Dublin has a Georgian area on both sides of the River Liffey. The Georgian area north of the river is best known as the North Georgian Core, to distinguish it from the more significant Georgian Quarter on the southside.
Dublin’s North Georgian Core is a series of Georgian terraces that stretches out to the east and west of Parnell Square. This rectangular-shaped area is framed to the west by Kings Inns, and to the east by Mountjoy Square. Kings Inns is a 500-year-old education and legal society that is now housed in a beautiful Georgian building that was completed in 1795. Mountjoy Square is one of Dublin’s five Georgian squares: rows of sumptuous Georgian terraced housing, surrounding a beautiful inner-city park. Despite the beauty of parts of the North Georgian Core it has been neglected for almost a century now, therefore some parts have fallen well short of their former glory. Whilst some of the houses have fallen into a state of disrepair, many others have been looked after by private residents, and more and more of the houses are being placed under protective measures
Notable streets in the North Georgian Core include:
- Henrietta Street – Dublin’s earliest existing Georgian Residential Street, which dates from 1730.
- North Great George’s Street – you can find the James Joyce Centre on this street, at number 35.
- Dominick Street Lower – includes St Saviours Church and Dominican Priory.
- Upper Dorset Street – birthplace of dramatist Sean O’Casey.
- Frederick Street North – on one of the main routes between the airport and O’Connell Street.
If you look slightly to the left (west) from Frederick Street North on a map, you will see the green, western extremity of the North Georgian Core: The Honourable Society of King’s Inns.
If you look slightly to the right (east) from Frederick Street North on a map, you will come across the eastern extremity of the North Georgian Core: Mountjoy Square.