This street name comes from the name of the family home of the publishers/printers Marcus Ward and Company, Bankmore House. The business premises was called The Bankmore Royal Ulster Works. The Directory of Belfast and Province of Ulster (1865-1866) contains a reference to Bankmore House (Off Dublin Road) and this inscription: “Convent of Mercy, Mrs Morrin, superioress). Sources of information: BPUD and Paul Tempan.
"Bankmore Street named from Bankmore House, which stood at the rear of Marcus Ward's Royal Ulster Works, now the Linen Warehouse of John S. Brown & Sons, Dublin Road. It was formerly known as "the Basin Loney" from a small circular reservoir in connection with the water supply service situated near the site of the present Ormeau Avenue Baths. The culverted (1881-82) Blackstaff River runs under the adjacent Ormeau Avenue, so it was a happy thought to name the new Street Bankmore (great bank) Street". “Ballymacarrett once inspired a poet” by John J Marshall in Belfast Telegraph - Tuesday 31 December 1940.