The street runs from Merrion Row (near
St. Stephen's Green) to the northwestern end of Pembroke Road. It crosses the
Grand Canal near Haddington Road. It is divided into two sections:
Lower Baggot Street (
Irish: Sráid Bhagóid Íochtarach) - between Merrion Row and the
Grand Canal. It was called Gallows Road in the 18th century.[1]
Upper Baggot Street (
Irish: Sráid Bhagóid Uachtarach) - south of the Grand Canal until the junction with Eastmoreland Place, where it continues as Pembroke Road.
History
Baggot Street is named after Baggotrath, a feudal manor granted to
Hiberno-Norman judge
Robert Bagod in the 13th-century. He also built
Baggotrath Castle, which was partly destroyed during the 1649
Battle of Rathmines and demolished in the early nineteenth century.
The street was renamed Baggot Street in 1773.[1][6]
The areas status as a cultural hotbed in the mid to late 20th century led to it being referred to as "Baggotonia".[7][8][9][10]
Architecture
Lower Baggot Street is distinguished by
Georgian architecture, while Upper Baggot Street has mainly
Victorian architecture with a few buildings of 20th-century vintage such as the former Bank of Ireland headquarters,
Miesian Plaza. The
Royal City of Dublin Hospital, opened in 1834, is on the east side of Upper Baggot Street, just south of the junction with Haddington Road.[11] Cook's Map of 1836 shows the north side of Upper Baggot Street and Pembroke Road almost entirely built on.[11]
Modern development such as the Miesian Plaza has been viewed by some as destructive to a previously unified Georgian streetscape. Journalist
Frank MacDonald characterised the Plaza as a more violent interjection on the street than the contemporaneous ESB building on
Fitzwilliam Street. On 13 July 1973, two nurses escaped from their flat in number 11 Lower Baggot Street when the back and side walls of the house collapsed following the demolition of three adjoining houses to make way for an office block.[12] The 1978 offices built for
Bord na Móna, near the Miesian Plaza, were designed by
Sam Stephenson, and won the Buildings in Context award from
An Taisce.[13]
In 1830,
Thomas Davis, the revolutionary Irish writer who was the chief organiser and poet of the
Young Ireland movement, lived at 67 Lower Baggot Street.[1]
The poet
Patrick Kavanagh frequented Baggot Street, (including Parsons)[14] and regarded it as his favourite place in Dublin.[citation needed]
In his poem "If ever you go to Dublin Town" Kavanagh addresses Dubliners 100 years after his own time and tells them to "Inquire for me in Baggot Street/And what I was like to know".[15]