Half Bap-Little Italy
"Sorters" at Cookes Waste Paper Store.
The Half Bap from "Belfast Myths, Facts and Legends".. By Joe Graham
The Half Bap Area . 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, poignant as one remembers that it was in this area, Donegall Street, that Barney Hughes invented his famous Belfast Bap. Barney Hughes started off working for the "Corporation Bakery" opposite St Anne's Cathedral, now, there is another possible realistic historically linked name for the area "The Bakery Quarter" ? as opposed to the yuppy "Cathedral Quarter?, or how about "The Flogging Quarter", in memory of the "Triangle" that stood permanently on the corner of Bridge Street and North Street, which people were lashed to and publicly flogged. This half bap shaped 'mound' could well be described as Belfast’s first roundabout. Belfast Council, with grants and funding galore are hell bent on having some rewrite history, thereby implying this was "The Cathedral Quarter", it never was, in fact when Lord Carson was buried in the vaults of st Ann'es, slogans appeared on local gable walls, saying, "First you try to bomb us out, now you are trying to stink us out", such was the significance of the Cathedral' in that area.It is heartening to hear many parrot my resistence to that area being called "The Cathedral Quarter", but I suppose if you throw grants and funding at some people they will write anything you want, huh.? a bit like Catholic people celebrating the "Titanic"..? what are they celebrating .?? that they couldn't get a job in the shipyard,!. Few will be aware that there was also at one time near the Durham Street Grosvenor Road junction another Belfast area also called “The Half Bap”. Edward Street was named after this character Edward May as was May Street. Edward May will go down in local history as the man who pioneered the reclamation of land from the Lough edges, but more infamously as the man who desecrated the graves of those buried there at St Georges graveyard at High Street and Ann Street. so as to sell the land for the development. of Church/ Ann Street.Hector Street (Half Bap) originally called Caxton Street.Exchange Street was originally called Green Street ( after Robert Green). Robert Street in old Half Bap was changed to Exchange Street West.(A brutal murder took place at 38 Robert Street in 1888 , Arthur McKeown murdered his common - law wife.)
The following is also from an earlier issue of Rushlight The Belfast Magazine
The wee area, now rapidly disappearing, that lay behind St Anne’s Cathedral, was known for 100 years as the ‘Half Hap”. Few people
would realise today how the area became so known... in fact it was through bad planning of the City Fathers back in the 1890’s when the area was then being ‘re—developed’., just as it is today. In the 1890’s re-development it seems streets were created with no thought of how they might emerge to other streets , hence, when “Morrows Jane” “Foundery Lane” “Cooper’s Entry”..’tow Lane”. .”Bullar’s Entry”..”(Cooper’s Court”..”Dunbar’s Court”..”Green Street” and ‘Upper Green Street, to name just a few of the old original streets, were demolished and new streets built some came to an abrupt end leaving a considerable piece of waste ground at the end of three or four of the streets, so to create some sort of vehicular order it was decided to build a mound on this ground so that the traffic would pass round it clockwise, it became in fact. Belfast’s first ‘roundabout’.. at this time Barney Hughes, the baker, had just invented his what was to become famous bread ‘Hap” at his nearby Donegall Street bakery...locals quickly identified the shape of the new roundabout with that of the top half of a “Barney’s Bap”(dome shaped) and so the roundabout and the district became known as “The Half Bap’, in later years the mound was replaced with a rather flat and paved construction that acted as a roundaboutl’he area on which the old area stood on was originally know as “The North Wall” and the land, owned by the Marquis of Donegall, was later leased to a trader by the name of Robert Green, in 1767, hence “Robert Street” and “Green Street’ and earlier ‘Upper Green Street” which later became, in 1903, ‘Exchange Street.’ also, in the early part of the 1800’s there was a wee lane, at the rear of where St Anne’s is today, called “Meeting House Lane’, and another called “McCrea’s Court”. The main industry for the working people of the area was at the cotton mill of lsrael Milliken which was situated in 1808 at “Cotton Court” of Waring Street. “Coopering”.. the making of wooden barrels would also have been a main source of employment as shown in the name, ”Cooper’s Court” and “Coopers Entry”, the latter later became known as “Green’s Court”.. after the boil Robert, no doubt. “Curtis Street” off “Academy Street”, in 1819, was described as “ .. A Lane of 15 houses containing some 80 people”.. by the way, this site was formerly the site of a “Gun Powder Magazine”, which, I believe was owned by Mr Curtis and another Donegall Street businessman by the name of Harvey, who also sold rare spices. The site whereon St Anne’s Cathedral stands once stood the original “St Anne’s Church”, which was built in 1773, but even before that the site housed the original ‘Exchange Building” in 1757 , and obviously moved across the street before 1773. “St Anne’s’ by the way was not named after “Anne”.. the mother of “Mary”, The Blessed Virgin, oh no, it was named after the wife of the “5th Ear Of Donegall’, he of the planter/pirate stock...the ‘Newsletter moved to its site at the corner of Talbot Street in 1872, although the paper first appeared in 1737..’Talbot Street” was named after a Land Agent of the Donegall (note two “L’s”) Family, for fear you might mistake these people as of ancient Irish stock, they were of course the descendants of the “Chichester” family of notorious pirate fame, and to whom on:
city fathers honoured by naming local streets after them, much to their shame.! ‘Exchange Street West” was built in 1819, ran from Academy Street to Talbot Street and in 1822 contained 22 houses, it was first known as “Robert Street”.
