Changing demographics!

This image is taken in Ravenscroft Avenue, in the Bloomfield area of east Belfast.  The image does tell a story, the shipyard crane straight ahead immediately locates the image geographically.  The terraced housing also tells a story, they are from different periods in time as older buildings were replaced with new builds.  Looking into the past I learned that in May 1941 a German parachute mine bomb, presumable intended for the shipyard, made a huge bomb crater in the middle of this avenue and destroyed surrounding housing.  The terraced row on the lefthand side show some of the older housing stock, which were substantial homes in their day.  The street sign visible on the left is Queen Victoria Street, and still occupied with terraced housing.  I suspect they were built in the early 1900s or a little earlier.  Today the area is somewhat sad!

An historic photo from May 1941 blitz added for comparison.