Spencer Dock ( ga, Duga Spencer) is a former

wharf A wharf, quay (, also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more berths (mooring locatio ...

area, close to where the

Royal Canal The Royal Canal ( ga, An Chanáil Ríoga) is a canal originally built for freight and passenger transportation from Dublin to Longford in Ireland. It is one of two canals from Dublin to the River Shannon and was built in direct competition ...

meets the

River Liffey The River Liffey (Irish: ''An Life'', historically ''An Ruirthe(a)ch'') is a river in eastern Ireland that ultimately flows through the centre of Dublin to its mouth within Dublin Bay. Its major tributaries include the River Dodder, the River ...

, in the North Wall area of

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 ...

. As of the 21st century, the area has been redeveloped with occupants of the Spencer Dock development including the

Convention Centre Dublin The Convention Centre Dublin () is a convention centre in the Dublin Docklands, Ireland. The Convention centre overlooks the River Liffey at Spencer Dock. It was designed by the Irish-born American architect Kevin Roche. Construction started i ...

PricewaterhouseCoopers PricewaterhouseCoopers is an international professional services brand of firms, operating as partnerships under the PwC brand. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounting ...

' Irish headquarters,

Credit Suisse Credit Suisse Group AG is a global investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland. Headquartered in Zürich, it maintains offices in all major financial centers around the world and is one of the nine global " ...

and

TMF Group TMF Group is a multinational professional services firm headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The independent group provides accounting, tax, HR and payroll services to businesses operating on an international scale. TMF Group, with 125 offic ...

. The Central Bank of Ireland and

NTMA The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) ( ga, Gníomhaireacht Bainistíochta an Chisteáin Náisiúnta) is the agency that manages the assets and liabilities of the Government of Ireland. It was established on 1 December 1990 to borrow for ...

have offices in the nearby

Dublin Landings Dublin Landings is a commercial and residential development in the Docklands Strategic Development Zone and within the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC), Dublin, Ireland. The development includes 300 private rented sector apartment ...

development. The main building in the area was previously the former

North Wall railway station North Wall was one of Dublin's six original rail termini, the others being Westland Row (now Pearse Station), Amiens Street (now Connolly Station), Kingsbridge (now Heuston Station), Broadstone and Harcourt Street (now a bar and nightclub comp ...

which formed the terminus bringing goods and passengers to the quays.

History

London and North Western Hotel, Dublin (1884)

The dockland area was originally part of the end of the

, which still reaches the

here.

1873 docks complex

The dock was constructed in 1873 to accommodate the coal ships and other barges primarily of the Midland Great Western Railway Company and served as both a railway and canal depot. The original Sheriff Street Drawbridge was constructed in 1873 but replaced by the Sheriff Street Lifting Bridge in 1941. The name relates to

John Spencer, 5th Earl Spencer John Poyntz Spencer, 5th Earl Spencer, KG, KP, PC (27 October 1835 – 13 August 1910), known as Viscount Althorp from 1845 to 1857 (and also known as the "Red Earl" because of his distinctive long red beard), was a British Liberal Party poli ...

and

Lord Lieutenant of Ireland Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (), or more formally Lieutenant General and General Governor of Ireland, was the title of the chief governor of Ireland from the Williamite Wars of 1690 until the Partition of Ireland in 1922. This spanned the Kingdo ...

; who opened the docks complex in 1873; conferring a knighthood on MGWR chairman

Ralph Cusack Sir Ralph Vincent Cusack (1916–1978) was a judge of the High Court of England and Wales. Life Cusack was born in Ireland, the son of Dora and John Cusack, KC, later a judge (d. 1940), who contested the seat of Newry as a Unionist at the Ja ...

at the same time.

Modern Spencer Dock development

Most of the 206,000 m² (51 acre) site now known as ''Spencer Dock'' was owned by Córas Iompair Éireann for much of the 20th century. With increasing land values in the early 2000s and as the freight yards became surplus to requirements, it sold the land on to

Treasury Holdings Treasury Holdings was an Irish property development company headed by Johnny Ronan and Richard Barrett. The company, which was insolvent with a huge amount of debt, was wound up in October 2012. History Treasury Holdings was formed in 1989 with ...

while retaining a 17.5% interest in the freehold. CIÉ later also sold its minority holding to a property fund managed by

Davy Group Davy Group is Ireland's largest stockbroker, wealth manager, asset manager and financial advisor and has offices in Dublin, Belfast, Cork, Galway and London. Davy offers services to private clients, small businesses, corporations and instituti ...

. All 614 apartments in the development were sold to private buyers. Following the appointment of receivers over the office property, the office complex was sold in its entirety for €242m in 2016.

Geography

The original area was Spencer Dock area was defined by a ribbon of development from the Liffey along the

up to about the Main Dublin to Belfast railway line, the two parts of Spencer Dock being separated by the bridge at Sheriff Street and separated from the Liffey by a

sea lock A lock is a device used for raising and lowering boats, ships and other watercraft between stretches of water of different levels on river and canal waterways. The distinguishing feature of a lock is a fixed chamber in which the water ...

