Boundary Marker, Kenington Road, Tullycarnet, Belfast, BT5 7DD

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A cast-iron boundary post of 1918, marking what was originally the perimeter of the administrative jurisdiction of Belfast Corporation, and of Pottinger District Electoral Division and Ward within it. The post is sited on the southern side of Kensington Road, close to the junction with Gilnahirk Road, backing on to a modern masonry wall immediately behind. A modern street sign, speed limit sign and street lamp are all in close proximity.

Of slightly tapered cylindrical profile, the post measures about 0.9m high by 0.25m diameter and is painted light battleship grey, (possibly original paint finish), but is heavily corroded. Banded octagonal base and oversailing flat octagonal cap with slightly smaller fluted circular upstand. Front face bears the shield of Belfast Corporation’s coat of arms, below which is an attached plaque with heavily weathered lettering which would read “Parliamentary/ and Municipal/ Boundary of/ Belfast/ Pottinger Division/ Pottinger Ward/ 1918”. The plaque is secured to the post with four countersunk screws. There is also an identical shield near the top of the post on its rear face.
The is a fleur de lis pointer on one of the radiating fins on the top cap centre pointing roughly north towards next in line post HB26/11/010 at Cherry Valley Service Station..

Historical information

This post is dated 1918 and is marked for the first time on the 1919 OS map. In common with all of the surviving boundary posts in the Belfast area, the design is similar to a post dated 1858 west side of High Street, Holywood, Co. Down, suggesting - at very least - continuity in terms of local design, and possibly in some cases the reuse, (and perhaps, repositioning), of earlier posts.

The post is set along what was in 1918 the limit of the ‘County of the Borough of Belfast’, a boundary created under the Local Government Act 1898 and enacted the following year. The course of this followed that of the Municipal boundary as established by the Belfast Corporation Act of 1896, which itself largely tracked the line of the town’s Parliamentary boundary as it stood after 1885. Map evidence suggests that these earlier demarcations possessed boundary posts of some description and that, as stated above, these may have been repurposed (and in some instances repositioned) as the nature and course of boundaries themselves evolved.

The new ‘Parliamentary and Municipal boundary’ as established in 1898-99 enclosed the city’s four Parliamentary constituencies - Belfast North, East, West and South - that had been established following the 1885 UK-wide redistribution of seats in the wake of the passing of the Representation of the People Act (aka Third Reform Act) the previous year. Following a further Representation of the People Act (Fourth Reform Act) in 1918, the existing four constituencies were abolished and their number increased to nine - Cromac, Duncairn, Falls, Ormeau, Pottinger, St Anne’s, Shankill, Victoria, and Woodvale. Each new parliamentary division had its own MP and encompassed one or several municipal wards, with the latter used for elections to Belfast Corporation. As its plaque states, this particular post marks the boundary of the parliamentary division of Pottinger, and of Pottinger ward within it.

Voting in the new constituencies was initiated in the General Election of 14 December 1918, a historic occasion that witnessed women candidates standing for the first time and the extension of the franchise - previously restricted solely to male property owners - to men over the age of 21 and women over 30; it was also the first election to be completed within the one day, as opposed to spread out over a number of weeks.

With the inception of the devolved Parliament for Northern Ireland in 1922, the number of Westminster MPs was greatly reduced. The Pottinger parliamentary constituency, created only four years before, was abolished and the previous Belfast seats restored. The municipal wards, however, continued to be used for local elections for some time thereafter.

Belfast Corporation was superseded by Belfast City Council in 1973 and its jurisdiction extended beyond its former borough boundary.

References - Primary sources
1 OS maps Co. Down sheet 5 1902, 1919

Secondary sources
2 ‘The Oxford Companion to Irish History’, ed. S.J. Connolly, (1999), p.326
3 ‘Irish Historic Towns Atlas - Belfast, part II’, ed Anngret Simms, H.B. Clarke and Raymond Gillespie, (RIA, 2007)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Cast-iron boundary post marking Belfast's former municipal and Parliamentary boundary, dated 1918. As well as an important piece of civic heritage, this post also relates to a significant juncture in the wider political history of the UK, the year 1918 witnessing the introduction of various electoral reforms, most notably the extension of the franchise to women. Originally tracing the semi-rural perimeter of Belfast Corporation's jurisdiction as it stood at the end of the Victorian period, many of the surviving boundary posts are now 'landlocked' in suburban surrounds, unwittingly becoming curious pieces of furniture that add much interest to the to city's streetscapes.