of Prospect, Carrickfergus and established a tobacconist business here.
“All that piece or parcel of ground situate on the south side of Castle Street…containing in width at the front next the said street 47 feet and extending backwards 105 feet…..”
22nd April 1780
The enterprise and its owner appear to have flourished. Gaw was a member of the First Presbyterian Meeting House on Rosemary Street in 1783. He seems to have been a well-known and popular member of the community and it is noted he was often asked to witness legal transactions. However, like most folk his name is long forgotten.
“Patrick Gaw seems to have been a celebrity of his day and apparently a man of considerable means….Patrick Gaw has vanished from his active participation in supplying the sedative of snuff and tobacco, and his shop, once well-known as Paddy Gaw’s Corner, wherein many a legal document was witnessed by its proprietor, has become an unintelligible name by the present generation”
S Shannon Millin, Additional Sidelights On Belfast History, 1938
Subsequently Paddy Gaw’s ‘snuff shop’ was occupied by Messrs. Reiss & Co and then by Leahy, Kelly & Leahy’s tobacco warehouse. This was obviously a very desirable and prestigious location, and, as was usual in Victorian times, the firm advertised its success through its ornate premises.
“Architecturally they must be regarded as one of the sights of Belfast, and in organisation and equipment they are not equalled in any part of the world. The internal arrangements of the establishment have been carried out in all respects upon a palatial scale, and the fittings, decorations, and general appointments of the whole place are of an exceedingly rich, artistic and costly character”
Industries of the North 1888-91
In Conclusion
Belfast has ‘lost’ many of its quirkily named streets, lanes and alleys over the years.
Some of these were obviously named for their occupations – Stonecutter’s Enty, Salt-box Row, Old Rope Walk, Constabulary Lane, Ship Street. Others perhaps, for their residents Riley’s Court, Johnny’s Entry, Moloney’s Court, Gibbs Entry.
Still others are more intriguing Gooseberry Corner, Bird’s Court, Batchelor’s Walk, Improvement Place, Pepper Hill Court.
It is easy to romanticise these forgotten thoroughfares, most were probably demolished for good reason, but it would be nice if some of the old names could be reused!
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