This short street gives access to Grove Playing Fields on the southern side. There are no longer any properties which have the address and as of October 2024 there is no sign bearing the street-name. Brantwood Street is probably named after John Ruskin’s house, Brantwood, on the shores of Coniston Water in Cumbria. Ruskin (1819-1900) was renowned as a writer and art critic in the Victorian era. As he died on the 20th January 1900 and the street was named less than a month later, it seems likely that this was done in a spirit of commemoration. There was also a Ruskin Street off Springfield Road named around 1900.
Brant is a Scots and Northern English dialect word meaning ‘steep’ which has come into Ulster-Scots, sometimes in the form brunt.
The street shares its name with Brantwood Football Ground (located on the corner of Skegoneill Avenue and Jellicoe Avenue) where Brantwood F.C. plays. The club was founded in 1901.
There was also a house named Brantwood on Fortwilliam Park, recorded in the BPU Directory for 1901, occupied by J. F. Hill, managing director of Messrs. William Ewart & Sons Ltd. As Brantwood Street is recorded before this Belfast house, there is no reason to think that its name is derived from it.
"That on the application of the owners a new street on their property situate off Alexandra Park Avenue be named Brantwood Street." Minutes, Town Improvement Committee, 14th February 1900.