Abbey Street

Abbey Street appears, albeit unnamed, on De Gomme’s map of 1673.¹

By 1728, as it appears on Brookings’ map, the street was well established, running west from Marlborough Street to Capel Street.²

Rocque’s map of 1756 shows ‘Little Abbey Street’ running from Capel Street to Liffey Street and ‘Great Abbey Street’ running from there to Drogheda Street [O’Connell Street].³

Abbey Street Lower was proposed by the Wide Streets Commission in 1815,⁴ and is shown on Warburton’s map of 1818.⁵

The current arrangement of Lower, Middle, and Upper, was established by REFERENCE NEEDED.

The name is derived from St Mary’s Abbey, founded in 1139, the remains of which can be seen in Meeting House Lane.

1. The city and suburbs of Dublin, from Kilmainham to Rings-End, werein the rivers, streets, lanes, allys, churches, gates & c. are exactly described, 1673, in National Maritime Museum, Greenwich (https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-541695) (9 December 202). ↩︎
2. A map of the city and suburbs of Dublin. And also the Archbishop and Earl of Meath’s liberties with the bounds of each parish, drawn from an actual survey. With inset A prospect of the city of Dublin from the north (Dublin, 1728). ↩︎
3. An exact survey of the city and suburbs of Dublin in which is express’d the ground plot of all publick buildings, dwelling houses, warehouses, stables, courts, yards, &c. By John Rocque, chorographer to their Royal Highnesses, the late and present Prince of Wales, 1756, in Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland (https://virtualtreasury.ie/item/LBC-Rocque) (19 Sept. 2024). ↩︎
4. Rob Goodbody, Dublin Part 3, 1756 to 1847 (Irish Historic Towns Atlas, No. 26)(Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 2014). ↩︎
5. James Warburton, James Whitelaw, and Robert Walsh, History of the City of Dublin, from the Earliest Accounts to the Present Time, 2 vols (London, 1818) (https://archive.org/details/historyofcityofd02warb/page/n7/mode/1up?view=theater) (10 December 2024). ↩︎