East Belfast

From the mid 1800s, the Connswater was the driving force behind east Belfast's industrial growth. Barges laden with raw materials and goods travelled its length and its waters powered many cotton and flax mills, such as the Portview Mill.
Throughout the nineteenth and for much of the twentieth century, east Belfast continued to grow as an industrial powerhouse, serving markets throughout the world. Thousands of 'yardmen' were employed in the Harland & Wolff shipyard, designing, building and launching magnificent ships. The Belfast Ropeworks Company Limited was the world's largest manufacturer of rope and twine.
The Holywood Arches was a busy railway junction. Its two massive arches carried the trains of the County Down Railway, with more than one and a half million passengers travelling through it every year. There were glassworks and huge brickworks. Bread from the vast Inglis bakery fed hungry mouths near and far and the Irish Distillery churned out millions of gallons of the finest whiskey. Belfast meant business.
The growth of the Harland & Wolff shipyard in the late 1800s meant that a large and reliable source of rope was required, so in 1873, Edward Harland helped to set up the Belfast Ropeworks Company. By 1913, the Belfast Ropeworks was turning out over three hundred tons per week of every kind of rope



and cord, from the heaviest cable to the finest twine, and employing 3,600 workers. During the Second World War, Belfast supplied a quarter of a million tons of rope to the War Office. The Ropeworks continued to trade until 1983 and its former site is now home to Connswater Shopping Centre and Retail Park.
[Illustration captions, from top to bottom, read]
· [In red] Connswater Bridge, Irish Distillery, Holywood Arches [Image c.1895]
· Belfast Ropeworks circa 1899

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East Belfast Protestant Boys, a War Memorial
The Searcher
Hamilton Graving Dock / SS Nomadic
Harland and Wolff Shipyard
Former Harland & Wolff Headquarter Building
The Poop Deck
The Bridge Deck
First Port: Views of Belfast
On Board SS Nomadic
Caisson

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