Running from Fleet Street to Aston Quay, the name of this laneway was changed from Lee’s Lane in 1884. The laneway appears as ‘Lees Lane’ in Rocque, and also in a map of 1764. In February 1884, the owners and tenants of houses on the laneway asked the Corporation to change the name to Aston…
Formerly ‘Pitt Street’, this is one of two streets in Dublin named for Michael William Balfe (1808–70), composer and musician, best known for his opera ‘The Bohemian Girl’, and the aria ‘I dreamt I dwelt in Marble Halls’. (The other is Balfe Road, Walkinstown.) Originally part of Harry Street,1 it became its own street, as…
The first bridge named ‘Butt Bridge’ was designed by the magnificently-named Bindon Blood Stoney, assistant engineer to the Port and Docks Board, and it took a little over two years to build, work having begun in May 1877. It was designed to swivel open to allow river traffic travel up the river, as far as…
With an entrance on Dame Street, at the Olympia Theatre, the earliest reference to this laneway is in June 1637, when it was mentioned in the City Assembly Roll, described as ‘the way leadinge from the Custome house … to Damastrete‘. The first reference to the name appears in Shaw’s parochial survey of 1745. The…
The ‘old’ Custom House was erected on what is now Wellington Quay in 1621. It was rebuilt in 1704, and remained in use until it was replaced by the present Custom House in 1791.
Running parallel to George’s Street, Drury Street dates to the mid-17th century. It appears on De Gomme’s map of 1673 as ‘Little Butter Lane1 and as ‘Little Boater Lane’ on Rocque’s map of 1756.2 That name, and its various later forms, derives from the Irish An Bóthar Beag (‘the little road’). An Bóthar Beag remains…
This terrace of five houses on Adelaide Road, next to the Eye & Ear, was originally called ‘Salem Place’. M’Cready dates it to 1848, but the houses are listed in Thom’s for 1847. The earliest map I can find it on is from 1883. Salem is a place in the Bible, and of course Salem,…
The original name of Balfe Street. Named for William Pitt the Younger, son of the first Earl of Chatham, from whom comes Chatham Street. Pitt, as Prime Minister, was the chief architect of the the Act of Union (1801).
Tara Street was built between 1879 and 1884, to link Great Brunswick Street (Pearse Street) to Butt Bridge, which was opened in 1879. The new street was built under the auspices of the Corporation’s Public Health Committee, which reported on its completion in April 1884. The Committee put forward four names for the City Council…
