St Stephens Green (Irish: Faiche Stiabhna ) [1] is a city center public park in Dublin, Ireland. The current landscape of the park was designed by William Sheppard, who officially opened to the public on Tuesday, July 27 1880. [2]The park is adjacent to one of Dublin’s main shopping streets, Grafton Street, a shopping mall named after it, while the surrounding streets are offices for a number of public bodies and the city terminus of one of Dublin’s Luas tram lines. It is often informally called Stephen’s Green. At 22 acres (89,000 m 2 ), it is the largest parks in Dublin important Georgian garden squares. Others also include Merrion Square and Fitzwilliam Square.

The park is rectangular, surrounded by streets that once formed major traffic arteries through Dublin city center, although traffic management changes in 2004 during the Luas works [3] has greatly reduced the volume of traffic.These four neighboring streets called and St Stephens Green North, St. Stephen’s Green South, St Stephens Green East and St Stephen’s Green West.

History

Until 1663 St Stephens Green was a marshy common on the outskirts of Dublin, which is used for grazing. During the year, the Dublin Corporation, sees an opportunity to raise much needed revenues, decided to encircle the center of the joint and to sell land around the perimeter of the building. [4]The park was annexed a wall in 1664. The houses were built around the Green was quickly replaced with new buildings in the Georgian style in the late eighteenth century Green was a place of resort for the better-off in the city. A large part of today’s landscape of the square is made up of modern buildings, some in a replica Georgian style, and relatively little survives from the 18th and 19th centuries.

1814 control of the St Stephen’s Green is sent to the Commissioners for the local households, which redesigned its layout and replaced the walls with railings. [5]

After the death of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s proposals are rejected with indignation by the Dublin Corporation and the people of the city, to the Queen’s chagrin – suggested that St Stephens Green renamed Albert green and has a statue of Albert in the center. [6]

Access to green was limited to the local population, until 1877, when Parliament passed a law to open the St Stephen’s Green to the public, on the initiative avSir AE Guinness, a member of the Guinness brewing family who lived at St. Anne’s Park, Raheny and Ashford Castle. He paid later for the laying of the green for approximately its current form, which took place in 1880, and gave it to the Corporation, on behalf of the people. To thank the city commissioned a statue of him, facing the College of Surgeons. His brother Edward lived påIveagh House, which his descendants gave in 1939 to the Department of External Affairs (now Foreign Affairs).

During the Easter Rising of 1916, a group of rebels consisting mainly of members of the Irish National Army, led by Commandant Michael Mallin and his second highest befälConstance Markievicz, established in St Stephens Green. [4] the numbered between 200 and 250. [7 ] they seized vehicles to set up roadblocks on the streets that surround the park, and dug defensive positions in the park itself. This approach differs from taking up positions in buildings, adopted elsewhere in the city. It turned out to have been unwise when parts of the British army took up positions in the Shelbourne Hotel, in the northeast corner of St Stephens Green, overlooking the park, from where they could shoot down of influence. [4] are in a weak position, volunteer went to the Royal College of Surgeons on the western side of the green. [7] During the Rising, the fire temporarily stopped to allow the park groundsman to feed the local ducks. [8]

The park is now run by the Office of Public Works on behalf of the Irish state.[9]

Development of Parks Design

The landscape of the park has undergone three major changes since its inception. Its first major change took place in 1670: two rows of linden trees planted around the perimeter, acts as its first cover. At this time, the park was only available to the wealthy residents who owned land around the park. [2]

In 1815 the park was redesigned by Dublin city surveyor Arthur Neville. In its redesign, he added, winding roads and iron fence. At this time, the park was still closed to the public. [2]

During the 1860s, the campaign to make the park to the public was going on, and city engineer, George W. Heman, [10] proposed a new design to make the park as a viable and functionally practical as possible. This included the creation of four ports in every corner of the park that would be linked by conserved pathways designed by Neville. This plan finally abandoned, probably due to the fact that Heman was an employee of the Dublin Corporation. But many of Heman “pattern, as the addition of gates and connecting roads, were included in the final plans presented by William Sheppard, the premier designer responsible for the landscape of the park as we know it today, and engineering AL Cousins, sponsored by Lord Ardilaun.Ardilaun also played an important role in the planning and importation of exotic trees and plants that were installed in the park. [2]

Park layout

While the central park of St Stephen’s Green is one of three ancient commons of the city, much depends on the restoration of the 1800s its present form (see History above).

The grounds are roughly rectangular, measuring (approximately) 550 by 450 meters, and are centered on a formal garden.

One of the more unusual aspects of the park is located on the northwest corner of this central area – a garden for the blind with fragrant plants, which can withstand handling, and are labeled in Braille.

Further north again (and spans much of the length of the park) is a great lake. Home to ducks and other waterfowl lake is fed by an artificial waterfall, bridged by the O’Connell Bridge, and fronted by an ornamental gazebo. The lakes in the park are fed from the Grand Canal at Portobello.

To the south side of the main garden circle is more open moorland surrounding a bandstand and often visited by lunching students, workers and consumers on Dublin’s sunnier days.

