From Boater to Bishop
24 Feb 1969Bishop Street is hemmed in between the bulk of Jacob’s factory on one side, and tall flats built about five years, on the other. Back in 1610, John Speed’s map shows the little offset that still exists, between the line of Upper Kevin Street and the line of an unnamed street, which a record of 1577 calls “Butter Lane” and which by 1756 (on Rocque’s map) had become twisted into Boater Lane. This may well have been no more than ‘Bothar’ in the first place, for very likely some ancient track led east from St, Patrick’s Well in the Poddle glen, to the Dodder and the sea. The “Dublin Gazette,” in December 1774, made the change official, from Great Boater Lane to Bishop Street, perhaps because of the nearness of the Cathedral, or the fact that much of the ground here belonged to the Protestant Archbishop. At the Kevin Street end of Bishop Street, Rocque’s map shows a Watch House (almost exactly where Liam stood to make.this drawing). This was one of the [page cut]
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