Cregagh - Woodstock Road

Woodstock Road

The Woodstock Road forms the beginning of the continuous road that includes Cregagh and which runs from close to the River Lagan to the outskirts of Belfast. The road begins at the Woodstock Link which cuts off the Albertbridge Road facing Mountpottinger Road. The Mount, a prominent conference facility built in 1997, is located close to this junction on the Woodstock Link. Following the junction with the Beersbridge Road the Woodstock Road is mainly lined with shops and other places of business. The area, also known as Willowfield, is also home to a number of churches, including the Church of Ireland place of worship Willowfield Parish Church, Saint Anthony's Roman Catholic Church. and the Cregagh Gospel Hall. Other amenities include a public library and a Police Service of Northern Ireland station, although the latter is not open to the public. The Willowfield area formerly lent its name to the Belfast Willowfield constituency of the old Parliament of Northern Ireland.

A loyalist flute band, Crimson Star, is based in the area and their badge is shown on a mural painted on a wall on Ardenvohr Street just off the Woodstock Road. During the Troubles notorious Ulster Volunteer Force hitman Robert "Squeak" Seymour ran a video shop on the Woodstock Road. It was whilst working at his shop that Seymour was shot and killed by two Provisional Irish Republican Army members on 15 June 1988.

The Woodstock Road continues as far Ravenhill Avenue when it becomes the Cregagh Road. A street sign to the immediate north of Ravenhill Avenue reads "Woodstock Road" whilst another immediately to the south states "Cregagh Road". The Woodstock Road was formerly known as the lower Cregagh Road and in the nineteenth century it was mainly made up of farmland. Indeed until the 1920s parts of the Cregagh Road, which is now entirely urbanised, were agricultural.