April 2004 Archives

THE SUSPICIOUS devastating fire in North Street Arcade on April 18th 2004 was a tragic loss for the people of Belfast.  Yes, it is true that Lower North Street has gotten a bit down at heel over the last twenty years or so, but it still has a bit of character about it.

 

North Street Arcade was an oasis of local treasures in a city centre that is growing increasingly bland, with all the same chainstores as any other town in Great Britain.  It’s getting that there’s no point in going anywhere else, as one town centre is virtually interchangeable with another.

 
North Street Arcade first opened in 1936 when that part of the city was the heart of commercial life.  Unlike many soulless modern shopping malls it allowed in natural light, set off by a huge dome at the bend in middle.  It was a Grade II listed building.

 There were only twenty shops in the arcade, which links Lower North Street with Lower Donegall Street, but what a mix it offered.  Kozo sold all kinds of specialist hand made paper.  Rip-off Clothing catered to the fashion tastes of Ulster’s punks and other youth cults.  Cathedral Records, managed for the last couple of years by the renowned punk impresario of the seventies, TerrI Hooley, complemented this shop with a wide mix of music, much of it on vinyl LPs.  This irreplaceable musical treasure has been totally lost.

 
Also gone is a petshop, a couple of ‘new age’ shops, a craftwork shop, an especially well-stocked second-hand bookshop, the arty Arcadia Café, an art gallery, a video shop, the offices of the Belfast Film Festival and the Cathedral Quarter Festival, the offices of Vacuum magazine and McKernan’s shoemakers – a family firm which has traded in the Donegall Street area since 1910.

 
Rita Harkin of the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society has called for the building to be restored or replicated, but the omens are not good.  The North Street Arcade fire came nearly thirty years to the day after incendiary bombs wiped out another Belfast landmark, Smithfield Market.

 
Old Smithfield Market started in the 1780s as a castle market.  By 1819 it was flourishing.  Wheat, barley and oats were sold on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and hides on Tuesdays, Thursdays and also on Fridays.  Peter Mullan opened the first bookstall in 1850.  The livestock gradually went elsewhere and the market was covered over in the late Nineteenth Century.

 
The Belfast journalist Bud Bossence wrote of Smithfield in 1964, “It is one of the few pieces of old world charm we have, both to give ourselves moments of relief to the growing ugliness of the city centre and to offer tourists something that does not fit into the monotonous pattern of conformity now spreading over these islands.”

 
Some greedy property developers had their eye on Smithfield for many years.  In 1953 one Belfast councillor claimed that, “Smithfield Market is a museum piece.  It has served its purpose and is no longer a decoration to the city”.  Cllr Haig wanted the market site for a multi-story car park!  Happily, the good councillor was overruled and the market went on for another twenty years until May 7^th 1974 when the historic market caught fire at 3:00am. 

 
Eight fire engines and over a dozen jets could not save it from the fire bombs.  People stood in tears in the square as they watched the smouldering ruins.  As with today’s Arcade traders, the Smithfield traders called for the market to be rebuilt.  “I buy anything’ legend Joe Kavanagh told newspapers that, “People have been demanding we get together and rebuild the market.  I hope the people of the market will do this.  It will never be the same again but we must do our best to preserve as much of the character of the place as we can.”
 

Sadly, this did not happen.  The site was demolished and replaced by a gated compound of ugly prefabricated buildings.  The atmosphere of the old place never returned.  By 1990, the site was swallowed up by the huge CastleCourt shopping mall – including its car park - and another Smithfield Market was built on the site of an old bus station.

 
This new Smithfield Market has struggled to find itself, but it is now beginning to do well.  Ironically, it too is under threat from plans to build a vast extension to CastleCourt that would have also swallowed up a great swathe of inner North Belfast running from Millfield to Rosemary Street and Donegall Street to Royal Avenue.  Ironically, this would also have swept away the North Street Arcade!  Planners turned down this development in favour of the Victoria Square scheme.  It will be interesting to see what happens now!  I suspect that Bud Bossence will be turning in his grave.

Tuesday, April 13, 2004

AS I MENTIONED in my first Kerr’s Corner, it has been thirty years since I left Rathcoole Secondary School. It is now been three decades since I started working in the Port of Belfast and I have seen many changes there since then.

