Hi Joe and everyone
Sorry this has taken so long ...the lady contact i had in Belfast has moved jobs but do not despair i have been everywhere chasing this topic from Proni...to the Linenhall Library.....the Central library in Belfast and finally the GRO office in Belfast.
I was amazed at how little was known about these Urban numbers but after discussions with many people who have some knowledge this is the best i can come up with so here goes......it's not as complicated as first thought......well i hope not.
Firstly Urban numbers were introduced to Belfast and Londonderry around the late 1800's.........Belfast was split into 16 Urban Districts i am reliably informed that this was purely for ease of Administration........as you can imagine there were literally hundreds of streets in Belfast and to keep records in any other way would have been a nightmare for staff.
as well as being split into 16 Urban districts areas were sub divided which would explain why certain Roads such as the Oldpark Road were given different numbers eg.....the bottom half was 3 and the middle bit was 10...hope this is making sense.
There were also four rural or green belt areas as they were known these were areas which were outside the Belfast boundary i think the boundary was about 6/7 miles which would explain why Greencastle and Whiteabbey areas were later known as Rural 1 they initally had been allocated urban number 7 goodness knows why.
after 1957 we see a slight change if you were born in one of the four main hospitals in the Belfast area details of this were added to your birth certificate.....each hospital was given a ward name which i have added below so instead of an urban number on you birth certificate a ward name was put on it........confusing or what.
The Royal Victoria hospital was given the ward name of St Anne's
The City hospital was St Georges 1
Malone place was St Georges 2
The Mater was Clifton
so in effect if you were born in the Royal Victoria Hospital at the top of your birth
Certificate it showed where born....... St Anne's ward.... ie the name of the ward relating to that particular hospital
The GRO office in Chichester Street Belfast has a large volume containing all the relevent Urban numbers which lists all the street names and the relevent number allocated to each street.
everything changed again in October 1973 when the Urban districts were replaced by district Councils all births from that time were recorded on microfish......and in todays modern hi tec world all the records are now computerised which certainly makes things so much easier.
A recap on the Urban numbers we know 1. Pilot street ...Duncrue street
2 Gainsborough Drive.. Shore Road
3 Liffey street .. Suir street... Shannon street
4 Balkan street ...Ton street
5 Divis street..Lower Falls Road
6 Wannsbeck street
7 Whiteabbey...Greencastle....later known as rural 1 as it was
outside the Belfast boundary.
8 Upper Oldpark.. Ballysillan.. Ballyveasey
9 Limestone Road
10 Louisa street...Enniskillen street ..Druse street..Linwood street
Hillview street Bourton street Baden Powell street
11 Third Avenue.. Castlereagh street..Belmont Street..Donegore street
12 Crossley street...Chadolly Street.. Westbourne street..Cluan Place..
Trielick street...Susan street
it would be impossible to list all the streets in Belfast as there were so many.......so my advice is for people looking to find out where their urban number relates to is simply contact the GRO in person they can be contacted on the following number 02890..252136 or visit their website at
www.groni.gov.uk/I know this has been a long time coming but i do hope i have explained this urban number thing to everyone's satisfaction
best wishes
pentio.
