28 Sans Souci Pk, Belfast

28 Sans Souci Pk was bought for £5000 by my parents in 1951. They sold in when Queens University took over the allotments behind the house, and developed that land for large student accommodation blocks

I don't know when it was built, but I suspected 1930 as it had a house name "St Kilda", which would have been in the news when the Scottish Island was evacuated then. However looking at local papers indicates that the area was developed around 1905

It was sold by auction in 1946, and whoever bought it then, must have died in 1951, when the contents were auctioned.

Whilst we were here, my parents bought the cottage at Killard . I think my mother had tired of being dumped with the children on a caravan site, or similar, whilst my father returned to Belfast to work and/or enjoy life

Oddly, perhaps a reflection of the time, I have very few photos of that house. But I knew every nook and cranny of it, as my formative childhood years were spent there

The house was sold about 1960 and my parents moved to Cherryhill. They felt that they had been very badly treated by Queens, whom they believed forced them out, and bought the house at a knockdown price - Queens themselves being responsible for the loss of property value because of their own development

Queens then flattened the house to create their new development of Student accommodation

 

As it became in 2020. Queens appear to have blighted the whole area with student accommodations

 

My Homes