Situated off Spamount Street in the New Lodge area. Named from Fortfield, a mansion. Sir William Gilliland Johnson, Mayor of Belfast in 1849, was born at Fortfield in 1808.
This property was not considered of sufficient consequence to appear on late- 18th century maps, but by 1817 Atkinson found: "This neat villa ... on the northern shore ... the seat of William Johnson Esq. comprehends an ornamentally-planted lawn, and a neat lodge, standing like a snow-drop, on a pleasing elevation above the water …. From the taste and judgement displayed in the arrangement of this little seat, the spectator would suppose the demesne to be much more extensive than it is". However, by 1846 it and its 16 Irish acres had been acquired by attorney Adam John Macrory (1800-1881) who, judging by its high valuation in 1860, developed it into a property of some significance, changing its name to Duncairn in the process. Despite this, soon after his death, it quickly succumbed to the demands of the spread of the town and, with no image of it having been found in either of its manifestations, it is remembered solely through modern street names. Atkinson (1823); genealogy.com; Valuation Books. Plight of the Big House. According to Dean in his book on gate lodges in Ulster, Fortfield Lodge was a “lodge to the house renamed Duncairn before 1857, built for W Johnson”. Ordnance Survey (1832-1846).
"The Committee approved the undernoted applications for the naming of streets in the City, which did not conflict with existing approved street naming and to which the Royal Mail had no objections: Fortfield Place off Spamount Street and Lepper Street Northern Ireland Housing Executive". Street Naming Health and Environmental Services Committee, Monday, 7th February, 2005.