Hyndford Street

Hyndford Street is a Protestant working-class street in Bloomfield, Belfast, in Northern Ireland. It lies off the Beersbridge Road. It is most well known for being the birthplace of musician Van Morrison. Van lived in 125 Hyndford Street, with his father, George Morrison, and his mother, Violet Morrison. Morrison's good friend, jazz musician George Cassidy also grew up on Hyndford Street, number 49. Cassidy taught Van Morrison tenor saxophone and music reading lessons. Van described him as a "big inspiration" and went on to say: "At 15, I was taking lessons from a guy called George Cassidy, who lived in the same street. He was a great jazz player. He had the chops."' As Van Morrison and George Cassidy both lived on the same street, this made it extremely accessible for Morrison to continue to learn, they continued to bond, and became great friends.