South Great George's Street is a street in south-central
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
,
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
.
History
Early history and naming
The area is associated with
Early Scandinavian Dublin
:''This article is concerned with the History of Dublin between 795 and 902 CE and follows History of Dublin: Earliest times to 795.''
The First Viking Age in Ireland began in 795, when Vikings began carrying out hit-and-run raids on Gaelic Ir ...
. Four burials excavated near South Great George's Street were also associated with domestic habitations, suggesting that the deceased had been members of a settled Norse community, and not the fatalities suffered by a transient raiding party.
The street was originally called ''St George's Lane'' and takes its name from a church dedicated to
Saint George
Saint George (Greek: Γεώργιος (Geórgios), Latin: Georgius, Arabic: القديس جرجس; died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was a Christian who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to tradition he was a soldier ...
, patron of England and lepers, which stood here in 1181. The church was rebuilt in 1213 and stood until demolition in 1586.
By 1766 it is being called St George's Street, but in 1773 the northern end still referred to as Lane.
It is thought that South Great George's Street follows the course of an early medieval route – or possibly even the eastern boundary of a ''
longphort'', assuming that there was a naval encampment along the eastern shore of the Black Pool (''Dubh Linn'') of Dublin at some stage in the settlement's early history.
18th to 19th centuries
The acrobat Madame Violante opened a theatre on George's Lane in 1731. The building subsequently became the Dublin Lying-In Hospital in 1745, which was the first
maternity hospital
A maternity hospital specializes in caring for women during pregnancy and childbirth. It also provides care for newborn infants, and may act as a centre for clinical training in midwifery and obstetrics. Formerly known as lying-in hospitals, most o ...
in the British Isles. Later, relocated, it became the
Rotunda Hospital
The Rotunda Hospital ( ga, Ospidéal an Rotunda; legally the Hospital for the Relief of Poor Lying-in Women, Dublin) is a maternity hospital on Parnell Street in Dublin, Ireland, now managed by RCSI Hospitals. The eponymous Rotunda in Parnell Squ ...
. The earlier premises subsequently became a hospital for treating
venereal diseases
Sexually transmitted infections (STIs), also referred to as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and the older term venereal diseases, are infections that are Transmission (medicine), spread by Human sexual activity, sexual activity, especi ...
until 1769; the treatment subsequently moved to the
Westmoreland Lock Hospital
The Westmoreland Lock Hospital ( ga, Ospidéal Loc Westmoreland) was a hospital for venereal disease originally located at Donnybrook and later moved to Lazar's Hill (now Townsend Street), Dublin, Ireland.
History
Surgeon George Doyle first est ...
.
The Castle Market was held here in the 18th century. In 1765, George's Lane hosted the first exhibition by the Society of Dublin Artists.
In the 1780s, the street was rebuilt by the
Wide Streets Commission
The Wide Streets Commission (officially the Commissioners for making Wide and Convenient Ways, Streets and Passages) was established by an Act of Parliament in 1758, at the request of Dublin Corporation, as a body to govern standards on the layou ...
and renamed ''South Great George's Street'' (the name distinguishes it from North Great George's Street, located on the
Northside
Northside or North Side may refer to:
Music
* Northside (band), a musical group from Manchester, England
* NorthSide, an American record label
* NorthSide Festival (Denmark), a music festival in Aarhus, Denmark
* "Norf Norf", a 2015 song by Vinc ...
).
Pim Brothers & Co. drapery store and warehouse opened on a building at the lower end of the street around 1843. It was refurbished ten years later by Sandham Symes. The premises closed in 1970 and is now a government office.
During
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...
's 1849 visit, shortly after the
Great Famine, a pharmacist on South Great George's Street flew a black flag with a crownless harp and black banners with the words "
Famine
A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including war, natural disasters, crop failure, Demographic trap, population imbalance, widespread poverty, an Financial crisis, economic catastrophe or government policies. Th ...
" and "
Pestilence"; these were removed by the
Dublin Metropolitan Police
The Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) was the police force of Dublin, Ireland, from 1836 to 1925, when it was amalgamated into the new Garda Síochána.
History
19th century
The Dublin city police had been subject to major reforms in 1786 and ...
.
The South City Markets (today
George's Street Arcade) opened in 1881, and were designed by Lockwood and Mawson. One of the central landmarks the building is an ornate red brick and terracotta structure which originally housed a glass-covered marketplace. The market was gutted after a serious fire in 1892, and was replaced with intersecting arcades in a cruciform plan designed by
William Henry Byrne
William Henry Byrne (17 May 184428 April 1917) was an Irish architect who mainly designed churches. He studied under James Joseph McCarthy before going into business with John O’Neill in 1869. He worked on his own after O'Neill's death in 1883. ...
. This interior has since be remodelled, but some original elements are still visible.
Bewley's
Bewley's is an Irish hot beverage company, located in Dublin and founded in 1840, which operates internationally. Its primary business operations are the production of tea and coffee, and the operations of cafés. Bewley's has operations in Ire ...
café opened in 1894 and remained on the street until 1999.
20th to 21st centuries
Like many parts of Dublin in the 1960s and 1970s, parts of the street were redeveloped as office space. Known as "the two ugly sisters", Castle House and Wicklow House were built on the western side of the street. They were built on the site of the former Pim's department store using pre-cast concrete with aluminium-fronted retail spaces on the ground floor. They were designed by the London architecture firm Arthur Swift and Partners.
In the 20th century, the street became popular with homosexuals, despite
homosexuality being illegal until 1993.
The George, Dublin's premier
gay bar
A gay bar is a drinking establishment that caters to an exclusively or predominantly lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) clientele; the term ''gay'' is used as a broadly inclusive concept for LGBT communities.
Gay bars once served as ...
, opened in 1985 and has become a centre of the
LGBT community
The LGBT community (also known as the LGBTQ+ community, GLBT community, gay community, or queer community) is a loosely defined grouping of lesbian, gay men, gay, bisexuality, bisexual, transgender, and other queer individuals united by a comm ...
. The Dragon, a rival, opened in 2006.
Cultural depictions
South Great George's Street appears several times in the work of
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...
:
Annie Sparrow's shop was located at 16 South Great George's Street.
See also
*
List of streets and squares in Dublin
This is a list of notable streets and squares in Dublin, Ireland.
__NOTOC__
References Notes
Sources
*
External linksStreetnames of DublinaArchiseekArchitecture of Ireland— English-Irish list of Dublin street names aLeathanach baile Sh ...
References
Citations
Sources
*
*
{{Streets in Dublin city, state=autocollapse
Streets in Dublin (city)
Gay villages in Ireland