Melrose is a picturesque and historic town beside the River Tweed in the Scottish Borders. Historically it was in the county of Roxburghshire. John J. Marshall quotes Scott's narrative poem "The Lay of the Last Minstrel" (1805) in relation to Melrose Street (Marshall, Belfast Telegraph, 26/02/1941). However, this street was named at the same time as the nearby Lorne Street and Edinburgh Street, so it may simply be part of a Scottish place-name theme, and without any contemporary documentation that clarifies the matter, it is impossible to be absoluely sure of the motivation behind the name..
The minutes of the Town Improvement Committee of Belfast Corporation on 24 December 1895 indicate the naming of six new streets off the Lisburn Road: Sandringham Street, Lorne Street, Northbrook Street, Edinburgh Street, Melrose Street and Donnybrook Street.
If thou wouldst view fair Melrose aright, Go visit it by the pale moonlight; For the gay beams of lightsome day Gild, but to flout, the ruins grey. When broken arches are black in night, And each shafted oriel glimmers white; When the cold light's uncertain shower Streams on the ruin'd central tower; When buttress and buttress, alternately, Seem framed of ebon and ivory; When silvers edges the imagery, And the scrolls that teach thee to live and die; When distant Tweed is heard to rave, And the owlet to hoot o'er the dead man's grave, Then go --- but go alone the while --- Then view St. David's ruin'd pile; And, home returning soothly swear, Was never scene so sad and fair.
Part of this verse from The Lay Of The Last Minstrel (Canto Second) by Walter Scott is quoted by John J. Marshall under the entry for Melrose Street.