MOLESWORTH PLACE – EAST SCHOOL HOUSE LANE
One Pico is on the corner of Molesworth Lane and Schoolhouse Lane. Molesworth Place and East Schoolhouse Lane could be described as a single laneway that might act as a shortcut between Molesworth Street and Kildare Street but I am not certain that there is anything to be gained by using it as a shortcut. I tried to find a school nearby but I did not have much luck but there was St Anne’s Schools and Molesworth Hall at numbers 38 to 44. The School was built in 1857 replacing what had previously been a terrace of Queen Anne style houses demolished some time before 1843. Planning permission was granted to demolish the buildings in 1974, and the developer expanded the site by buying up a series of buildings between these two and the corner of Dawson Street. When demolition of Molesworth Hall began in 1978, several groups, including from An Taisce and local architecture students, began a protest. In response, the developer threatened to lay off 300 workers, which ultimately resulted in work resuming.
Molesworth Street is a street in Dublin, Ireland named after Richard Molesworth, 3rd Viscount Molesworth and links the more notable Dawson Street with Kildare Street and lies just over 200 m to the north of St. Stephens Green in Dublin’s central business district.
Kildare Street is named after James FitzGerald, 1st Duke of Leinster and 20th Earl of Kildare, who built Leinster House. The street was previously known as Coote Street up to 1753, earlier as Coote Lane, with the area was historically known as Molesworth fields or “lands of Tib and Tom”.
In 1972, in advance of Ireland joining the then European Economic Community the then Chief Justice, and later President of Ireland, Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh wrote to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Patrick Hillery, also later President of Ireland, seeking for the street to be renamed Rue de l’Europe.
