VIDEO BY WILLIAM MURPHY
DublinBikes docking station 49 is located on Guild Street on the bank of the Royal Canal opposite to the Convention Centre. If you are interested in bridges this is the place to visit as there are four to be seen in the immediate area
[1] The Samuel Beckett Bridge is a cable-stayed swingbridge in Dublin that joins Sir John Rogerson’s Quay on the south side of the River Liffey to Guild Street and North Wall Quay in the Docklands area.
[2] It is hard to ignore the rugged beauty of the two Scherzer Bridges on the north quays, one at Custom House Quay, the other at New Wapping Street. These were constructed to a design patented by William Scherzer of Chicago and installed in 1912. The bridges operated as lock gates between the River Liffey and dock and canals beyond.
[3] The Luas runs over the Spencer Dock Bridge at the Royal Canal which opened on Bloomsday, June 16th 2009. The Spencer Dock Bridge is the principal structure along the LUAS Red Line Docklands C1 extension to the Point Depot.The Bridge was the recipient of an award for Best Structural Design at the LEAF Awards 2009. The Award recognised Amanda Levete, architects, for implementation of an innovative structural design solution. The conceptual design is based on the geometry of the Manta Ray fish with asymmetric pectoral fins (wings) extending out from the body of the bridge deck and reaching down towards the water level in the Royal Canal.
The 40 metre span bridge features fluid lines and an undulating concrete surface taking traffic and pedestrians across the Royal Canal.
[4] Sheriff Street Lifting Bridge.
The wonderful thing about Dublin is that everything has a history or a background story but the problem is that everyone will tell you a different story.
When I first photographed this bridge, many years ago, a self appointed local historian told me that the lifting bridge was built by Earl Spencer the paternal grandfather of Diana Spencer. The problem with such stories is that the facts may be “alternative” but they are often true so they cannot be easily dismissed. I did, however, have some problems with the story for the following reasons.
Spencer Dock was originally known as the Royal Canal Docks
Diana’s Grand Father or his father had no connection with Ireland.
The bridge appears to have an electric motor dating from the 1940s or 1950s
Anyway I decided to check a history of the docklands published by Turtle Bunbury [by the way the book features one of my photographs] and I came across the following: “The new dock was a work of ‘entirely private enterprise’ and cost £58,000. On the beautiful afternoon of 15th April 1873, (Sir) Ralph Cusack, Chairman of the MGWR, opened the new dock and formally named it Spencer after the Lord Lieutenant, Earl Spencer, great-great grandfather of Diana, Princess of Wales.”
So there was some basis to the local historian’s claim however the bridge associated with the development was at the time described as “an ingenious hydraulic bridge” and it was the work of the railway’s engineer Mr Price. The bridge in at the end of Guild Street does not really match the description above.
The available information is confusing. The bridge appears to be referred to as the Sheriff Street Lifting Bridge but also as the Sheriff Street Spencer Drawbridge but it was built in 1941 as a replacement for an older swivel bridge dating from 1873.
A few years ago I came across this; “However, on 17 October 1941 the Irish Times reported on the opening of the new Sheriff Street drawbridge, which had cost £18,000; it was a structure unique of its kind in these islands.