In October 1974 I started working for a company called G Heyn and Sons Ltd. Just look at the picture. That’s how I looked then! Where have all my flowing locks gone? My first employers were managers of the Ulster Steamship Company – the ‘Head Line’. This long-established company celebrated its centenary in 1977. I still have my commemorative mug!
The company was founded in 1877 by Gustavus Heyn – not George Heyn as many people seem to think – and two of his sons. Gustavus came to Belfast from Danzig in 1826. An 1854 Belfast directory lists him as a general merchant, a shipbroker and as the Prussian Consul in Belfast. He had the title, Chevalier Gustavus Heyn.

He married Letitia Pirrie who was quite a catch for a shipowner as a member of her family, Captain William Pirrie, was a major share holder in Harland and Wolff. Indeed, the first ever vessel built by H&W for a local shipping company was the Fair Head. This vessel remained in service for 62 years, so the Head Line got a great bargain there! Gustavus and Letitia must have gotten on really well. They had sixteen children.

The company’s vessels were all named after Irish coastal headlines – Fair Head, Torr Head, Main Head, etc – hence the ‘Head Line’ name. Head Line ships carried the famous Red Hand of Ulster symbol on its funnels and on its House Flag to ports all over the world. Mind you, the Red Hand on Ulster Steamship Company vessels was a left hand rather than the more traditional right hand.

The company suffered many losses during two world wars when merchant shipping became a target for enemy submarines. Nine Head Line vessels alone were sunk by German U-boats in 1917. During the Second World War, the company lost seven vessels to enemy action. The Fanad Head was sunk by a U-boat a few days after the outbreak of the war. Another vessel, the Kenbane Head went down with the loss of 23 lives. Belfast writer Sam McAughtry has written movingly of this in his classic book, The Sinking of the Kenbane Head. I think he lost his brother, Marty when the Kenbane was torpedoed. Yet another vessel, the Fair Head was hit by German bombs during the blitz while berthed in the Dufferin Dock.

As it happens, some other former employees of the company arranged a reunion evening for ‘ex-Headliners’ in the Stormont Hotel in East Belfast. I went along together with some other 120 others for a great night out. I ran into some folk I haven’t seen for over twenty years. I left the company in 1987.

Entering the hotel, I was surprised to see David Hollis, the former Newtownabbey councillor. I hadn’t realised that he had once worked for the Head Line too. David had sailed as an engineer across the North Atlantic on Head Line vessels in the early Sixties. Another engineer, Fred Picking regularly sailed the North Atlantic to New Brunswick, Montreal and then down to New Orleans. Fred told me that it usually took about two weeks to cross the ocean and at times the weather was horrendous. On his second voyage his vessel had to navigate through forty-eight icebergs! He wasn’t able to see them down in the engine room but he knew they were there because of the cold.

Sadly, the Head Line was unable to compete with the bigger shipping companies. It continued to build conventional ships and was caught napping by the container revolution in the mid-Sixties. The last ship of the fleet, the Inishowen Head was converted into a container vessel but it was too late. The trade had passed the company by. The last of the Head Line fleet was finally sold in 1979. Many people in the shipping world started their careers in the Head Line and they now work in competition with their old employer. As I discovered at the Stormont reunion, many old Headliners still have great affection for the company that started them in the business. The company still lives on, now rebranded as Heyn Shipping.

IT’S INTERESTING to see how times have changed general working practices. A copy of a 1960 memorandum to all Heyn office staff makes interesting reading today. Here’s a few prize quotes!

“SATURDAYS OFF: These will be continued as a privilege and not as a right and it must not be assumed that they are on a rota basis. Although it is desired to give a Saturday off, in turn, so far as this is possible, it can be done only by arrangement through the Heads of Sections, subject to the position of the work of the Section being suitable”.

The use of Christain names, when addressing other members of the Staff – including Typists – is considered undesirable and everyone is requested to introduce, as quickly as possible, the use of Mr/Miss.

“SMOKING: Between 9 am and 5 pm smoking at desks is not permitted”.

If you have any memories of working for G Heyn & Sons Ltd, please let me know by e-mail: kerrscorner@thecarrick.biz