Beech Heights
Off Annadale Embankment, BT7.
Beech Heights forms part of the internal street network of the Wellington Square development on the east bank of the River Lagan. The name was formally approved by Belfast City Council’s Health and Environmental Services Committee on 14 April 2003, alongside Riverside View, College Drive, College Heights, Lower Courtyard, Upper Courtyard, Lagan Way, and The Boulevard. All were submitted by Northwin Developments for a new residential scheme on the former site of Annadale Grammar School and Wellington College.
Unlike College Drive and College Heights, which directly commemorate the long educational use of the site, Beech Heights belongs to a more evocative strand in the naming scheme. “Beech” suggests trees and greenery, while “Heights” implies both elevation above the Lagan floodplain and the presence of apartment buildings within this part of the development. In practice, Beech Heights includes a terrace and multi-storey residential blocks, some of which carry further nature-themed names such as Forest House, Bridge House, and Meadow House.
The choice reflects the developers’ intention to present Wellington Square as a settled, landscaped neighbourhood rather than a purely functional housing estate. Set beside the leafy Annadale Embankment, with Belvoir Park and the wooded Lagan corridor close by, Beech Heights embeds a sense of natural amenity into a site that had previously been occupied by school buildings and, earlier still, by industrial brickworks.