Running west from Annesley Bridge Road, this cul-de-sac was developed between 1897 and 1902 on a plot of land to the north of the Vitriol Works at Ballybough. The road was originally named Addison ‘street’, but on 10 November 1902, the Corporation’s Paving Committee reported: Your Committee beg to report that they have received a…
Renamed from Neagh Road. This street was originally developed as an extension to Neagh Road in 1949, when a number of private houses were built. The first houses on Neagh Road were built by the Corporation some ten years previously. In 1954 it was proposed that a plebiscite be held to ‘decide if that portion…
Running north-west from Neagh Road to Aideen Avenue, this street was originally a part of Neagh Road. In January 1934 the Corporation received a request from the residents that the name be changed to Aideen Drive.1 The Corporation agreed that a plebiscite be held, noting that the name would be ‘Céide Éadaoin’.2 In the plebiscite…
Running from Hanlon’s Corner to Cabra Road, this road was formerly part of Quarry Lane. See the entry for Quarry Road for this. In 1902 the Corporation received a letter from Mr John Hanlon, North Circular Road, asking that the name be changed to Annamoe Road; he had just built some houses adjoining his own…
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…
Beresford Lane, which runs down the side of the old Labour Exchange, formerly Trinity Church, on Lower Gardiner Street, was originally called Moland Street. The street appears to have been constructed in the late 1780s or early 1790s; it’s named on a map of 1798, shown as including all of Frenchman’s Lane, that is on…
This street, off Bolton Street, was originally called Cross Lane, and is shown with that name on Rocque. (There was another Bolton Parade, off Dorset Street, I think.) In 1894, some of the local ratepayers applied to the Corporation to have the name changed to “European Place’. According to the memorialists, the street had ‘for…
Running from the North Wall to Sheriff Street, Castleforbes Road was originally called ‘Fish Street’. The street dates from the mid-eighteenth century, appearing as ‘Fish Street’ on a map of 1757.1 The name likely derives from some association with fishing: perhaps fish were off-loaded at that part of the quays? Although it was listed in…
Running from O’Connell Street to Marlborough Street, down the side of the Pro-Cathedral, for which it is named, this street went by three other names previously. It appears as ‘Stable Lane’ on Rocque’s map (1756),1 but within twenty years was called ‘Elephant Lane’. There’s no evidence for the origin of that name, but we do…
Donore Avenue is one of several streets in the City which at one time bore the name ‘Love Lane’. The street itself dates from as early as the mid-eighteenth century, and it’s shown on Rocque’s map the same year. In 1895 the Corporation’s Paving Committee received, and agreed with, ‘a numerously signed memorial from resident…
Originally named Dispensary Lane, the street was renamed Dorset Avenue in 1902 at the request of the owner of the properties on the lane, Robert White, 1 North Frederick Street. It seems that Dispensary Lane had ‘acquired a very undesirable reputation, in consequence of which it is found impossible to induce a good class of…
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…
The name of this street was changed to Parnell Street in 1911.
Off Summerhill, Hill Street was formerly called Temple Street Lower. Dating from the 1770s, by 1885 this part of Temple Street had gained a poor reputation. In that year the Corporation’s Paving Committee reported that it had received: [M]emorials from the inhabitants and owners of house property in Upper Temple-street and Lower Temple-street, praying that…
Previously called Carey’s Lane, this street off Ballybough Road, near Ballybough Bridge, was renamed because of the hostility that the name ‘Carey’ attracted from being borne by the notorious informer James Carey, one of the Invincibles. (The name had no link with Carey himself.) James Carey (1845–1883) was a Dublin-born builder and leading Fenian who…
Off Summerhill, this very short lane has a convoluted history, name-wise. Listed as ‘Hutton’s Lane’ in 1833, by 1841 it was called ‘Mountjoy Place, Lower’. That name lasted until 1861, after which it reverted to ‘Hutton’s Lane’. In 1878 the Corporation decided to change the name to ‘Hutton’s Place’, no doubt because of the ‘evil…
Laid out in the early 1700s, this street was named ‘Mabbot Street’ as early as 1721, when it was reported that complaints had been received from residents of the Strand about ‘… the dirt and filth of the streets and markets being laid down there by the city carts, which doth occasion a great stench,…
Nicholas Avenue, running west from Church Street to Bow Street, was formerly called Bedford Street, named for John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford, Lord Lieutenant from 1756-61, and Chancellor of the University of Dublin (Trinity) from 1765-71. The street is shown unnamed on Rocque, but is listed in Harris’s work of 1766. It is shown…
Renamed from Great Britain Street. Parnell Street runs east from Capel Street to Summerhill. As far back as 1328 it was recorded as as running ‘from Oustmantown so far as Tulghan [Tolka?] by the middle way of the town of Ballyboght‘ and referred to as ‘The King’s Highway’. It is shown without a name on…
For a small, residential street in Dublin 1, Railway Street has had more names than most streets in the city. Mecklenburgh Street Originally know as Martin’s Lane or Great Martin’s Lane,1 the street originally consisted of two stretches, the ‘upper’ part from Marlborough Street to Gardiner Street, and the ‘lower’ part from from there to…
Running from Liffey Street West to Arran Quay, Sarsfield Quay was originally called Pembroke Quay. It was renamed by the Corporation by a resolution on 2 November 1885.1 When the motion was proposed at the meeting, an amendment was put ‘to refer the proposal to the Paving and Lighting Committee to ascertain whether the proposed…
This street, running off St Mary’s Place, Dorset Street, was originally called Walsh’s Row. The street appears on a Wide Streets Commission map of 1827, and first appears in the street directory for 1833. The houses on the street were certainly occupied by 1837. In 1884 the Paving and Lighting Committee of the Corporation was…
Originally named ‘Kingsland Park’, this street in Portobello was renamed by the Corporation in 1875. Kingsland Place was built on the grounds of Portobello Gardens. In 1866 the Corporation was asked by Mr Frederick Stokes to take in charge ‘the new streets called Kingsland park and Florence Street, near Portobello’. In October 1871 the Kingsland…
