Rydalmere Street
First recorded: 1907 Belfast Street Directory
Location: Off Donegall Road, South Belfast (BT12)
Rydalmere Street was laid out by 1901 and officially named by 1907. It is part of a residential grid off the Donegall Road, developed during a period of rapid urban expansion in late 19th- and early 20th-century Belfast.
The exact reason for the street’s naming remains unclear.
The origin of the name Rydalmere has not yet been traced through Belfast Corporation minutes or naming announcements from the period. As such records have not yet been researched for this timeframe, the reason for the name remains uncertain. However, several possible influences exist:
A house called “Rydalmere” is listed on Ravenhill Road in Belfast directories from 1899–1901. For example:
J.C. O’Callaghan, "Rydalmere, Ravenhill Road" (Ulster Journal of Archaeology, 1899)
Wm. Emerson, "1 Rydalmere" (Belfast Street Directory, 1901)
Although located about a mile from Rydalmere Street, it was common practice in Belfast at the time to name new streets after nearby houses or estates. This link is plausible but cannot yet be confirmed.
In early 1895, a British barque named Rydalmere (1,246 tons) was severely damaged in a hurricane while en route from Demerara to New York. She had sailed from Calcutta under Captain Bunnard, and her crew was rescued by the steamship Lord Charlemont.
The Lord Charlemont was owned by Thomas Dixon & Sons, a prominent shipping firm based on Corporation Street, Belfast. While no direct connection to the street naming has been established, the shipwreck and rescue were well reported at the time and may have inspired the use of the name in a city with strong maritime ties.
The name Rydalmere is a hybrid of Rydal (a village in the English Lake District) and mere (an old English word for "lake"). This construction was popular in the Victorian era. A suburb called Rydalmere was also established in Sydney, Australia, in 1866, though no direct link to Belfast has been found. The name may simply have been chosen for its aesthetic and genteel associations.
The name Rydalmere Street may reflect one or more of the above influences — a local house name, a maritime rescue involving a Belfast-owned ship, or a broader trend of English-style place-naming. Without firm documentary evidence, its precise origin remains open to interpretation.
Further research in Corporation records from the early 1900s may clarify the matter.