"Resolved. That on the application of the owners, the new street situate off the north side of Tate’s Avenue, parallel with the Great Northern Railway, from Tate’s Avenue to Ulsterville Avenue, be named Fane Street". (3rd August 1915).
Earliest newspaper mention: Northern Whig, 9 March 1916 — allotment gardens were established at Fane Street during the First World War.
First street directory entry: 1918 — described as “from Tate’s Avenue to Dunluce Avenue.”
The street was laid out and named between 1907 and 1916, most likely in the mid-1910s.
The precise origin of the name is not formally recorded, but it may reflect the influence of the Fane family, Earls of Westmorland, who were prominent in Irish administration:
John Fane, 10th Earl of Westmorland (1759–1841)
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1789–1794), the King’s representative at Dublin Castle.
Already commemorated elsewhere in Ireland, for example in Dublin’s Westmoreland Street.
General Sir Henry Fane (1778–1840)
A cousin of the Westmorland branch.
Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in Ireland (1829–1835), a senior post in Dublin during the campaign for Catholic emancipation.
While direct evidence linking the Lisburn Road street to these figures has not been found, the choice would fit with a common south Belfast pattern of the early 20th century, where developers often drew on aristocratic or commemorative names (for example Windsor, Marlborough, Eglantine).
1916 — the street was established enough to host wartime allotment gardens, showing its integration into civic life.
1932 — Fane Street Primary School opened, giving the street an enduring institutional presence.