Two level streets

14 May 1970

A clear explanation of how Dublin has spread east at the expense of Dublin Bay is seen now when you stand in East Essex Street and look towards the Liffey and Wellington Quay, looking out under the new building now nearing completion. There you see people walking and traffic passing along the quay, well above your own level, and you realise that only the quay walls keep the Liffey from reclaiming what was once its own territory, marshy sloblands at the mouth of the Poddle, once 1610, when John Speed made his house between Dame Street and the river, which was then (if Speed’s “Scale of Paces” can be relied on), as wide as from St. Audoen’s to the. Synod Hall now it is less than one-third that distance. Wellington Quay was called Custom House Quay up to 1817 It was sealed off by buildings at the eastern end as late as 1797 when Faden’s map shows the Liffey as the present Metal Bridge, where Crampton Quay begins.

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