Stanhope Street is a short residential street in North Belfast, now functioning as a cul-de-sac accessed from Clifton Street.
Historic mapping shows that when first laid out in the later 1830s, Stanhope Street formed a through north–south street connecting Old Lodge Road with Clifton Street. It appears on the Ordnance Survey Second Edition (1838–1862), where it forms part of a planned grid of streets laid out in the Lodge Road area during a period of rapid urban expansion.
The street does not appear on the Ordnance Survey First Edition (1829–1835), indicating that it was created after the initial survey and belongs to a later phase of nineteenth-century development. Its first recorded appearance in a street directory is in Matier’s Belfast Directory of 1835–1836, which accords closely with the cartographic evidence.
By the mid nineteenth century, directories such as Martin’s Belfast Directory (1842–43) list the street as “Stanhope Street, Lodge Road”. This reflects its original connection to the road then commonly referred to in sources as Lodge Road or Old Lodge Road.
In the later twentieth century, changes to the surrounding road layout resulted in the loss of Stanhope Street’s historic connection to Old Lodge Road. As a result, the street was truncated and survives today only as a short cul-de-sac off Clifton Street.
The origin of the street name is not recorded in surviving municipal or improvement committee minutes. It is generally understood to be a commemorative name, most likely referring to Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, who served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the mid eighteenth century. The use of aristocratic and political surnames for newly laid streets was common in early nineteenth-century Belfast, particularly in planned residential developments. In the absence of direct documentary confirmation, this attribution remains a well-supported surmise rather than a proven dedication.
Ordnance Survey of Ireland, First Edition, Belfast Sheet (1829–1835)
Ordnance Survey of Ireland, Second Edition, Belfast Sheet (1838–1862)
Matier’s Belfast Directory, 1835–1836
Martin’s Belfast Directory, 1842–1843