Third Street is a short residential street in west Belfast, located off Conway Street and running east–west between Conway Street and N Howard Street, a short distance south of the Shankill Road. It forms part of a grid of nineteenth-century streets laid out during the westward expansion of the town.
The area in which Third Street lies was developed during the first half of the nineteenth century as Belfast expanded rapidly in response to industrial growth. Housing was laid out in a regular grid, with short parallel streets running between longer north–south routes such as Conway Street and North Howard Street.
Third Street is documented by at least October 1851. A report in the Belfast News-Letter of 13 October 1851, describing severe flooding in the town, states that the inundation affected no fewer than ninety-six streets and specifically names First Street, Second Street, Third Street, and North Howard Street among the worst-affected areas. The report notes that lower floors in these streets were flooded to a depth of approximately five feet, indicating both the low-lying nature of the district and the established residential character of the streets by the mid-nineteenth century.
This reference confirms that Third Street was already laid out and inhabited by 1851, placing it firmly within Belfast’s early Victorian urban expansion. The street has remained predominantly residential in character since that time, forming part of the dense terraced housing associated with working-class districts close to the Shankill Road.
Third Street is a functional, sequential name. It reflects its position within a numbered series of parallel streets rather than commemorating a person, event, or local feature. Such numerical naming was common in rapidly developed urban districts, particularly where multiple streets were laid out at the same time.
Belfast News-Letter, 13 October 1851
Ordnance Survey of Ireland / Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland, historical mapping
OSNI modern digital mapping
Belfast street directories
Local cartographic evidence