Overview
Harcourt Street (Irish: Sráid Fhearchair) runs south from the south-east corner of St Stephen’s Green through central Dublin, down to where Adelaide Road meets Harcourt Road. What makes it worth walking is the consistency: the Georgian terraces on both sides survive in long runs, with brick façades, tall windows and stone doorcases. Come on a quiet weekday morning, before the offices fill, and you see it close to as its planners intended. Walk along the public footpath to see how the street changes from offices and hotels by day to restaurants and clubs at night.
Beneath the upper end runs the River Steine, one of Dublin’s many buried rivers – there is nothing to see, but it explains the slight fall of the ground.
A planned Georgian street
The street was laid out in 1777 by the developer John Hatch under the Wide Streets Commission, the body that reshaped Georgian Dublin, and first appears on maps in 1784. It takes its name from Simon Harcourt, 1st Earl Harcourt, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the 1770s. By 1843 it held 72 houses, and the architecture keeps to the period’s rules of proportion: red-brick fronts, granite steps, fanlit doors and sash windows that shrink slightly as they climb.
The residents, and the politics
For a single terrace, a lot happened behind these doors. No. 4 was the birthplace of the unionist barrister Edward Carson, marked with a plaque. Bram Stoker, who wrote Dracula, lived at No. 16. No. 17, Clonmell House, was home to John Scott, 1st Earl of Clonmell – the hanging judge known as ‘Copper-faced Jack’, whose nickname lives on in a well-known nightclub round the corner. The playwright George Bernard Shaw lived at No. 61, now part of the Harcourt Hotel, between 1874 and 1876.
The political history is the heaviest on the street. The Houses of the Oireachtas archive records a Sinn Féin executive meeting at 6 Harcourt Street in 1917 and the later presence of Sinn Féin and Dáil offices on the street. The first public sitting of Dáil Éireann was at the Mansion House, not here. These are private buildings, so look from the footpath.
The old station and the Luas
At the southern end stands the former Harcourt Street railway station, opened in 1859 as the terminus of the line to Bray. The line closed in 1958 to public protest, but the Victorian building survived and its high booking hall has since been given a new use as a venue. The railway’s successor runs right past the door: the Luas Green Line, with the Harcourt stop outside the old station, carries trams north to St Stephen’s Green and south to Dundrum, Sandyford and beyond.
By night
By day this is a corridor of offices, law firms and hotels. After dark it is known as a club strip, with restaurants, bars and nightclubs. It can be loud and busy at weekends, and it is not where you go for a quiet pint; if that is what you are after, head for a side street off the main run. Individual venues have their own hours, admission rules and access arrangements, so check with them directly.
Practical information
- Getting there: Harcourt is on the Luas Green Line. Check service notices and your last tram before going out in the evening.
- Nearby: Iveagh Gardens, a walled garden with a yew maze and cascade, is a short walk north, tucked behind the terraces and far quieter than the green. A little further brings you to St Stephen’s Green and on to Grafton Street.
- Parking: Use signed parking and check the street controls if driving. The Luas is usually easier.