BALLSBRIDGE

Ballsbridge or Ball's Bridge is a bridge in Dublin, Ireland. Situated in "Pembroke" which spans the River Dodder on the south side of the city, it is a three-arch stone bridge and was built in 1791.

Pembroke is an exclusive and very affluent area and is known to contain very expensive property. However, this name is little known and the area is instead more commonly known as Ballsbridge, named after the bridge in the area. The sign on the bridge still proclaims it as "Ball's Bridge" in recognition of the fact that the original bridge in this location was built and owned by a Mr. Ball.


The bridge itself forms the centre of the Ballsbridge suburb which extends northwards towards the Grand Canal along Northumberland Road up to Haddington Road and Shelbourne Road, extends southwards along the Merrion Road towards Merrion and along Anglesea Road towards Donnybrook, and westwards to encompass the area around Pembroke Road, Clyde Road, Elgin Road, and Herbert Park. The park, a public park is thirty-two acres in size and is divided by a road, also called Herbert Park and also forms part of Ballsbridge's nebulous border with Donnybrook.

The RDS has its grounds here, and the Lansdowne Road headquarters of the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) is on the boundary between Ballsbridge and Irishtown. The corporate headquarters of Allied Irish Banks (AIB) are also located in Ballsbridge. Ailesbury Road, along with adjacent Shrewsbury Road comprise the blue (most expensive) properties in the Dublin edition of the board-game Monopoly. Shrewsbury Road was the sixth most expensive street in the world in 2007.

The bulk of Dublin's embassies and many diplomatic residences are located in the southern part of Ballsbridge on and around Ailesbury Road. The British, American, Italian, Spanish, Dutch and Israeli embassies are all located in the Ballsbridge area of Dublin.