DFA Staff Pick: The Mystery Street

In 1964, UTV reporter Maurice Smyth informed viewers of confusion surrounding a mystery street which had been recently built in Belfast. This was a street no one could find. Deep in the heart of Sydenham a new development had sprung up at the end of Victoria Drive in the heart of Sydenham. However, despite continuing directly in a straight line from Victoria Drive, the new houses were named Vidor Gardens - and that's where the problems began.

At the time of the report, Vidor Gardens had been built five years earlier - and then just seemingly abandoned, unfinished. The road and footpaths had never been surfaced and, most importantly, the street signs had never been put in place. This led to a situation where no one could find the street and residents had to go out and stand on neighbouring streets to guide in doctors for house calls.

Ahh, you must be saying, these problems wouldn't exist in the modern age with GPS navigation for cars. And yet they do. It was a shock for me to see this report in the archive because I live in this street today. And I can assure you these problems persist - made even worse by a third street being added beyond Vidor Gardens called Vidor Court. It's the street that is three streets in one and, while it may still confuse satellite navigation systems, at least these days there are street signs for those on the ground.

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