DUBLIN 1756 to 1847 the Dublin of the Mid Eighteenth Century Captured by John Rocque in His That Had Begun to Use Steam Power
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Dublin, from Blaquiere Bridge, Royal Canal, looking south, 1831, by George Petrie (Dublin delineated, p. 24) DUBLIN 1756 TO 1847 The Dublin of the mid eighteenth century captured by John Rocque in his that had begun to use steam power. Other legislation, however, addressed the Exact survey of the city and suburbs of Dublin was a sizeable city for the administration of the city or measures for improvement. The removal of certain period, indeed one of the largest in Europe,1 and had a mixture of impressive administrative functions from Dublin Corporation into bodies under central contemporary features alongside surviving medieval and early modern urban government control in the 1780s, such as paving, cleansing and lighting the fabric. The modern age was represented in fine public buildings, including streets, policing and responsibility for Dublin port, arose from allegations the substantial and impressive barracks, the Parliament House and Trinity of mismanagement by the corporation.5 As a result ad hoc bodies were College. The latter two defined a significant urban space at College Green that created to implement new measures such as the making of wide streets and was captured in engravings by Joseph Tudor (1753) and others (Plate 4). Some the improvement of Sackville Street and Marlborough Street, Rutland (later elements with their origins in the previous century were still impressive, such Parnell) Square, Merrion Square and the Circular Road. After the enactment of as the Royal Hospital at Kilmainham, the Liffey quays and St Stephen’s Green. the Union the flow of acts continued, though not at quite the same rate. Many The mansions of the wealthier citizens were mainly in the older central areas of the acts passed after 1800 for Dublin concerned policing the city, water of the city, though the notable exception was the substantial home of the earl supply, streets and local administration. of Kildare on the eastern fringe, later to be called Leinster House. It was a city During the period 1750 to 1850 the population of the city increased, though poised on the brink of change, both political and topographical. Politically, figures need to be treated with caution. There was a lack of clarity regarding the penal laws were still in place, restricting the involvement in administrative the spatial extent of the city that any population figure claimed to represent6 and economic life of those who did not belong to the established church. The and the occupancy rates applied to each house varied.7 Despite these problems Irish parliament was located in the city, the realm of the landed gentry and the general view is that there was a sharp increase in population from the the aristocracy, while urban administration was largely in the hands of the mid 1780s. James Whitelaw’s careful assessment based on his own survey merchant classes. of 1798 and the official work carried out by the conservators of the peace in Topographically, Dublin had grown in all directions in the preceding 1804 suggested that in the immediate aftermath of Ireland’s accession to the century.2 The most recent changes had taken place on the northern fringe of United Kingdom in 1801 the city population dropped by 4,192 or 2½ per cent. the city, particularly development of the early parts of the Gardiner estate Subsequent surveys and censuses show that this decline was reversed very at Henrietta Street and the eastern side of Parnell Square (Map 6). The quickly and the rate of growth from about 1820 exceeded the average that had administrative boundaries at that time, however, were extremely irregular and pertained over the latter half of the eighteenth century. did not coincide with the expanding built-up area. Around the core, development The growth in the urban population meant an expansion of the built-up area, spilled beyond the administrative boundaries of the city, while to the north-east rather than mere reconstruction within the existing city. Initial developments the limits went as far as the River Tolka at Ballybough Bridge, and to the from the mid eighteenth century were on the fringes of the city, particularly south-east included Donnybrook and Clonskeagh, as well as a narrow coastal to the north in the lands owned by the Gardiner family and their neighbours. strip that ran to the village of Blackrock (Fig. 1). Adjacent to this area, and Rutland Square and North Great George’s Street were completed, along with outside the jurisdiction of the city’s corporation, lay the three liberties of St Cumberland Street North and the beginnings of Gloucester Street (Sean Mac Sepulchre’s, Thomas Court and Donore, and the Deanery of St Patrick’s, known Dermott Street). This period also saw the earliest development by the Gardiner collectively as