The Wide Streets Commission (officially the Commissioners for making Wide and Convenient Ways, Streets and Passages) [1] was established by an Act of Parliament in 1758, at the request of Dublin Corporation, as a body to govern standards on the layout of streets, bridges, buildings and other architectural and civic considerations in Dublin.
Other improvement commissioners in Dublin in the same era were the Pipe Water Committee for drinking water, the Paving Board for footpaths, public lighting and sewerage, and the Ballast Board for Dublin Port. [2]
The various improvement commissioners were abolished when with the last of their functions being absorbed into Dublin Corporation in 1851.
Parliament Street Act 1757 | |
---|---|
Act of Parliament | |
Long title | An Act for making a wide and convenient way, street, and passage, from Essex-Bridge to the Castle of Dublin, and for other purposes therein mentioned. |
Citation | 31 Geo. 2. c. 19 (I) |
Dates | |
Royal assent | 29 April 1758 |
Repealed | 1 August 1849 |
Other legislation | |
Amended by | 33 Geo. 2. c. 15 (I), 7 Geo. 3. c. 7 (I) |
Repealed by | Dublin Improvement Act 1849 |
Relates to | 12 & 13 Vict. c. 97 |
The Wide Streets Commission was established in 1758. Over the following decades, the commission reshaped the old medieval city of Dublin, and created a network of main thoroughfares by wholesale demolition or widening of old streets or the creation of entirely new ones. [3]
One of the first projects was to widen Essex Bridge (now Grattan Bridge), in 1755 to cope with the traffic congestion caused by human, horse-drawn, and bovine traffic crossing the River Liffey from Capel Street. The building of Parliament Street and the Royal Exchange (now Dublin City Hall), to create a vista from across the river Liffey on Capel Street, soon followed. [4]
Other major initiatives, under the then Chief Commissioner John Beresford, included the effort to merge and widen several narrow streets into one new street on Dublin's northside, creating Sackville Street (now called O'Connell Street). The main north–south axis of the city was thus moved from Capel Street and Parliament Street to the new thoroughfare further east.
The widening of Dame Street, between Cork Hill and College Green was the second great initiative of the commission. This work was initiated in 1777, but it was not until 1782 that the first new building was built at Palace Street. Christchurch and George's Street are also the result of the project of widening Georgian Dublin's congested streets. North Frederick Street was created from 1789 linking Sackville Street and Dorset Street.
Between 1785 and 1790 further phases of the Dame Street project was undertaken between George's Lane and Trinity Street. Drawings exist dated 1832 for the buildings between Fownes Street and Temple Lane.[ citation needed ]
Westmoreland Street (90 feet wide), and D'Olier Street (90 feet wide and designed by Henry Aaron Baker) [5] and part of Burgh Quay (1806) including the new Corn Exchange, formed part of the work of the commission. [6] Originally many of the new houses had 15 feet high granite shop fronts at street level which were divided into three bays, a narrow bay at each side, incorporating a door, and a wide bay at the middle of the facade for the display of goods. Many of these shopfronts still remain on the west side of d'Olier Street. [7]
Many of the Wide Street Commission buildings can be seen today on streets with granite shopfronts at ground floor level and brick facades above. They are generally streets with standardised house designs such as Burgh Quay.
Wellington Quay – with its arcaded shop fronts – and Merchants Arch are also part of the commission's work, as are Eden Quay, Lower Abbey Street, Bachelor's Walk, and Beresford Place.
The commission was abolished by the Dublin Improvement Act 1849 (12 & 13 Vict. c. 97), with the final meeting of the commission taking place on 2 January 1851. [8]
The Paving Board had been appointed by an act of Parliament, the City of Dublin Act 1773 (13 & 14 Geo. 3. c. 22 (I)) of 1774, and were charged with the duty of "improving the streets by paving the roadway, altering the levels, and removing encroachments". They also had the power to re-order the numbering of houses. [9] The body operated from a house on the corner of Nassau Street and Dawson Street and later moved to Langford House on Mary Street from around 1819 when it was referred to as the Paving House. [10] [11]
O'Connell Street is a street in the centre of Dublin, Ireland, running north from the River Liffey. It connects the O'Connell Bridge to the south with Parnell Street to the north and is roughly split into two sections bisected by Henry Street. The Luas tram system runs along the street.
Georgian Dublin is a phrase used in terms of the history of Dublin that has two interwoven meanings:
The Custom House is a neoclassical 18th century building in Dublin, Ireland which houses the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. It is located on the north bank of the River Liffey, on Custom House Quay between Butt Bridge and Talbot Memorial Bridge.
