Stephen Street () is a street on the southside of

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. It is divided into Stephen Street Upper (western part), connecting Golden Lane to

Aungier Street Aungier Street () is a street on the south side of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It runs north-south as a continuation of South Great George's Street. It is the location of both a Technological University Dublin and a Dublin Business Sc ...

, and Stephen Street Lower (eastern part), running from Aungier Street to Johnson Place.

History

Plaque on first Dunlop tyre factory - geograph

Medieval Dublin

Stephen Street takes its name from the medieval church and later

leper hospital A leper colony, also known by many other names, is an isolated community for the quarantining and treatment of lepers, people suffering from leprosy. '' M. leprae'', the bacterium responsible for leprosy, is believed to have spread from East ...

Saint Stephen Stephen (; ) is traditionally venerated as the protomartyr or first martyr of Christianity."St ...

, located on the site of present-day

Mercer's Hospital Mercer's Hospital () was a hospital in Dublin, Ireland. It was converted into a clinical centre and medical library for the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in 1991.St Stephen's Green St Stephen's Green () is a garden square and public park located in the city centre of Dublin, Ireland. The current landscape of the park was designed by William Sheppard. It was officially re-opened to the public on Tuesday, 27 July 1880 by ...

also gets its name from the same source. The church and churchyard disappeared following the uniting of the parish of St Stephen with that of St Michael Le Pole and St. Bride's to form the new parish of St Brides in 1684. The street is believed to derive its curved shape from the embankment that stood outside

Dublin's city walls The walls and fortifications around Dublin were raised by the Ostmen in the 9th century, and the majority of the cities in Ireland remained subject to incursions by native clans until the 17th century. The defences of Dublin would eventually ...

in the medieval period; the modern streets still follow the line of this earthen ridge that was built sometime in the 12th or 13th century.

Georgian Dublin

During the Georgian period, the street formed a major ring road of the city proper and became a fashionable location for city dwellers. Leitrim House, the best surviving 18th-century building on the street was built during this period around 1760. One of the oldest structures on the street is the Central Dairy at 19 Stephen Street Upper, a two-bay four-storey former house dating to . It would have originally had a "Dutch Billy" style roof but was refaced in machine-made brick in c1890.

Modern Dublin

The Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Factory, the world's first

pneumatic tyre A tire (North American English) or tyre (Commonwealth English) is a ring-shaped component that surrounds a wheel's rim to transfer a vehicle's load from the axle through the wheel to the ground and to provide traction on the surface over w ...

factory, was built in the area in 1889. A fire broke out at Moore & Co's

garage A garage is a covered structure built for the purpose of parking, storing, protecting, maintaining, and/or repairing vehicles. Specific applications include: *Garage (residential), a building or part of a building for storing one or more vehicl ...

on Stephen Street on 15 July 1970, one of the 1970 arson attacks thought to have been carried out by the

Ulster Volunteer Force The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) is an Ulster loyalism, Ulster loyalist paramilitary group based in Northern Ireland. Formed in 1965, it first emerged in 1966. Its first leader was Gusty Spence, a former Royal Ulster Rifles soldier from North ...

. The

Leinster School of Music & Drama The Leinster School of Music & Drama, in Dublin, Ireland, provides tuition and examinations in music and drama throughout Ireland. ''"She beckoned to him with her finger like one preparing a certificate in pianoforte...at the Leinster School o ...

was based on Stephen Street between 1982 and 1998.

Notable residents

John Hely Sir John Hely (born c. 1650 – died 7 April 1701) was an English-born judge in Ireland, who held office as Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer, and who was the founder of the prominent landowning Hely family of Foulkscourt Castle, Johnstown, Count ...

- jurist *

John FitzGibbon, 1st Earl of Clare John FitzGibbon, 1st Earl of Clare Privy Council of Ireland, PC (Ire) (1748 – 28 January 1802), was Attorney-General for Ireland from 1783 to 1789 and Lord Chancellor of Ireland from 1789 to 1802. He remains a deeply controversial figure i ...

- Attorney General * Robert Hunter - painter

Gallery

File:IBOA House, Stephen St Upper-Great Longford St - geograph.org.uk - 574050.jpg, IBOA House, Stephen Street Upper File:Golden Lane to Stephen St - geograph.org.uk - 574058.jpg, Junction with Golden Lane and Ship Street File:Site of first tyre factory, Dublin - geograph.org.uk - 1586597.jpg, Site of former tyre factory File:P Mac's Stephens Street.jpg, Corner with Digges Lane File:The hospital in Steven's Street.jpg, Mary Mercer's hospital taken from Charles Brooking's map of Dublin of 1728 which was built on the old church grounds of St Stephen

References

{{Streets in Dublin city, state=autocollapse Streets in Dublin (city)