the Liberties, and there were also manors at Kilmainham and estate of lands west of Dorset Street, with the opening up of Paradise Row Grangegorman to the west and the north. Each of these manors and liberties (Wellington Street). In south Dublin at the same time, the Fitzwilliam family had its own administrative responsibilities. To further complicate the system, had laid out Merrion Street and progressed to the northern side of what would certain functions were carried out by the parishes, whose boundaries coincided become Merrion Square. When Bernard Scalé updated Rocque’s single-sheet with neither the corporation’s nor those of the liberties (Fig. 2). plan of the city in 1773 the expansion of the built-up area was such that he had to draw Paradise Row and Denmark Street into the space to the north of the * * * margin of the map; while to the east, a whole strip was added to the four-sheet survey to accommodate the new streets beyond Merrion Street (Map 7). The Irish parliament in College Green was to become more actively involved In the last decades of the eighteenth century the direction of development in legislating for urban change and development in the later decades of the was driven by the city’s port and the need to facilitate shipping. The provision of eighteenth century with both direct and indirect effects on Dublin’s growth. a new customhouse (1781–91) downriver from the historic core precipitated a There were an increasing number of acts relating to Dublin. In the 1770s, chain of developments (Plate 7). By moving the focus for commercial shipping forty-two acts were passed, with fifty in the 1780s and forty-five in the 1790s. it permitted the construction of a new bridge (Carlisle, later O’Connell) on the Behind this explosion in legislation was the greater involvement of parliament eastern fringe from 1789. By June 1791 work had progressed to the extent that in the day-to-day affairs and the establishment of ad hoc bodies to administer Faulkner’s Dublin Journal remarked that ‘labourers are now at work on the third specific tasks. The improved state of the national finances enabled parliament butment which, it is thought, will be finished in a couple of months. When the to vote public funds towards Dublin projects that would assist the economic fourth is began, vessels can no longer pass, consequently the new customhouse development of the country while low interest rates encouraged private must then be occupied’.8 This in turn led to the laying out of streets on either investment.3 A significant catalyst was the Irish parliament’s determination side of the river to connect to the bridge, and opened the flank of the Parliament to avoid having a fiscal surplus as this would have to be sent on to London. House, encouraging the construction of a new façade in the 1780s (Map 9). In Prudent expenditure was the means by which this would be avoided. High- a parallel development, opposition to the customhouse scheme was blunted by profile projects to benefit from this policy were named Parliament Street and an agreement to establish a legal complex on the northern bank of the river, Parliament Square in recognition of the source of the funds. The latter, being which resulted in the building of the Four Courts from 1786 (Map 15). The the front square of Trinity College, was so named after the three sides of the consequence of the new bridge and associated streets was that a significant square were built with £30,000 of government funds allocated in the 1750s.4 proportion of the expansion of the city took place to the north and north-east A significant body of the legislation relating to Dublin was repeated on the Gardiner estate, and on the Fitzwilliam estate to the south-east. At the allocations of funds to various institutions such as the City Workhouse and same time, commercially-derived development occurred with the construction house of industry, the Hibernian School and the Royal Exchange (City Hall). of the canals circling the city in the 1790s, in the areas around Phibsborough Other acts related to the supply of corn and coal to the city, which fostered Road on the north side and Grand Canal Basin and Harbour (James’s Street) the milling, brewing and distilling industries and helped those manufactories and Portobello to the south. The building of the customhouse resulted in new 2 IRISH HISTORIC TOWNS ATLAS IHTA 2014 there was no family estate and the north-city land that they developed was acquired over a protracted period. The distinction between the work carried out by Luke Gardiner in the latter part of the eighteenth century and that achieved N by the Wide Streets Commissioners became blurred, with the commissioners creating new streets such as Frederick Street North, Gardiner Street and Abbey Street Lower on the Gardiner estate.15 One further significant block of eastward expansion was the land on either side of the Liffey that was reclaimed from the sea.