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
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Welfare
Poverty and public health in Belfast, 1888-1914
Destitution was a harsh reality for many of Belfast’s inhabitants and, for those who could no longer support themselves, Belfast Union workhouse on the Lisburn Road was often the last resort. Workhouses had been introduced in Ireland under the Irish Poor Law Act of 1838 as the first form of statutory welfare and conditions were deliberately harsh in order to deter people from seeking poor relief. Paupers were expected to work for long hours each day and were given the bare minimum to eat.
Belfast’s rapid growth put the workhouse under tremendous strain. In 1870 just under 15,000 people were admitted to the workhouse. By 1888 this had risen to 18,995 and in 1913 over 29,000 people were admitted. Workhouse registers and census returns for 1901 and 1911 provide details of those who were in the workhouse, including children, the elderly, the sick and others in need of relief.
By the early twentieth century the Poor Law had developed into a sophisticated local government system operating the workhouse and providing hospital care and various public health initiatives such as vaccination schemes, local burial boards, and local dispensaries, as well as a ‘Union School’ for the children of paupers.
Photograph of Abbey Street, Belfast, 1912, by Alexander Hogg. [PRONI LA/7/8/HF/3]
Extract from the Indoor Relief register for Belfast Workhouse, 1914. [PRONI BG/7/G/107]
Photograph of buildings at the Belfast Union Workhouse, 1898. [PRONI D2194/23/3]
1898-01-01
1914-01-01
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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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
Public Health
Poverty and public health in Belfast, 1888-1914
Diseases such as cholera, typhus, measles, whooping cough and tuberculosis were exacerbated by the environmental problems of the industrial city, and were a constant threat to the city’s inhabitants. Infants were particularly vulnerable and infant mortality rates were high.
Local authorities including Belfast Corporation were tasked with public health reform. In the early twentieth century, public health began to focus on education and personal hygiene. Public health and sanitary officials and voluntary groups such as the Women’s National Health Association undertook health campaigns and visited the homes for the working classes.
While public health provision in the nineteenth and early twentieth century is credited with reducing mortality rates, it is also criticised for failing to address social and economic inequalities which caused much ill health, placing too much responsibility on personal prevention and sanitary issues such as sewage.
The workhouse hospital, now Belfast City Hospital, was an important source of medical welfare for the city’s poor and struggled to cope with the large numbers admitted. On one day in May 1898 there were 1,882 patients in the infirmary which was described as ‘dangerously overcrowded’. It was becoming increasingly professionalised, however, treating an increasing range of conditions, training nurses and providing training for medical students from Queen’s University Belfast. Poor law officials even took people who had been bitten by dogs to the Pasteur Institute in Paris to be treated for rabies.
Photograph of Hemsworth Street, Belfast, 1912 by Alexander Hogg. [PRONI LA/7/8/HF/3]
Extract from the Report of the Health of Belfast, 1914. [PRONI LA/7/9/DA/22]
Title page of the Belfast Health Journal, 1905. [PRONI D2682/2/19]
PRONI Extract from the Report on the Health of Belfast, 1909. [PRONI D2682/2/19]
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1912-01-01
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Hemsworth Street, Belfast, 1912 by Alexander Hogg
Surviving the city
Poverty and public health in Belfast, 1888-1914
PRONI LA/7/8/HF/3
1912-01-01
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Photograph of workers in James Ireland & Co factory, May Street, Belfast, 1917
Surviving the city
Poverty and public health in Belfast, 1888-1914
PRONI D2352/1
1917-01-01
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Entry from a Workmen’s Compensation Act register, 1910
Surviving the city
PRONI BELF/6/2/1/10
1910-01-01
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Extract from the Belfast Health Journal, 1909
Surviving the city
PRONI D3330/B/2/1/6
1909-01-01
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Johnstone’s Court, Belfast, 1912 by Alexander Hogg
Surviving the city
Poverty and public health in Belfast, 1888-1914
LA/7/8/HF/3
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
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.
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