"Talbot Street is supposed to have been so called after Mr. Talbot, a well-known agent for the Donegall estates in 1770. Where no direct proof is procurable in inquiries of this sort, conjecture, when based on any probable foundation, may be permitted" (George Benn, A History of the Town of Belfast, vol. i, 1877, p. 529).
According to the “Lord Belmont in Northern Ireland” blog: “Talbot Street … developed for Lord Donegall in the 1780s, is believed to have been named after the 1st Baronet (the same person who was Lord Donegall's agent). The blog also contains this detail about Talbot: “CHARLES HENRY TALBOT (1720-98), of Mickleham, Surrey, and Belfast, County Antrim, who was created a baronet in 1790, designated of Mickleham, Surrey, and of Belfast, County Antrim.” Lord Belmont in Northern Ireland: The Talbot Baronetcy
In 1830, the Belfast Library was listed as being here and the Irish Harp Society was based in number 16 in 1840. Little Italy: Bullers Field for a long time was well known as a grazing area, was built up on to make houses for what became the Half Bap and “Little Italy”, built up areas. A 1791 Belfast map shows houses there called Bullers Row. Buller was a local land and farm owner. Half Bap: near St. Anne’s Cathedral, named because of the odd mound shaped roundabout (like top half of a bap) at the end of Talbot Street. ”Little Italy”: an old district now gone peopled by many Italian emigrants." Rushlight Magazine
Talbot Street is first recorded on John Mulholland's town plan of 1788.