Of the four Belfast seats, this is probably the most affluent with several middle-class areas. It takes in much of the city centre, including Belfast City Hall. It includes several prosperous suburbs, the student populated university area and Belfast's 'golden mile' of restaurants and bars.
This seat also includes the Ormeau Road, the site of one of the most contentious Orange marches each year but the electoral ward of Ballynafeigh itself has a mixed population. Not far from there is Ian Paisley’s Martyrs’ Memorial Free Presbyterian Church on the Ravenhill Road.
Since Reverend Bradford’s death, the seat has been represented at Westminster by the Reverend Martin Smyth, the Ulster Unionist who in March 2000, as a staunch opponent of the Good Friday Agreement, unsuccessfully challenged David Trimble for the party leadership.
At the 1998 Assembly election the leader of the Women’s Coalition, Monica McWilliams, won a seat in South Belfast.