Albion Place, Belfast

Albion Place ca 1900 (Image: A R Hogg/NMNI)

Numbers 16-42 Bradbury Place, Belfast, formerly Albion Place, a terrace of three-storey, early Victorian houses, was built between 1832-48.

The first houses to be constructed had triangular pediments above the first-floor windows; with moulded surrounds at second-floor level.

One of which boasted a balustraded parapet and fluted urns.

The front gardens were all built over with single-storey shops about 1900.

The balustraded building to the left has been absorbed into Lavery's bar.

A section of the terrace was demolished in 1866 to make way for the railway line, leaving the site vacant. 

The original developer of the site, Martin Wallace, was living in Albion Place in 1880.

Marcus Patton, OBE, in his Central Belfast: A Historical Gazetteer, remarks that

"the southern end and the mid-terrace house at nos. 24-26 were demolished in 1990, which has effectively terminated the life of the terrace as a whole." 

"It is a great shame that the terrace was not developed from the rear, as separate access existed to the two-storey mews houses behind from Albion Lane."

30-44 Bradbury Place, 2022 (Timothy Ferres)

Incidentally, I visited Albion Lane in June, 2022, and it was in a deplorable state, with large council wheeled bins proliferating along the alley, and various obstructions along the entire length of the Lane.

Numbers 30-44 in the terrace were all demolished in 2021, in preparation for another block of student accommodation.