Overview
Broadstone has no main street, which is the first thing to understand about it. The neighbourhood sits two kilometres north of the River Liffey, forming the southern edge of Phibsborough in Dublin 7, a rough triangle bounded by Phibsborough Road, Constitution Hill, the North Circular Road and Dorset Street. Its identity was always built from infrastructure rather than commerce: the Royal Canal first, then the railways, now the Luas Green Line and the spreading TU Dublin Grangegorman campus. The streets are lined with mid-sized red-brick houses put up for canal and railway workers, many still carrying their original half-circle fanlights and Georgian-style doors.
Water and steam
Long before any of it, the area was Glasmanogue (Irish: Glas Mochanog, ‘Monck Green’). Viking settlers grazed it as common pasture, and by the late 18th century sketches show a boggy wetland. The turning point was 1789, when Dublin Corporation commissioned the Royal Canal. A spur reached Broadstone in 1801, creating a harbour on Constitution Hill that served the city markets and the law courts. By 1807 passenger boats were running regularly to Mullingar, and in 1810 a reservoir – the Blessington Street Basin – was dug to supply local drinking water.
The canal’s dominance ended when the Midland Great Western Railway bought the waterway in 1845. In 1850 the MGWR opened Broadstone railway station, one of Dublin’s six original termini. John Skipton Mulvany designed it in a striking neo-Egyptian granite style, facing the King’s Inns, and it handled passengers, livestock and emigrants bound for Galway, Sligo and Westport. The Famine and the emigration that followed slowly drained the traffic. The last train arrived from Westport in 1937, the station closed for good in 1961, and it became a bus depot and the Bus Éireann headquarters.
Landmarks and walking routes
For somewhere that lost both its canal and its railway, Broadstone keeps a remarkable density of old architecture and green space.
The King’s Inns
Ireland’s oldest institution of legal education, founded in 1542, moved to Constitution Hill once the Four Courts went up in the 1790s. The current neoclassical building was designed by James Gandon and built between 1800 and 1823, deliberately turned to face the canal harbour the way Gandon faced the Custom House to the river. Alumni include Mary Robinson, Charles Haughey and Patrick Pearse. The interior is closed to the public, but the exterior is freely viewable from the public walkway.
The Black Church
Officially St Mary’s Chapel of Ease, this 1830 Gothic-revival building was designed by John Semple. The nickname comes from the gloomy, windowless interior rather than the dark-grey stone outside. It has a distinctive parabolic arch that forms both wall and ceiling. After decades as offices, it still anchors the North Circular Road visually, and it earned its place in print too: James Joyce put it in Ulysses, and it gave Austin Clarke the title of his memoir, Twice Round the Black Church.
Blessington Street Basin and Royal Canal Bank
Dublin City Council restored the old reservoir in the early 1990s after years of neglect, removing six thousand tons of silt, enlarging a central island for wildlife and adding a fountain. The result is a walled park of about one and a quarter acres: a quiet paved loop, rotating contemporary sculpture and a dependable population of swans and waterfowl. Beside it, the Royal Canal Bank runs along the filled-in line of the original spur, a flat, traffic-free path that passes Mountjoy Prison and joins the main towpath of the Royal Canal.
Regeneration and culture
Broadstone’s recent revival runs on education and transport. The Luas Green Line opened in 2017 along the former railway corridor, and the Broadstone – University and Grangegorman stops give step-free access to the TU Dublin Grangegorman campus, now home to over 10,000 students and the Greenway Hub research centre. The new traffic has brought café openings and better street lighting without much disturbing the residential grain.
Worth knowing for literary visitors: James Joyce lived at 44 Fontenoy Street from 1909 to 1910 while trying to set up Dublin’s first cinema. Neighbouring Phibsborough also runs Phizzfest, an annual music and arts festival that spills into the local pubs and open-air venues.
Getting there and practical information
Broadstone is well served by public transport. The Luas Green Line runs every 7 to 10 minutes between St Stephen’s Green and Broom Bridge, with two stops on Constitution Hill. Dublin Bus routes 13, 46 and 120 cover Phibsborough Road and the North Circular Road. Cyclists can pick up the Royal Canal towpath for a continuous paved run into the city centre.
Accessibility and entry The Blessington Street Basin and Royal Canal Bank are open year-round and free, with smooth paved paths around the basin that take wheelchairs. The Luas stops have step-free access, tactile paving and audio-visual announcements. The King’s Inns and Black Church interiors are closed to the public, but both façades are visible from the street, as is Broadstone Station’s granite front from Constitution Hill and Western Way.
Parking On-street parking is resident-permit only on the surrounding roads. Use the Luas, or park at the Broom Bridge long-stay car park and take the tram two stops southbound.