Our Heritage
Ann Street
Fish City is located on Ann Street, one of Belfast's oldest thoroughfares and today a bustling pedestrianised city centre street. With a rich history tied to Belfast's earliest days as a riverside village, Ann Street in the eighteenth century was a residential street of tradesmen and merchants connecting Cornmarket to the banks of the River Lagan, which flows out into the mudflats and lagoons of Belfast Lough.
Pictured: Ann Street, looking South towards Victoria Street (12 February 1894). Courtesy of the Welch collection.
Thomas Phillips' map of Belfast in 1685. National Museums NI.Belfast’s Early Days
Belfast’s story begins some 5,000 years ago in the Lagan Valley, where Neolithic communities built a vast circular henge monument made of earth and stone to honour their dead. A ringed bank nearly 200 metres across with a stone tomb at its centre, this earthwork reveals one of the earliest human presences in the region. Older than Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids of Giza, the Giant’s Ring still stands quietly today in the countryside just south of the city centre.
Later, Iron Age settlers constructed a hill fort atop Cave Hill, overlooking Belfast Lough and the Irish Sea. By around 500 AD, the region formed part of the seafaring Gaelic kingdom of Dál Riata, linking Ulster to the Inner Hebrides and Argyll in western Scotland. The Gaels of Ireland settled the region, and the Romans, who viewed them as a threat to Britannia, referred to its people as ‘Scotti’ or raiders. In 665 AD, records note a battle at a tidal ford where the River Lagan met the Farset—‘Béal Feirste,’ Old Irish for the mouth of the sandbank ford, from which Belfast takes its name.
For centuries, the settlement around the ford remained small until the arrival of Norman knight John de Courcy in 1177, who built a castle to guard the crossing. Destroyed and rebuilt over centuries as power shifted to Irish lords such as the Clandeboye O'Neills, the site of Belfast’s first castle is memorialised today with the relief of a fairytale castle atop Queen’s Arcade. The area now bounded by Castle Place, Donegall Place, Cornmarket, and High Street sit over the medieval castle grounds.
Overshadowed by the Norman stronghold at Carrickfergus, Belfast remained a minor outpost until the early 1600s, when Arthur Chichester obtained vast estates in Ulster following the Nine Years’ War. Appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland by King James I, Chichester established a town, secured a royal charter in 1613, and developed a working port. English, Scottish, and Manx settlers arrived under the plantation of Ulster. Trade expanded rapidly, linking the town’s commerce in wool, hides, butter, and salted meat to England, the continent, and the American colonies.
A turning point came in 1685 with the arrival of French Huguenot refugees, who introduced advanced linen weaving techniques. Within a generation, Belfast’s future had been rewritten in flax and thread. By the 18th century, linen exports had surged, and the town’s population grew quickly. Linen production transformed Belfast into a major industrial centre, and the White Linen Hall, built in 1788, became the symbol of Belfast’s rising wealth.
In the 19th century, linen manufacturing, once a cottage trade done by hand, became mechanised, and spinning mills employed tens of thousands of workers. Belfast’s importance to the global linen trade earned it the nickname ‘Linenopolis.’ At the same time, shipbuilding rose to prominence. In 1861, Edward Harland and Gustav Wolff founded the Harland and Wolff company on Queen’s Island, the same company that would later build the world’s most famous ship. In 1888, Queen Victoria bestowed the charter officially recognising Belfast as a city, commissioning a new City Hall at the site of the White Linen Hall.
Belfast Harbour, the old Harbour Office photographed from the Clarendon Dock (c. 1890). Belfast Telegraph Archive
“Belfast Lough forms one of the safest and most commodious havens in the world, the entrance being in breadth about five English miles, and the length about 12, gradually narrowing as it approaches the bridge.”
— Pigot’s Directory, Belfast (1824)
One of the oldest streets in Belfast
The area having originally been part of the village's waterfront when the River Farset was exposed, Ann Street, named after one of the Anne's of the Donegall family, was home to many of Belfast’s timber merchants. The tide was allowed to fill nearby Poultry Square – today, Victoria Square – each day, which the timber merchants used to store floating logs, with slips installed to reach the logs. When spring tides would flood the area, the residents of Ann Street and the nearby streets and entries got around by boat. Nearby street names such as Bridge Street and Skipper Street allude to the network of inland waterways that formed the arteries of a maritime city.
