Holyland (Belfast)

The Holyland, The Holy Land or The Holylands is a residential area of inner-south Belfast, Northern Ireland. Composed of a series of streets behind The Queen's University of Belfast near to the River Lagan, the area has been dubbed 'the Holyland' from its street names: Jerusalem Street, Palestine Street, Damascus Street, Carmel Street and Cairo Street. The boundaries of the Holyland are generally considered to be the area between University Street, the Ormeau Road, the River Lagan, Botanic Gardens and Queen's.

The Holyland street network was built up to its present layout in the 1890s by Belfast's oldest firm of property consultants, Brown McConnell Clark. Sir Robert McConnell, a devout Christian Victorian developer and a previous unionist Lord Mayor of Belfast, was part of one of the founding families of the firm. Along with a builder friend, James Rea, Sir Robert McConnell visited Palestine and Egypt. He was responsible for naming these streets, when he later developed this area, after the places they had visited. – Carmel, Damascus, Cairo, Jerusalem and Palestine – and they became known as 'the Holyland'.

The demographic makeup of the Holyland has dramatically changed in recent years. This is due to a number of reasons: the expansion in student numbers at Queen's University; a subsequent insufficient availability of University accommodation; significant investment by private landlords and rising house prices; and the attraction of living in south Belfast. All have increased student numbers living in the Holyland. This has transformed the area’s population from initially Protestant to mainly working class Catholic families to the current level of over 90% student and young worker occupation. In one square kilometre of Belfast, there are an estimated 7,000 students living. 60% are from the University of Ulster.

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