Berlin Street

Area / Postcode: Shankill, BT13
Developer / Applicant: Royal Land Building & Investment Company (Ltd.)

Origins and Naming (1872)

Council minute (31 July 1872): “Resolved that the following names be approved of for 2 streets at Snugville for the Royal Land Building and Investment Company, Berlin Street and Weir Street.”
Context: The early 1870s followed the unification of Germany (1871). Berlin had become synonymous with modern statehood, science and culture. Using the name signalled cosmopolitan ambition rather than political sympathy.
Thematic cluster: Maps from the 1890s show neighbouring streets named Riga and Pernau (Pärnu), pointing to a Baltic/European theme within the Snugville layout, perhaps nodding to Belfast’s trading links with the Baltic.

Wider UK & Global Context

Victorian practice: Across Britain, developers freely used European city names (Paris, Vienna, Copenhagen Streets, etc.) without controversy.
War-time reactions: During both World Wars many places with Germanic names were altered (e.g. Leicester’s Saxe‑Coburg Street → Saxby Street, London’s Berlin Road → Canadian Avenue). Belfast’s 1940 proposal fits this pattern of symbolic “de-Germanising” during conflict.
Post-war: Renaming campaigns waned. Instead, new streets often commemorated Allied victories (e.g. Normandy Drive). Berlin Street’s survival illustrates how temporary patriotic impulses could fade once hostilities ended.

Present Status

Berlin Street remains part of the Shankill streetscape. Its name now serves as a small historical marker of both Belfast’s Victorian outward-looking optimism and the anxieties of the Second World War.

Minute extracts (Town Improvement Committee / Council Minutes)

31st July 1872 – Town Improvement Committee

"Resolved that the following names be approved of for 2 streets at Snugville for the Royal Land Building and Investement Company, Berlin Street and Weir Street" (31st July 1872).

1st November 1879 – Town Improvement Committee

"The minutes of the Town Improvement Committee of 1 November 1879 record an amended plan of four streets off Berlin Street for the Royal Land Building and Investment Company (Limited)."

1st October 1940 – Town Improvement Committee (Alderman Henderson in the chair)

"Adverting to this committee's decision of the 17th Ultimo to rename those streets within the city bearing names of German or Italian origin, the city surveyor reported that the majority of the ratepayers in Berlin Street approved of the proposal to rename that Street. Resolved, that subject to the approval of the Council Berlin Street be renamed Silvio Street of which latter Street is a continuation. Consideration of the question of renaming other streets, having names of German or Italian origin was deferred." (1st October 1940).

15th October 1940 – Council

"Consequent upon the Council at their meeting on the first instant having deleted this committee’s minute of the 17th Ultimo, relative to the renaming of streets having names of German or Italian origin it was resolved that the question of rescinding this committee's minute of first instant relative to the renaming of Berlin Street be noted on the agenda for the next ordinary meeting." (15th October 1940).

Key Sources

- Belfast Corporation, Town Improvement Committee minutes: 31 July 1872; 1 November 1879; 1 & 15 October 1940.

- PRONI Historical Maps (OSNI Third Edition, c.1900–1932) for street layout and neighbouring names.

- Belfast street directories (1870s–1900s).

- Press coverage: Belfast News-Letter, 4 Oct. 1872 (Works Committee report listing new houses on Berlin Street).

- Secondary context: P. Tempan, Patterns in the Street-Names of Belfast; Panikos Panayi, “Germanophobia (Great Britain),” 1914–1918 Online Encyclopedia; assorted local history articles on Silvio Street and wartime renamings.