The Black & White Minstrels from The NewsBoys Club
NEW DVD NOW AVAILABLE
Over the past few years I have interviewed, on Camera, about 50 men and women whose ages ranged from 50 to 90 years of age to get from the horses mouths as it where , the peoples history of these two old Belfast districts. And now 26th June 2007 I have completed my task. Everyone of these people lived in the Half Bap or Little Italy, most if not all of their lives, so this history is the authentic story of a people who's claim to fame is that they were "Belfast One people", BT1, being the postal code for the district. I have put their memories together on a 2 Hour DVD so that later generations won't just know where in Belfast the Half Bap or little Italy was, but they can hear the history from those who lived there instead perhaps some Joe Bloggs. This DVD is now available by e-mailing rushlight123@hotmail.com Tel.Joe Graham 208 90626631, The price is £5, including delivery to anywhere in the world no matter where you live...as I have always said, Rushlight is about People..not Profit, if you can't afford the fiver you can have one for nothing.
Edward Street in the Half Bap
“Little Italy” came into being in the late 1880’s, it was to here hundreds of Italian refugees from the agricultural riots in their homeland arrived in groups in Belfast. they settled between the old “Half Bap” and “Sailortown” area’s giving birth to a district which became known as “Little Italy”. Names like Cheverine, Notarantonio , Morelli, Scappaticci, Tragginti, Pasquale, Dragonetti, Marcello, Valente, De Lucca, Vergatti, Capitano, Fusco, Marconi, Agustino, Corbelletta, Forte and Saclio, With the Catholic emancipation laws coming into vogue many new Catholic Chapels sprang up and the Italian skills became much sought after, indeed some local business men took advantage of these skilled men living on their door steps, one had his cinema, the “Clonard” on the Falls Road, beautifully done with an ornate plasterwork frontage, as did the owner of the Bee Hive Bar on the Falls Road. Many of the finer homes had the men in to lay Terrazzo floors and even the humblest “two up and two down”, had them do a small terrazzo hall floor. Some immigrants turned their skills into making chalk religious statues, and some even became buskers, street musicians, organ grinders. Later generations established successful Ice Cream parlours and Fish and chip shops. Interestingly, during World War11, Italian citizens of Belfast were interned on a prison ship due to Italy being at war with England.
Jim, Ex-Half Bap Man writes.... Just a short story I thought up on the way home from work, I hope it explains the way I feel about some of the things I see around me in Belfast.
Mario’s Problem
Wee Mario had a problem and went to see his GP.
Mario - “Doctor, everybody keeps telling me I have a problem with my memory and I should see someone about it - apparently I keep forgetting where I came from.”
He explained in greater detail
The doctor advised him to see a psychiatrist and arranged an appointment.
Mario went to see the psychiatrist. later he called to see his GP and report on his progress.
“Doctor, I am feeling much better now, I now know what the problem was. The psychiatrist explained it all to me.”
“He said I have been suffering from False memory syndrome, I thought that I had lived in the Half Bap - but apparently not; I had actually lived in the Cathedral Quarter all along.”
“I am so glad to know that I am not losing my mind after all; if I should forget anything else important - like who I am or whatever, I will know who to see about it”
MORAL LESSON: you should never forget where you came from - until you are told to…
Here’s a story that I like, it’s not written by me - but by Hans Christian Andersen. If you want to know what it is, then write these letters in reverse, start with the ’T’ and work left -
SEHTOLC WEN S’ROREPME EHT
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