URBAN CULTURE BY FOTONIQUE

One of the finest examples of Regency-style planning in Belfast, in the late 1800s Upper and Lower Crescent were home to Belfast city’s professionals who had moved to the South as town centre premises were being turned into retail outlets. Residents were attracted by the elegant three storey dwellings and close proximity to the bustling Queen’s College, which opened its doors in 1849.

Aside from Robert Corry, who lived in No. 16 Upper Crescent with his family, the Crescent’s most famous resident was Margaret Byers. A pioneer of women’s education, a philanthropist and a suffragist, Margaret founded one of the first purpose-built schools for girls in Ireland in Lower Crescent, now the present day Crescent Arts Theatre. The school became Victoria College and moved to Cranmore Park, where it is still educating students today. Margaret’s son Sir John Byers, his wife Fanny and three children also lived on the Crescent. In fact they lived in what is now the Crescent Townhouse Hotel.

Sir John, a physician of Midwifery and Women’s Diseases at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, lived here with his family for a number of years before the property was converted into a dancing school.

Other notable residents include Samuel De La Cherois who lived in No. 9 Lower Crescent in 1858. It is thought this gentleman was related to the De La Cherois family, landlords of Donaghadee. Tobias Porter, manager at John Alexander’s Flour Mill, William Pedlow, District Inspector of National Schools for Belfast South, John Coates, Secretary of the County Antrim Grand Jury and Rev William Patterson, Professor of Mathematics at the Queen’s College.