FX30 | THE HEADLESS PHOTO BLOG

JAMES STREET IN DUBLIN

I have seen the street spelled as James street and James’s Street. For example Google Maps and other descriptions show monument as being on James Street while a local school is named CBS James’s Street, even though it is on Basin Street.

The architect Francis Sandys was responsible for a number of public fountains in Dublin including this obelisk on James Street in Dublin.

I was told by a local historian/tourist guide that it was an old custom that funeral processions on passing the fountain would circle it three times before carrying on to the cemetery [I would take that with a pinch of salt as I have heard similar stories associated with other locations].

I have recently noticed that people are complaining online and elsewhere about the lack of fountains in Dublin. In my travels around the city I have come across fountains and would describe them as many and varied. They range, in type and style, from elaborate Victorian masterpieces and modern sculptures to more modest, practical installations. The bad news is that many of the older fountains have fallen into disuse and lie, long forgotten and derelict, in overlooked corners of the city. I have also noted that the majority are dry.

THE OBELISK FOUNTAIN ON JAMES STREET IN DUBLIN 001

THE OBELISK FOUNTAIN ON JAMES STREET IN DUBLIN 002

LOCALLY KNOWN AS THE 40 STEPS

The amount of litter to be seen is disappointing to say the least.

There is a small pedestrian lane that connect James’s Street on the south to Bow Lane West on the north. It was previously known as Murdering Lane or The Murd’ring Lane, and first appeared on maps in 1603, until it was renamed ‘Cromwell’s Quarters’ around 1892 when Alderman McSwiney called for the lane to be renamed in order to “preserve historical continuity”. The Cromwell in question was not Oliver Cromwell but his son Henry, who became Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1657. It is currently an unmarked pedestrian stepped alley. The lane is also locally referred to as “The Forty Steps”, even though there are only 39.

There is a laneway with forty steps, beside Dublin Castle, connecting Ship Street to Castle Street. It is, officially, Hoey’s Court but local tourist guides refer to it as Dean Swift Alley as 100ft from here Jonathan Swift was born in 1667. He was the Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral and a celebrated author and satirist.

To add to the confusion Swift’s Alley Free Church was an Episcopal Church of Ireland chapel in Swift’s Alley and Francis Street. In 1653, a Baptist meeting-house (the first in Ireland) was established by Thomas Patient in Swift’s Alley, Dublin, the essayist and baptist John Foster preached there in 1795 as the congregation dwindled. In 1835, it was sold, and an Episcopal Chapel was established, the church was officially consecrated in 1843 by the Church of Ireland. The church had a Sunday School and Fellowship Society.