Andersonstown

Andersonstown is a suburb in west Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is located at the foot of the Black Mountain and Divis Mountain and contains a mixture of public and private housing. It is largely a working class area populated by Irish nationalists/Irish Catholics. The district is sometimes colloquially referred to as "Andytown."HistoryThe area is located in County Antrim. Historically it is part of the Barony of Belfast Upper, the parish of Shankill and the townland of Ballydownfine. The area was also known as Whitesidetown after the family that owned the land but they were dispossessed for the support they gave to the Society of United Irishmen, resulting in a change of name. In 1832 it was described as ‘a village consisting of eleven families’ some of whom were Andersons. These were likely to have been of Lowland Scots origin.Previously a rural farming area it rapidly developed during the 1950s and 1960s as the local housing authority built hundreds of houses for people who were rehoused during the redevelopment of the lower Falls Road. As the population of the area increased Twinbrook and Poleglass housing estates were built further out of Belfast. Today it is a term used to describe the area bounded by the Andersonstown Road on the south, the Glen Road on the north and the Shaw's Road on the west.