Shore Road, Belfast
The Shore Road is a major arterial route and area of housing and commerce that runs through north Belfast and Newtownabbey in Northern Ireland. It forms part of the A2 road, a traffic route which links Belfast to the County Antrim coast.
File:The Shore Road, Whiteabbey - geograph.org.uk - 387963.jpg|thumb|right|The Shore Road passing through the County Antrim townland of Whiteabbey
History
The Shore Road is one of Belfast's oldest roads and is mentioned in the first census of the city – taken in 1757 – as being home to a colony of "Papists". At the time the Shore Road name was applied to a larger area, including what is today known as York Street. The York Street-York Road and lower Shore Road experienced growth during the Industrial Revolution as a number of factories were located in the area.One of the main factories on York Street was Gallaher's Tobacco factory. It is no longer in operation and the building has been demolished.
One of these few industrial buildings still standing is the Jennymount Mill, off the York Road. The building, renamed the Lanyon Building after its architect Charles Lanyon, was reopened as an Office block in 2002. According to Irish journalist Susan McKay, the area was the scene of fierce sectarian rioting throughout the nineteenth century until it was eventually established as a bulwark of working-class Protestantism.
The areas further up the Shore Road towards Newtownabbey are for the most part more recent than these areas, with some housing developments such as Shore Crescent and the Rathcoole estate dating to the 1960s and later. Many residents of the overcrowded area at the bottom of the road were moved up to these new estates. Much of the housing throughout the length of the road has been redeveloped.
Areas of the Shore Road
York Street
York Street is a road that links Belfast City Centre with the Shore Road. Royal Avenue, one of the main streets in the city centre, ends when it crosses Donegall Street and this marks the start of York Street. Traditionally the street marked the boundary of the dockside Sailortown area. York Street used to be a densely populated residential area, but most of it was demolished to make way for the M2 and the subsequent Westlink. The New Lodge and Tiger's Bay areas are to the north of York Street.York Street is the home of the University of Ulster's Belfast campus, the home the university's art and design school and a part of the city's Cathedral Quarter, which takes its name from nearby St Anne's Cathedral. Beside the university is Cathedral Eye Clinic, a leading centre for ophthalmology.
Other current features of York Street include the Cityside Shopping Centre, which has branches of Tesco, Asda and other large chain stores, St Paul's Church of Ireland and Yorkgate railway station. Previously the street had been dominated by the Co-operative buildings, built between 1911 and 1932, and housing a variety of shops, the Co-operative's regional headquarters and their restaurant and ballroom, the Orpheus. It also housed the now demolished Gallaher's tobacco factory which, when opened in 1896, was the largest cigarette factory in the world.
York Road
York Street continues to Limestone Road, where it becomes the York Road. This area is home to a police station, one of the two covering the North Belfast policing district. York Road also includes a number of places of worship both on the road and off the side streets. These include a The Salvation Army mission, the Alexandra Presbyterian Church, Jennymount Methodist Church and the York Road Baptist Community.Alexandra Park is a public park located in the area around the York Road. Whilst this area is mainly loyalist in composition it is adjacent to the republican Newington area. As a result, Alexandra Park has, uniquely for a public park, a peace line running through it, effectively separating the use of the park for each community. In late 2011 a gate was added to this fence making access possible for a limited time.
Tiger's Bay
Tiger's Bay is the name given to a unionist enclave centred on upper North Queen Street. Although it is not on the Shore Road, the two areas run parallel and are linked by a number of smaller streets. Its origins go back to the nineteenth century when it was constructed with very basic housing intended for the unskilled labourers who made up the bulk of the workforce at Harland & Wolff shipyard. Like York Street and York Road, Tiger's Bay suffered extensive damage during the Belfast Blitz.Tiger's Bay is notorious both for the strength of the UDA in the area and for historic tensions between residents and those of the adjoining nationalist New Lodge and Newington districts. Attempts to normalise relations between the communities have been made, although moves to take down peace lines in the area have been resisted by local residents, who argue that they are a necessary safety precaution due to potential violence returning to the area. Nonetheless, projects have been undertaken in Tiger's Bay to replace paramilitary murals and sectarian graffiti with more community-based projects.
