placenamesMountpottinger
Tulach Phoitinséir
A plaque to Henry Pottinger, the former YMCA building and a church adapted for theatre preserve different chapters of this east Belfast district.
The name
These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
- Tulach Phoitinséir · Irish · main form · validated name
- Mountpottinger · English · main form
Place & story
Henry Pottinger’s birthplace
Henry Pottinger was born at Mount Pottinger on 25 December 1789, when it was still outside Belfast's built-up area. Educated at Belfast Royal Academy, he later joined the East India Company and negotiated the 1842 Treaty of Nanking at the end of the First Opium War. He became Hong Kong's first governor in 1843. The Ulster History Circle commemorated the local birthplace with a plaque at The Mount, unveiled on 23 October 1997. [2]
The Mountpottinger YMCA
The former Mountpottinger YMCA at Albertbridge Road and Templemore Avenue was erected in 1903 to designs by William John Waterman Roome. Red brick, sandstone details and tall recessed oriel windows distinguish the building, which combined shops below with association rooms above. A 1952 inventory recorded a meeting hall, reading room, gymnasium and orchestra room. The YMCA continued using the upper floors until 1982, and a later renovation brought them back into use by Exchange Church in 2009. [3]
A church and a theatre
Mountpottinger Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church on Castlereagh Street was established in 1875, with a foyer added in 1899 and a school hall in 1906. A memorial plaque and roll of honour preserve the congregation's First World War associations. More recently, the congregation formed a partnership with the Bright Umbrella Drama Company, which rehearses and performs there. The National Churches Trust records plans drawn up in 2023 for a shared arts, theatre and worship building, rather than an entirely secular conversion. [4]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Down
- Barony
- Castlereagh Lower
- Civil parish
- Knockbreda
- Coordinates
- 54.59612, -5.91100 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 130136 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Mountpottinger. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Sir Henry Pottinger: commemorative plaque · Ulster History Circle
- Former YMCA Building, HB26/06/005 · Historic Environment Division, Department for Communities
- Mountpottinger Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church · National Churches Trust
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2019-10-08. How this page was prepared.