Overview
Each cast-iron lamp standard on Grattan Bridge (Irish: Droichead Grattan) is topped with a hippocampus – a half-horse, half-fish creature from classical myth, here a nod to the days when ships berthed this far up the Liffey. The lamps are the reason to slow down on what is otherwise a working road bridge, and they earn their keep after dark, when the bulbs come on and frame the copper dome of City Hall behind them. If you have one minute here, give it to the lamps at dusk.
The bridge links Capel Street on the north bank to Parliament Street on the south, a short walk from Christ Church Cathedral, City Hall and the Ha’penny Bridge, in the thick of Temple Bar. It carries three lanes of traffic, so the middle of the day is no time to linger: the footpaths are wide and level, but the buses and the noise do the place no favours until the evening quiets things down.
A bridge through the ages
The crossing you see is the third on this spot in three and a half centuries, and the third-oldest fixed crossing on the Liffey. Sir Humphrey Jervis commissioned the first in 1676 and named it Essex Bridge after Arthur Capell, 1st Earl of Essex, who paid for it. Much of its stone came from the ruins of the nearby St Mary’s Abbey – a seven-arch span that a flood in 1687 badly damaged, sweeping away a hackney cab and its two horses, and that was condemned as unsafe by the 1750s.
Between 1753 and 1755 the Wide Streets Commission had engineer George Semple rebuild it, keeping the stone arches but adding alcoves modelled on London Bridge. In 1764 the English traveller John Bush called it a ‘well built, spacious and elegant bridge’, and noted it was the furthest upriver a ship could still raise its masts to berth at the old Custom House.
Growing traffic finished Semple’s version. From 1872 engineers Bindon Blood Stoney and Parke Neville remodelled it completely, cantilevering cast-iron supports out from the old stonework to carry the pavements and adding the lamp standards. It reopened in 1874 as Grattan Bridge, for Henry Grattan, the 18th-century MP whose campaigning won the Irish parliament its legislative independence. Dublin City Council’s 2002 refurbishment laid the granite paving and put in the wooden benches with toughened-glass backs; the book-market kiosks added in 2003–04 as a ‘European-style’ market proved unpopular enough to be pulled out again, restoring the open profile.
Architectural highlights
A few things reward a closer look:
- The lamp standards – Step up to a base and you can pick out the hippocampus figures; the cast-iron columns carry gas-style bulbs that come into their own after dusk.
- The arches – The bridge rests on five spans: three central elliptical arches flanked by two narrower semicircular ones. Look for the ashlar granite spandrels and the V-shaped cut-waters on the piers, shaped to break the force of winter floods.
- The cantilevered deck – The flat roadway and footpaths sit on wrought-iron girders cantilevered out from the original stonework, the trick that let the Victorians widen the bridge without rebuilding it from the riverbed up.
- Two other names – Dubliners still call it Capel Street Bridge or Essex Bridge as often as Grattan, the city’s habit of clinging to old names alongside official ones.
Walking the Liffey
Grattan Bridge sits on the Liffey Walk, the riverside route that runs along the quays from the city centre out towards the docks. The footpaths are paved, level and fine for wheelchairs, pushchairs and dogs on a lead, and a cycle lane runs alongside the walkway – one of the easier central crossings for riders to take.
On the south side the bridge feeds straight onto Wellington Quay and its riverside boardwalk. Head west along the quays for the older crossings; head east for the Ha’penny Bridge and the busier stretch of Temple Bar.
Photography tips
- Dusk – The lamps are the shot. Frame them against the copper dome of City Hall or the silhouette of Christ Church Cathedral from the centre of the span once the bulbs are lit.
- Daylight – Shoot from the north bank looking south to get the full five-arch span with the river below, or step close to a lamp base for the hippocampus detail.
Nearby
You are in the middle of the old city, and a five-minute walk in any direction covers most of it. The Ha’penny Bridge, Dublin’s cast-iron pedestrian footbridge, is just east along the river. City Hall and Christ Church Cathedral sit a short walk north, both open for tours. Temple Bar’s pubs and galleries start on the south bank, and the cafés and restaurants along the quays make it easy to fold a crossing into lunch or an evening pint.
Practical information
- Opening hours: Open 24 hours – it is a public road bridge.
- Admission: Free.
- Accessibility: Level, wide footpaths suitable for wheelchairs, pushchairs and dogs on a lead.
- Parking: There is no parking on the bridge; the nearest car park is Q-Park on Jervis Street (about €2.50 an hour, a ten-minute walk). On-street parking on the quays is limited and often restricted.
- Getting there:
- Walking: From O’Connell Street, cross the Liffey via O’Connell Bridge, turn right along the riverbank, then left onto Capel Street. The bridge is straight ahead.
- Bus: Several routes stop nearby on Abbey Street and the quays – check current routes before you travel.
- Luas: Take the Red Line to the Jervis stop, walk south and follow the riverbank to Capel Street.
- Coordinates: 53.3457°N, 6.2678°W
Time it for dusk on a dry evening: that’s when the lamps are lit, the traffic has eased and the river is holding the last of the light – and it’s a two-minute walk on to the Ha’penny Bridge if you want a second crossing.