Overview
Harcourt Street (Irish: Sráid Fhearchair) runs just over half a kilometre from the south-east corner of St Stephen’s Green down to where Adelaide Road meets Harcourt Road. What makes it worth walking is the consistency: the terraces on both sides survive almost unbroken, one of the most complete stretches of Georgian street planning left in Dublin. Come on a quiet weekday morning, before the offices fill and the crowds gather, and you see it close to as its planners intended.
Beneath the upper end runs the River Steine, one of Dublin’s many buried rivers – there is nothing to see, but it explains the slight fall of the ground.
A planned Georgian street
The street was laid out in 1777 by the developer John Hatch under the Wide Streets Commission, the body that reshaped Georgian Dublin, and first appears on maps in 1784. It takes its name from Simon Harcourt, 1st Earl Harcourt, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the 1770s. By 1843 it held 72 houses, and the architecture keeps to the period’s rules of proportion: red-brick fronts, granite steps, fanlit doors and sash windows that shrink slightly as they climb.
The residents, and the politics
For a single terrace, a lot happened behind these doors. No. 4 was the birthplace of the unionist barrister Edward Carson, marked with a plaque. Bram Stoker, who wrote Dracula, lived at No. 16. No. 17, Clonmell House, was home to John Scott, 1st Earl of Clonmell – the hanging judge known as ‘Copper-faced Jack’, whose name now hangs over the nightclub round the corner. The playwright George Bernard Shaw lived at No. 61, now part of the Harcourt Hotel, between 1874 and 1876.
The heaviest history sits at No. 6. It served as Sinn Féin’s headquarters from 1910, and it was here, on 19 December 1918, that the decision was taken to establish Dáil Éireann. Michael Collins later worked out of the building as Minister for Finance. In 1966 the state handed it to Conradh na Gaeilge in recognition of the Irish-language movement’s part in all of it.
The old station and the Luas
At the southern end stands the former Harcourt Street railway station, opened in 1859 as the terminus of the line to Bray. The line closed in 1958 to public protest, but the Victorian building survived; its high booking hall is now The Odeon, a bar and events venue. The railway’s successor runs right past the door – the Luas Green Line, with the Harcourt stop outside the old station carrying trams north to St Stephen’s Green and south to Dundrum, Sandyford and beyond.
By night
By day this is a corridor of offices, law firms and hotels. After dark it is one of the busiest club strips in Dublin, anchored by Copper Face Jacks – ‘Coppers’, a genuine Dublin institution and not a subtle one – along with Dicey’s Garden and The Odeon. It is loud, it is packed at weekends, and it is not where you go for a quiet pint. If that is what you are after, keep walking to a side street off the main run.
Practical information
- Getting there: The Luas Green Line is the quickest way in; the Harcourt stop is right outside the old station. Bus route 122 serves nearby Camden Street.
- Nearby: Iveagh Gardens – a free walled garden with a yew maze and cascade – is about three minutes’ walk north, tucked behind the terraces and far quieter than the green. Two minutes more brings you to St Stephen’s Green and on to Grafton Street.
- Parking: Street parking is free from 7pm to 7am, all day Sunday and on bank holidays; otherwise the Q-Park at St Stephen’s Green (open 24/7, with EV charging) is the nearest car park. The Luas is easier than either.
- Accessibility: The street and its pavements are step-free, and the Luas stop is level. Individual venues vary.