Dunmore Walk — street off Alexandra Park Avenue, BT15, Skegoneill, North Belfast.
Approved by Belfast City Council on 4 June 2014, following an application by Apex Housing Association. In the committee schedule the entry appears as:
“Dunmore Walk — Off Alexandra Park Avenue, BT15 — Applicant: Apex Housing Association.”
The name continues the established Dunmore sequence in this district. Dunmore derives from Dunmore House, built about 1850 by John Preston (1817–1890), a wealthy linen merchant and later Mayor of Belfast (1877–78). Dunmore House is shown on the Ordnance Survey (Second Edition); Preston died there, and the house was demolished in 1950, part of what has been described as the “plight of the big houses”.
The name is also associated with Dunmore Stadium, a greyhound racing track which opened in 1928 and held races until 1997, finally closing in 2000. The stadium lay east of Dunmore House, in the area now occupied by Dunmore Park and Dunmore Court. Earlier names in the same sequence—Dunmore Place, Dunmore Mews, Dunmore Avenue, Dunmore Park and Dunmore Court (all off Alexandra Park Avenue)—were approved by the Health and Environmental Services Committee on 11 August 2003, embedding the historic name Dunmore into the modern street-plan of the area.
Sources:
Belfast City Council, Health and Environmental Services Committee, “Naming of Streets”, 4 June 2014 (schedule entry for Dunmore Walk).
Ordnance Survey (Second Edition) mapping showing Dunmore (house).
Belfast City Council, Health and Environmental Services Committee, approvals of Dunmore Place, Dunmore Mews, Dunmore Avenue, Dunmore Park and Dunmore Court, 11 August 2003.
Contemporary local histories and press accounts relating to Dunmore House (built c.1850 by John Preston; demolished 1950) and Dunmore Stadium (opened 1928; racing until 1997; closed 2000).
Photograph of Dunmore in 1928 (Alexander Hogg, NMNI collection)