The Emerging City
Surviving the city
Belfast experienced phenomenal growth during the nineteenth century, increasing from a town of 30,000 inhabitants to become a city of 350,000.
Much of this growth came about as a result of people migrating into Belfast in search of employment in its rapidly-expanding industries. By the beginning of the twentieth century, over 100,000 people were employed in manufacturing in Belfast. Unusually, over 40% of these were women who found work in the huge linen mills that had sprung up in the north and west of the city.
The face of Belfast changed dramatically, with improvements to the major streets, the building of fine warehouses and department stores and the opening of parks and public baths. In 1888 Belfast was granted city status in and in 1906 the growing civic pride was expressed in the building of a new City Hall in Donegall Square.
Despite this industrial and urban growth, the country was never far away. The 1901 census showed that most of Belfast’s adult population had been born in rural Ulster, and contemporary photos show that rural ways were still very much in evidence.
Photograph of Christian Place, Belfast, 1912 by Alexander Hogg. [PRONI LA/7/8/HF/3]
Household Return for the McPhillips family of Christian Place, Belfast from the 1911 Census of Ireland. [www.cenus.nationalarchives.ie]
Photograph of High Street, Belfast, by Robert Welch, c1910. [PRONI T1898/7]
1910-01-01
1912-01-01
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Charity
Surviving the city
Alongside state-sponsored relief, the poor of Belfast also turned to multiple charitable and voluntary organisations for support. Street directories for nineteenth-century Belfast list the multiple charitable and voluntary organisations that existed for the care of the poor.
Charitable works and activities were often undertaken in the context of the Christian belief, and for the various churches that operated in Belfast in the 19th and 20th centuries, charity was a means by which they could reach out to the poorest of their congregation, helping them deal with poverty in a practical way, while also practicing the charitable virtues preached about on Sundays.
Unlike the poor law system, voluntary organisations tended to focus their attention on particular sections of the poor, for example, children, unmarried women, the bling, or the elderly. Different religious denominations tended to have charities for the support of their own members, as did organisations such as the Freemasons.
Often charities had expectations of the poor, attempting to provide ‘moral regulation’ and ‘instruction’ to a group often regarded as sinful, lazy and dissolute. The records of the Belfast Voluntary Welfare Society reveal that those with ‘unsatisfactory character’ were refused assistance in times of need.
Photograph of Cowan’s Court, Belfast, 1912 by Alexander Hogg. [PRONI LA/7/8/HF/3].
Extract from the Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory, 1902. [PRONI]
Photograph of children under the care of the Ulster Children’s Society, c 1910. [D1257/1]
1902-01-01
1912-01-01
Reproduction of these materials in any format for any purpose other than personal research and study may constitute a violation of CDPA 1988 and infringement of rights associated with the materials. Queen’s University Belfast does not own copyright in this material. Please contact us for permissions information at specialcollections@qub.ac.uk
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Work
Poverty and public health in Belfast, 1888-1914
Occupation and ill health were closely connected in industrial cities such as Belfast. By 1910 there were 75,000 linen operatives in Belfast of which five sixths were women. The dusty, hot, cramped and damp conditions in many mills were conducive to high incidences of disease, especially tuberculosis, amongst linen workers.
By the late 1880s Belfast has emerged as a successful latecomer in the technologically sophisticated shipbuilding and engineering industries. Much of this predominantly male workforce was skilled, relatively well paid, and unionised; however, industrial labour could carry serious risks and occupational accidents were common.
Attempts at the improvement of workforce conditions were made with a series of Factory Acts which raised the working age of children to twelve, reduced the working week to 55 ½ hours and regulated the general sanitary conditions of workplaces. This legislation’s impact was often limited however- attempts to tackle tuberculosis, for example, often focused on issues such as the avoidance of spitting on the factory floor, and failed to tackle the fundamental problems of heat, dust, and damp.
1888-01-01
1912-01-01
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Growing Pains
Surviving the city
Belfast’s economic success and growth was not without its price. The city experienced increased problems of overcrowding, housing, sanitation and public health. While the existing housing stock was of good quality, it was seriously inadequate for the growing population.
Many families crammed into small houses in narrow and unsanitary courts and alleys around the old part of the town. As the century progressed, unregulated areas of poor housing sprang up to the north and west of the town and east of the river in Ballymacarrett. Many of these areas lacked running water or sewerage, the uncovered River Blackstaff which flowed through the town centre into Belfast Lough serving as the only substitute.
It was also a very young city, with large numbers of young single and married people moving into it and birth rates remaining very high. The care and control of the thousands of children who moved between work and school, or who remained unattended while both parents worked long hours, presented a major problem for the city’s welfare and municipal authorities.
These challenges raised the questions of who would pay for civic improvements and for the upkeep of the poor. Improvements in the infrastructure could only come through an increase in rates- and nobody wanted that!
Photograph of Crozier’s Row, Belfast, 1911 by Alexander Hogg. [PRONI LA/7/8/HF/3]
Cartoon attacking the City of Belfast Christian Civic Union, 1906, [PRONI D2086/AA/1]
Photograph of flooding at Donegall Place, Belfast, 1902. [PRONI D3670/C/1]
1902-01-01
1911-01-01
Reproduction of these materials in any format for any purpose other than personal research and study may constitute a violation of CDPA 1988 and infringement of rights associated with the materials. Queen’s University Belfast does not own copyright in this material. Please contact us for permissions information at specialcollections@qub.ac.uk
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High Street, Belfast, by Robert Welch, c. 1910
PRONI T1898/7
c. 1910
Reproduction of these materials in any format for any purpose other than personal research and study may constitute a violation of CDPA 1988 and infringement of rights associated with the materials. Queen’s University Belfast does not own copyright in this material. Please contact us for permissions information at specialcollections@qub.ac.uk
Household Return for the McPhillips family of Christian Place, Belfast from the 1911 Census of Ireland.
Surviving the city
Poverty and public health in Belfast, 1888-1914
1911-01-01
Reproduction of these materials in any format for any purpose other than personal research and study may constitute a violation of CDPA 1988 and infringement of rights associated with the materials. Queen’s University Belfast does not own copyright in this material. Please contact us for permissions information at specialcollections@qub.ac.uk
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www.cenus.nationalarchives.ie
1911