The growth of industrial Belfast

Today Belfast is a modern vibrant city. It is known for its welcoming atmosphere and people are employed in the modern jobs provided by technology, finance and the creative industries.

It is a lot different to the Belfast of the 1970s and 1980s - which was scarred by the violent period called the Troubles.

However if we go further back, to the 19th Century, Belfast was the beating heart of industrial Ireland and was at the forefront of the technology that existed at the time.

At one stage Belfast provided the single biggest shipyard, ropemakers, dry dock and linen factory not just in Ireland or Britain but the entire world.

At the beginning of the 19th Century, Belfast had fewer than 20,000 people living in it. It was a port with small wooden docks where High Street met the river Lagan.

The living areas close to the docks were not streets as we would know them but small lanes and entries.

These were slum areas, overcrowded and housing the poor. Though the dwellings are long gone the original lanes and entries between High St, Ann St and Waring St are still visible today.

The City Centre also had a second river, the Farset, from which Belfast gets its name.

Some of the streets bore the names of the products produced there. Mustard was produced in Mustard St, sugar was refined in Sugar House Entry, ships' captains (skippers) stayed in Skipper St and cattle were driven to the docks through Cow Lane, now Victoria St.

The manufacture of linen was vital to the growth of Belfast.

The fabric had been produced for many years in the Lagan Valley area and was an important product but it was the move to industrial techniques that led to the complete transformation of the city.

After industrialisation, one person operating a number of spindles could produce 300 times the amount that a single individual could.

Mills filled with these new machines sprung up all over Belfast.

By 1861 there were 32 mills in the city. York Street Mill, with its 1000 power looms was the largest in the world and by the beginning of the 20th century Belfast mills would have more power looms than the entire continent of Europe.

Little wonder it gained the nickname Linenopolis.

Much of the industry that originally made Belfast grow may be long gone, along with the noise, sights and smells of the bustling Victorian city.

However, the history of the people and communities that had made the city thrive is still very much alive.

The modern, vibrant Belfast of today owes much to its inhabitants from over one hundred years ago