Samuel Street
Location
A short street in the historic Smithfield/Millfield district of Belfast city centre, running between Winetavern Street and Millfield. Nineteenth-century directories describe it as extending between these two streets, with a small court (Samuel Street Court) opening off it.
Name and early references
Samuel Street is securely attested by the mid-1810s.
The earliest firm documentary reference occurs in the Belfast News-Letter of 6 December 1814, where “Samuel-street” is mentioned in the context of an official inspection of weights and measures. This indicates that the street was already laid out and recognised by that date.
The street is clearly shown and labelled as Samuel Street on the 1815 plan of the town of Belfast, drawn from an actual survey by P. Mason and engraved for Smith’s Belfast Almanack. This provides cartographic confirmation of the street’s existence and name by that year.
By 1819, Samuel Street appears in Bradshaw’s General and Commercial Directory, where occupied properties are listed, confirming that the street was established and inhabited by the late 1810s. It continues to appear consistently in later nineteenth-century Belfast street directories and on Ordnance Survey mapping.
Origins and meaning of the name
The origin of the name Samuel Street has not been definitively established. No surviving contemporary source identifies the individual or reference commemorated by the name.
Given the street’s early date and its location within a dense inner-city development area, the name may derive from a local landowner, occupier, builder, or trader associated with the Smithfield/Millfield district at the time of development, or from the use of a personal or biblical forename. The use of such forenames was common in early nineteenth-century Belfast street naming, particularly for short streets and rows in working-class areas.
Although the forename Samuel appears among contemporary Belfast residents, no direct documentary link has yet been established between any specific individual and the naming of the street.
Character and later history
Directory evidence indicates that Samuel Street was a modest working-class street, containing a limited number of houses and a small court. During the nineteenth century it formed part of the densely built inner-city neighbourhood serving the Smithfield and Millfield area, closely connected with markets, small industries, and associated trades.
Sources
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Belfast News-Letter, 6 December 1814
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P. Mason, Plan of the Town of Belfast, engraved for Smith’s Belfast Almanack, 1815
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Bradshaw’s General and Commercial Directory, 1819
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Belfast Street Directory, 1843
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Belfast Street Directory, 1852
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Belfast Street Directory, 1861
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Belfast Street Directory, 1880
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Ordnance Survey mapping of Belfast, c. 1830
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Historic mapping and directory material relating to the Smithfield/Millfield district