Belfast, High Street 1897

Photo ref: 40175

More about this scene

This was the first street in the town to be built, but it had long lost its residents when this view was taken. It was now a shopping street, with the buildings of fairly recent date providing commercial office accomodation on the upper floors. The shops were for the better-off, as the lady in her trap and the man-servant holding the horse show. The establishments were mostly family-owned, with the proprietors living among their customers in the new outer suburbs. The three delivery vans outside Forster Greens shows the service to be had; this was only one of their two premises in town. In the High Street there were as many as 15 shops selling clothing and footwear. However, the very success of it all was inviting change: only five doors beyond Forster Green was a shop owned by Thomas Lipton. A Glasgow man born of Clonnes parents, Lipton's object was to sell large quantities of tea at a low price throughout the British Isles. Already a multi-millionaire, he enjoyed membership of the Bangor Yachting Club. Within a year he was to be knighted by Queen Victoria. The forest of poles above No 16 marks the telephone exchange staffed by operators waiting for incoming calls before pushing the plug to make the connection. It also tells of the ongoing battle between the private National Telephone Company and authority, both Parliament and local. The Post Office already owned the telegraph system, and wanted its hands on the telephones. Parliament had given powers to the Company to lay wires under the streets, but local authorities, including London, refused to have their streets dug up. (Number 16 is still there.)