Stephen Street (Irish: Sráid Stiabhna)[1] is a street on the southside of Dublin, Ireland.
It is divided into Stephen Street Upper (western part), connecting Golden Lane to Aungier Street, and Stephen Street Lower (eastern part), running from Aungier Street to Johnson Place.
History
Plaque on the site of the Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Factory.
Medieval Dublin
Stephen Street takes its name from the medieval church and later leper hospital of Saint Stephen, located on the site of present-day Mercer's Hospital which was converted from use as a poorhouse around 1709. It was referred to as being used as St Stephen's Hospital from at least 1612.[2] Nearby St Stephen's Green also gets its name from the same source.[3]
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.[4]
The street is believed to derive its curved shape from the embankment that stood outside Dublin's city walls 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.[5]
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.[6]
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 c. 1725. It would have originally had a "Dutch Billy" style roof but was refaced in machine-made brick in c1890.[7]
^Ramsey-Brimberg, D. (2024), Viking and Ecclesiastical Interactions in the Irish Sea Area from the 9th to 11th Centuries, United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis, doi:10.4324/9781003336273