Grove and Fortwilliam
The Shore Road proper begins just after the junction with Skegoneill Avenue. The end of the York Road and the area at the base of the Shore Road is often known as Grove, due to the names of some local streets. The Grove title is reflected a number of local amenities such as the now derelict Grove Leisure Centre, Grove Housing Association, the Grove Tavern etc. As has long been the case, the Grove area remains a largely industrial area, mainly now focusing on animal feed industries. The area, parts of which have been significantly redeveloped in recent years, is home to the Grove Wellbeing Centre, a building that combines health services, a leisure centre and a library under one building. Like much of the Shore Road, the Grove area is mainly inhabited by working class Protestants.As the Shore Road progresses the Fortwilliam area begins, taking its name from a number of local streets. The Fortwilliam area includes a large branch of Asda and a smaller branch of Lidl. Churches in the area include Seaview Presbyterian Church and Fortwilliam Gospel Hall. Near the edge of Fortwilliam is Mount Vernon estate, a large area of loyalist-dominated social housing. Belfast Corporation began building the estate in 1949, but it is dominated by two large tenement blocks, Ross House and Mount Vernon House, both of which were erected in 1966. The estate took its name from the original Mount Vernon House, a stately home, long since demolished, built for the Belfast merchant Hill Hamilton and named for George Washington's Mount Vernon plantation. The area has long been notorious for its powerful UVF unit.
Lowwood to Greencastle
The areas that follow Fortwilliam, known variously as Lowwood and Donegall Park Avenue, are almost entirely residential, although the area also contains Loughside Park, a public parkland and sports facility maintained by Belfast City Council.Shore Crescent is a loyalist housing estate located east of the Mount Vernon and Lowwood areas. It was one of a number of areas built in the late 1960s to rehouse the residents of the inner city Sailortown area which was being demolished at the time. The Greencastle suburb which follows it is largely a mixed Catholic and Protestant area and includes St Mary's Catholic Church as well as the Whitewell Metropolitan Tabernacle, which is affiliated with the Elim Pentecostal Church. Greencastle previously had a PSNI station although, despite objections being raised by local MP Nigel Dodds, this has since been closed and the building demolished.
The Whitewell Road links the Shore Road to the Antrim Road. This area is also mixed in terms of demographics, although the two communities are largely separated and since the mid-1990s, there has been a history of sectarian clashes in the area. The Whitewell is followed by Bawnmore, an almost entirely nationalist/republican enclave and an area noted for PIRA activity during the Troubles. During the conflict Bawnmore was regularly targeted by loyalist paramilitaries and as such it was heavily fortified and cut off from the rest of the road. This has lessened since the onset of the Northern Ireland peace process, albeit with some tension remaining.
Newtownabbey
Belfast ends and Newtownabbey begins on the Shore Road an area which used to be the village of Whitehouse. Rathcoole, a large loyalist estate, is located in this area as is the smaller Merville Garden Village. This area includes the Abbey Centre and a number of other adjacent retails parks, making it the main shopping area of Newtownabbey. Places of worship in the area include Whitehouse Presbyterian Church and St. John's Church of Ireland, whilst Glas-na-Bradan Glen, a riparian woodland area close to Rathcoole, is adjacent to the Shore Road.The Shore Road passes through Whiteabbey, another of the historic villages that forms part of Newtownabbey. The Whiteabbey section of the road largely contains private housing. The road then passes through Jordanstown with the University of Ulster campus close by. Around this area one side of the road is bordered by the sea. This is not the case in Belfast and lower Newtownabbey where the M2 and the Belfast–Larne railway line separate the Shore Road from Belfast Lough. A number of parks and green spaces are maintained along these areas of the Shore Road, notably Hazelbank Park, Rushpark, Glen Park and Jordanstown Loughshore Park, the latter of which also contains a caravan park. Following Greenisland the road changes its name to the Belfast Road as it reaches Carrickfergus. The A2 continues as far as Limavady under a number of names.
Politics
The Shore Road is divided between the two North Belfast and the two East Antrim constituencies both for Westminster and the Northern Ireland Assembly. North Belfast is now held by Sinn Féin MP John Finucane since the general election of December 2019 and Sammy Wilson the member for East Antrim. In the Assembly North Belfast is represented by Paula Bradley, William Humphrey and Nelson McCausland of the DUP, Carál Ní Chuilín and Gerry Kelly of Sinn Féin and Nichola Mallon of the Social Democratic and Labour Party. East Antrim's MLAs are David Hilditch, Alastair Ross and Gordon Lyons of the DUP, Roy Beggs Jr of the Ulster Unionist Party, Stewart Dickson of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland and Oliver McMullan of Sinn Féin. Nigel Dodds maintains a constituency advice centre in the Grove area of the Shore Road.For local government purposes, the Shore Road is divided between Belfast City Council and Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council. The lower parts of the Shore Road are part of the Castle District Electoral Area of Belfast City Council, whilst the rest of the road is covered by several areas of Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council.