Other notable features include:

  • the Fusiliers’ Arch at the Grafton Street corner, celebrating the Royal Dublin Fusiliers who died in the Second Boer War.
  • a fountain representing the three Fates inside Leeson Street gate. The statue was designed by Joseph Wackerle in bronze in 1956. It was a gift from the German people in thanks for Irish help for refugee after World War II. Up to five hundred children found the family home in Ireland in a project called Operation Shamrock.
  • a seated statue of Lord Ardilaun on the western side, the man who gave the green to the city, facing the Royal College of Surgeons which he also sponsored (again, see History above)
  • the Yeats memorial garden with a sculpture by Henry Moore
  • a bust of James Joyce faced his former University of Newman House
  • a memorial to the Fenian leader Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa near the Grafton Street entrance
  • a bronze statue on Merrion Row corner of Wolfe Tone, the leader of the 1798 uprising.
  • a memorial to the Great Famine of 1845-1850 by Edward Delaney
  • a bust of Constance Markievicz on the southern part of the central garden (see History above)
  • a statue of Robert Emmet resist his birthplace (now demolished) at No. 124th
  • a memorial bust of Thomas Kettle, the deaths of World War II. The attempt to erect a memorial bust of Kettle was marred by controversy, until it was finally placed – without official unveiling, in the middle section.

Sheet addresses

Iveagh House on the south side was created from the joining of two earlier houses (numbers 80 and 81) by Benjamin Guinness in the 1860s. It was donated to the Irish State, the Guinness family in 1939 and now houses the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Also on the south side of St Stephen’s Green are Newman House (numbers 85 and 86, after John Henry Newman) and University Church . These are home to the Catholic University of Ireland, which was founded in the 19th century. It is linked with the University College Dublin, but is no longer active educationally in its own right.

The Unitarian Church , Dublin, built in the Gothic revival style, situated on the west side of St Stephen’s Green.

Also on the west side is the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (No. 123), home to the oldest of the Republic of Ireland’s six medical schools.

On the west side, at the top of Grafton Street, Stephens Green Shopping Centre, built in October 1988. It was at the time, Ireland’s largest shopping center. Its style was intended to represent a conservatory on the side facing the green and brick reflect the design of the opposite Gaiety Theatre on South King Street.

On the north side of St Stephen’s Green, there were four [4] , but is now two clubs (originally gentlemen’s clubs), the Hibernian United Services Club(number 8, was completed in 2002), the Stephens Green Hibernian Club(number 9, initially, Stephen Green Club, before the merger with the Hibernian United Services Club), the “Friendly Brothers of St. Patrick” (number 22, now closed) and Kildare Street and University Club (number 17).This side of the green also has the historic Shelbourne Hotel and the recently opened Little Museum of Dublin, which is housed in a restored Georgian townhouse.

Loreto College, St Stephens Green , one of Ireland’s most famous toll schools for girls, is at number 53, on the eastern side of the Green.

St Vincent’s Hospital , now located in a suburb on the south side of Dublin, was previously placed in the buildings on the east side of St Stephen’s Green and on Leeson Street.

Transport

Dublin Bus routes 7b, 7d, 11, 32x, 37, 41x, 44, 46, 61, 84x and 145 all stop along the east side of the square

The green line of the Luas tram system stops at St Stephens Green stop on the west side of the park. Although currently a trailing stop, the planned Luas Cross City extension would see the stop as a connecting station from the existing Luas Green Line, crossing the city (and the Luas red line), and continues to Broom Bridge Station in Cabra. The line is scheduled to open in 2017. [11]

See also

  • List of streets in Dublin

Notes

  1. Jump up ^ “Sraidainmneacha Bhaile Atha Cliath” (PDF). Dublin City Council. Retrieved November 30, 2014.
  2. ^ Jump up to: abcd “Report on St Stephens Green” (PDF). UCD School of Archaeology.
  3. Jump up ^ “roadworks on St Stephen’s Green to turn the traffic flow and limit movement.” The Irish Times. June 6, 2004. Archived from the original 20 May 2011. Retrieved November 30, 2014.
  4. ^ Jump up to: abcd . Casey, Christine (2006): Dublin city within the Grand and Royal canals and Circular Road in the Phoenix Park. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-10923-8.
  5. Jump up ^ “Archiseek.com – St Stephen’s Green, Dublin.” Archiseek.com.Archived from the original January 11, 2008.
  6. Jump up ^ “A Queen Welcome: Victoria’s stormy affair with Ireland.”Irish Examiner. 26 June 2010.
  7. ^ Jump up to: ab “1916 Rising: Personalities and prospects – Stephens Green” (PDF). National Library of Ireland. Retrieved November 30, 2014.
  8. Jump up ^ Michael O’Sullivan, Bernard O’Neill: The Shelbourne and its people (Blackwater Press 1999), p.45 ISBN 1-84131-442-0
  9. Jump up ^ “Ireland OPW Heritage Site – St Stephens Green page”.HeritageIreland.ie (OPW). Retrieved November 30, 2014.
  10. Jump up ^ “Dictionary of Irish Architects – Heman, GEORGE WILLOUGHBY.” Dia.ie. 13.11.1926. Pulled 12/28/2013.
  11. Jump up ^ “Green light given to the Luas link-up, first passengers in 2017 – RTÉ News”. Rte.ie. August 3, 2012. Retrieved 30 August 2012.