By Victoria's reign, Belfast had grown from a fortified town into a hub of industry and commerce. Belfast’s waterways provided power for the linen mills that fueled the Industrial Revolution in Britain, whilst the Lagan estuary gave the Victorian city further advantages including access to the sea and the space for shipbuilding. The White Linen Hall, a globally important international linen exchange, was selected as the site for a grand, new city hall. Ann Street in this time housed a wider range of shops and trade: chandlers, cobblers, haberdashers, milliners, tailors, leather manufacturers and tinsmiths, with them and their families living in the floors above their shops.
“There was but little space between the river and dwellings of Mr Waterson at the corner of Ann Street, Mr Shea, Mr Eikenhead and Captain Skinner.”
— Thomas Gaffikin, Belfast Fifty Years Ago (1885)
No. 33 Ann St
The shopfront of Johnston's Umbrella Emporium at 31 High Street.Grocers to Umbrella Emporium
The building at No. 33 Ann Street was built in the mid- 19th century. In 1852, it was the shop of William Henry Milligan, a grocer, tobacconist, and snuff manufacturer. In 1880, it was the premises of wholesale grocers John Woods & Co. In 1907, trunk, bag and portmanteau manufacturers Erskine & Sons Ltd. occupied the building. In 1960, the site was occupied by Johnston's Umbrella Emporium and Manufactory, a world-renowned manufacturer of walking sticks and umbrellas. Johnston’s Umbrella Emporium held a royal warrant and displayed the royal arms outside their shopfront at Blackthorn House, located one street over at 31 High Street, where Belfast Exposed Bank Gallery sits today.
The Belfast Entries
Our restaurant sits opposite Pottinger's Entry, one of several narrow cobbled alleyways that formed the nucleus of a growing merchant city. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, the entries were known for printing, manufacturing, and hostelries. Named after a successful Scottish mercantile family and first recorded on maps in 1715, Pottinger's Entry, like neighbouring Joy's Entry, Wilson's Court, and Crown Entry, joined Ann Street with High Street on the banks of the River Farset. Small ships could sail and moor to the foot of High Street to unload their cargoes on the quayside. Today, the Farset, the river that gave Belfast its name, flows quietly beneath High Street, just down the Entry from our door.
Wilson’s Court between High Street and Ann Street (1941). A narrow alley with Lavery’s, Belfast's oldest family-owned pub. Belfast Telegraph Collection/NMNIRespecting our heritage
We are passionate about protecting and preserving the unique culture and cultural heritage of Belfast, from our buildings to our stories. Looking to learn more? Check out award-winning Belfast walking tours with expert local guides with a few recommendations here.
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The best way to get to know a city is on a walking tour. Join DC Tours’ award-winning local tour guides and discover Belfast’s fascinating history with the experts with a range of fascinating tours to embark on.
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Belfast Walking Tours operates a number of tours, with its ‘Heads Up’ Architectural Tour showcasing Belfast’s heritage through its buildings. Step into another era, see true craftsmanship, and discover Belfast’s incredible story through its architecture.
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Check out Document Belfast’s Instagram page for a well-curated series of engaging videos telling the many stories about Belfast’s historical sites. You can view more content on their YouTube page and book them for your very own historic walking tour.
Fish City
33 Ann Street
Belfast
References:
Belfast Telegraph (22 January 2014). 'The Industrial Revolution transformed Belfast, making it Ireland’s biggest city – and it all began with the port.'
Charles - The Past Rebuilt (28 February 2026). The Entire History of Belfast (AI Reconstruction).
Chris Andrews (28 August 2022). Belfast: The hidden castles under the city's shops. BBC News.
Lennon Wylie. '1824 Pigot's Directory, Belfast Section.' Transcription of Pigot & Co's Provincial Directory of Ireland 1824 - Ulster.
P&P (22 December 2021). ‘Ann Street, Belfast – The Early Days.’ Belfast Entries.
Timothy William Ferres (9 July 2022). ‘Ann Street, Belfast.’ Lord Belmont in Northern Ireland.