The architecture of Ireland is one of the most visible features in the Irish countryside – with remains from all eras since the Stone Age abounding. Ireland is famous for its ruined and intact Norman and Anglo-Irish castles, small whitewashed thatched cottages and Georgian urban buildings. What are unaccountably somewhat less famous are the still complete Palladian and Rococo country houses which can be favourably compared to anything similar in northern Europe, and the country's many Gothic and neo-Gothic cathedrals and buildings.
James Gandon was an English architect best known for his work in Ireland during the late 18th century and early 19th century. His better known works include The Custom House and the surrounding Beresford Place, the Four Courts and the King's Inns in Dublin and Emo Court in County Laois.
Grattan Bridge is a road bridge spanning the River Liffey in Dublin, Ireland, and joining Capel Street to Parliament Street and the south quays.
O'Connell Bridge is a road bridge spanning the River Liffey in Dublin, Ireland, which joins O'Connell Street to D'Olier Street, Westmoreland Street and the south quays.
Boards of improvement commissioners were ad hoc urban local government boards created during the 18th and 19th centuries in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and its predecessors the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland. Around 300 boards were created, each by a local act of Parliament, typically termed an Improvement Act. The powers of the boards varied according to the acts which created them. They often included street paving, cleansing, lighting, providing watchmen or dealing with various public nuisances. Those with restricted powers might be called lighting commissioners, paving commissioners, police commissioners, etc.
This article deals with the streets and squares in Dublin and the Greater Dublin Area of Ireland.
George's Quay is a street and quay in Dublin on the southern bank of the River Liffey. It is located between Burgh Quay and Hawkins Street to the west, and City Quay and Talbot Memorial Bridge to the east.
Britain Quay is a street and quay in Dublin on the south bank of the River Liffey between Sir John Rogerson's Quay and the confluence of the River Liffey, River Dodder and Grand Canal.
St. Mary's Abbey was a former Cistercian abbey located near the junction of Abbey Street and Capel Street in Dublin, Ireland. Its territory stretched from the district known as Oxmanstown down along the River Liffey until it met the sea. It also owned large estates in other parts of Ireland. It was one of several liberties that existed in Dublin since the arrival of the Anglo-Normans in the 12th century, which gave it jurisdiction over its lands.
D'Olier Street is a street in the southern city-centre of Dublin, the capital of Ireland. It and Westmoreland Street are two broad streets whose northern ends meet at the southern end of O'Connell Bridge over the River Liffey. Its southern end meets Fleet Street, Townsend Street, College Street and Pearse Street.
The Dublin quays refers to the two roadways and quays that run along the north and south banks of the River Liffey in Dublin, Ireland. The stretches of the two continuous streets have several different names. However, all but two of the names share the same "quay" designation. The quays have played an important part in Dublin's history.
Mary Street is a predominantly retail street in Dublin, Ireland on the northside of the city contiguous with Henry Street.
Hawkins Street is a street in central Dublin, Ireland. It runs south from Rosie Hackett Bridge, at its junction with Burgh Quay, for 160 metres (170 yd) to a crossroads with Townsend Street, where it continues as College Street.
Merchants' Hall is a former 19th century guildhall, now a protected structure, on Wellington Quay in Dublin, Ireland. It is located opposite the Ha'penny Bridge and backs on to Temple Bar. The building was the last of the city guildhalls to be constructed and only operated as a guildhall for a period of 20 years before ceasing as the Merchants' Guild ended its main work, along with the other Guilds of the City of Dublin.
Parliament Street is a street located on Dublin's Southside. It runs from the junction of Dame Street and Cork Hill on its southern end to the junction of Essex Quay and Wellington Quay on its northern end where it joins directly onto Grattan Bridge and subsequently Capel Street.
The Custom House was a large brick and limestone building located at present-day Wellington Quay in Dublin, Ireland which operated as a custom house, hosting officials overseeing the functions associated with the import and export of goods to Dublin from 1707 until 1791. It also served as the headquarters of the Revenue Commissioners, as a meeting place and offices for the Wide Streets Commission and was said to be Dublin's first dedicated office building.
The Corn Exchange is a former commercial building and corn exchange on Burgh Quay, Dublin, Ireland. The 19th-century structure, which was subsequently converted to office space, is included in the Record of Protected Structures maintained by Dublin City Council.