Boundary Marker

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A cast-iron boundary post probably of 1896-98, but with plaque dated 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 south side of the Upper Newtownards Road, backing on to a modern masonary wall with concrete coping, with a pedestrian crossing close by.

Of slightly tapered cylindrical profile, the post measures about 0.7m high by 0.25m diameter and is painted light battleship grey, (possibly original paint finish), but is heavily corroded. The base is buried in asphalt footpath. Oversailing flat octagonal cap with slightly smaller fluted circular upstand. Front face bears a shield with the of Belfast Corporation’s coat of arms, below which is an attached plaque with lettering which reads “Parliamentary/ and Municipal/ Boundary of/ Belfast/ Pottinger Division/ Pottinger Ward/ 1918”. The plaque is secured to the post with four countersunk screws.

Historical information

Although this post is dated 1918, a boundary post (‘B.P.’) is marked on this vicinity on the 1902 OS map, indicating that it is earlier, probably dating from 1896-98 (see below) and merely adapted in 1918 by means of bolting a new the plaque over the original legend. 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 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
H+. Alterations enhancing the building
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 but probably installed here in 1896-98. 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.