. The modern development is defined as being part of the North Wall area of

Dublin Docklands Dublin Docklands ( ga, Ceantar Dugaí Átha Cliath) is an area of the city of Dublin, Ireland, on both sides of the River Liffey, roughly from Talbot Memorial Bridge eastwards to the 3Arena. It mainly falls within the city's D01 and D02 ...

. The Point Village area lies to the east with

claiming to be a small area between the two. One focal point of the area is the Luas tram stop and the adjacent park.

Infrastructure

Luas bridge at Spencer Dock - panoramio (9)

Rail

Spencer Dock is served by the

Docklands railway station Docklands Station (''Stáisiún Dugthailte'') is a terminus railway station serving the Dublin Docklands area in Ireland. It is owned and operated by Iarnród Éireann and planned as part of the Government Transport 21 initiative. The island plat ...

on Sheriff Street, at the north end of the site. Commuter services to the

area on the Western Commuter line began in March 2007. Under the

Transport 21 Transport 21 was an Irish infrastructure plan, announced in November 2005. Its aims were to greatly expand Ireland's transport network. A cost estimate of €34 billion was attached to the plan at the time. The plan included continuing inves ...

initiative, at one time due for completion by 2018, the station was to move south to a permanent location along New Wapping Street. This station, proposed to connect to an extended

Luas Luas (pronounced ; Irish for "speed") is a tram/ light rail system in Dublin, Ireland. There are two main lines: the Green Line, which began operating on 30 June 2004, and the Red Line which opened on 26 September 2004. Since then, both lin ...

Red line, was deferred due to the

Post-2008 Irish economic downturn The post-2008 Irish economic downturn in the Republic of Ireland, coincided with a series of banking scandals, followed the 1990s and 2000s Celtic Tiger period of rapid real economic growth fuelled by foreign direct investment, a subsequent p ...

Luas

The

Red Line which runs from

Tallaght ) , image_skyline = TallaghtDublinD24.jpg , image_caption = Tallaght, Dublin , image_flag = , flag_size = , pushpin_map = Dublin#Ireland , pushpin_label_position = left , ...

Saggart Saggart ( ga, Teach Sagard) is a village in South Dublin, Ireland, south west of Dublin city. It lies between the N7 (Naas Road), Rathcoole, Citywest and Tallaght. It is one of the fastest-growing settlements in Ireland, showing a populat ...

to The Point (via

Busáras Busáras (; from '' bus'' + '' áras'' "building") is the central bus station in Dublin, Ireland for Intercity and regional bus services operated by Bus Éireann. Designed in the International Modern style, Busáras is also a stop on the Red L ...

and

Heuston Railway station Heuston Station ( ; ga, Stáisiún Heuston; formerly Kingsbridge Station) also known as Dublin Heuston, is one of Dublin's largest railway stations and links the capital with the south, southwest and west of Ireland. It is operated by Iar ...

) has a

Spencer Dock Spencer Dock ( ga, Duga Spencer) is a former wharf area, close to where the Royal Canal meets the River Liffey, in the North Wall area of Dublin, Ireland. As of the 21st century, the area has been redeveloped with occupants of the Spencer ...

stop.

Dublin Bikes

In 2014, two

Dublin Bikes Dublinbikes (styled "dublinbikes") is a public bicycle rental scheme which has operated in the city of Dublin since 2009. At its launch, the scheme, which is sponsored by JCDecaux, used 450 French-made unisex bicycles with 40 stations. By 201 ...

stations were opened, one at Guild Street and another at the convention centre.

Bridges

The Sheriff Street Lifting Bridge was installed between 1939 and 1941. A single-span

bascule bridge A bascule bridge (also referred to as a drawbridge or a lifting bridge) is a moveable bridge with a counterweight that continuously balances a span, or leaf, throughout its upward swing to provide clearance for boat traffic. It may be single- or ...

, it replaces the earlier James Price designed swivel bridge of 1873 which was the first mechanical crossing of Spencer Dock, and separated its inner and outer portions. The Spencer Dock Bridge carries road, LUAS and pedestrian traffic from Dublin over the

into the Spencer Dock area. The

Spencer Dock Luas stop Spencer Dock ( ga, Duga Spencer) is a stop on the Luas light-rail tram system in Dublin, Ireland. It opened in 2009 as one of four stops on an extension of the Red Line through the docklands to The Point. The stop is located on a section of ...

is some 200m to the east. The bridge 200m north of where the Royal Canal meets the Liffey, while the Sheriff Street Lifting bridge carrying the R101 road is a further 160m north. The bridge has a shallow desk of just thick while the width varies from to .

References

Sources

* *

External links

Luas Spencer Dock Live information websiteIrish Rail Docklands Railway station website
Dublin Docklands North Wall, Dublin Places in Dublin (city)