Portobello (, meaning 'beautiful harbour') is an area of Dublin, Ireland, within the southern city centre and bounded to the south by the Grand Canal. It came into existence as a small suburb south of the city in the 18th century, centred on Richmond Street.
As a fast-expanding suburb during the 19th century, Portobello attracted many upwardly mobile families whose members went on to play important roles in politics, the arts and science. Towards the end of the century, many Ashkenazi Jews, fleeing pogroms in Russia and Eastern Europe, settled in the area; this led to Portobello being known as Dublin's "Little Jerusalem".
Portobello is in the Dublin 8 postal district, which is rendered as D08 under the Eircode system, as well as in the local electoral area of Dublin South East Inner City and the Dáil constituency of Dublin Bay South.
History The name Portobello also describes the stretch of the Grand Canal leading from Robert Emmet Bridge (Clanbrassil Street) to the bridge from South Richmond Street to Rathmines. Although usually referred to as Portobello Bridge, the correct name is La Touche Bridge (named after William Digges La Touche (1747–1803), scion of a prominent Dublin business family and a director of the Grand Canal Company). Like the Portobello Road of London and Portobello, Edinburgh, Dublin's Portobello was named for the capture by Admiral Edward Vernon in 1739 of Portobelo, Colón on Panama's Caribbean Coast, during the conflict between the United Kingdom and Spain known as the War of Jenkins' Ear.
17th century A century before the naming of the suburb, an eventful battle took place in the neighbourhood – the Battle of Rathmines. In the early years of the Irish Confederate Wars (1641–1649) incursions were made into the area as far as St. Kevin's church by bands of Confederate soldiers stationed in Wicklow. They made off with cattle, horses and the occasional wealthy merchant.F. Elrington Ball: A History of the County Dublin. 1903. Part II. page 102 After the Irish united with the Royalists against the Parliamentarians, an attempt was made to take Dublin. In the summer of 1649 the Duke of Ormonde, head of the forces of Royalists and Irish soldiers, approached Dublin, where the Parliamentarian army was holed up. For some unaccountable reason, he took his army over to Finglas, where he spent a month, which allowed the Roundheads to reinforce and plan their attack. By the time Ormonde's main force moved around to the south of the city, the Roundheads were ready and fighting broke out. Ormonde's army was defeated, many of them killed, and the place where they fell (mainly between Rathmines and Ranelagh) was known for a long time as the Bloody Fields.F. Elrington Ball: A History of the County Dublin. 1903. Part II. page 103 et passim The name of the Bleeding Horse pub in Camden Street reputedly originated at this time from a horse wandering from the scene of the battle to St. Kevin's Port (now Camden Street).
The Bleeding Horse pub is reputed to be the second oldest pub in Dublin, allegedly licensed in 1649. Writers such as James Joyce, Oliver St. John Gogarty and John Elwood were familiar with this tavern.
18th century Portobello was part of the Manor of St. Sepulchre, one of the liberties of Dublin. The courthouse (still standing) and gaol for the use of the manor were located at the corner of Long Lane and New Bride Street.
19th and 20th centuries The Barracks
The nearby Portobello Barracks (now Cathal Brugha Barracks) was constructed between 1810 and 1815, and has been in continual use since then.
In 1817, William Windham Sadlier successfully flew in a hot air balloon from Portobello Barracks to Holyhead in North Wales.
The 1837 Ordnance Survey map showed one building on the western side of Richmond St. (excluding property belonging to the Portobello Hotel), which corresponds to no. 34, which was later the Caroline Records shop (closed in 2003).1837 OS map
In 1867, at the time of the Fenian Uprising, security was stepped up, and an innocent young resident of Bloomfield Avenue, walking his dog in the vicinity, was accused of breaking and entry, among other things. Admittedly, he had a hard time explaining away the gun and eighteen bullets he had in his pocket, but he was acquitted of any wrongdoing.
The barracks was the scene of a sensational murder on 27 December 1873, when the body of Gunner Colin Donaldson was found slumped across the bed of Anne Wyndford Marshall, in the apartment she shared with her husband. He had been poisoned with Hydrogen cyanide, which Mrs. Marshall had purchased in Rathmines a few days previously. The inquest on 8 January 1874 heard that Donaldson and Marshall had had disagreements on several occasions but ended up on good terms. Although the evidence was stacked against her, at her trial on 10 February the jury found Mrs. Marshall not guilty.
Portobello Barracks was, up until the 1916 Rising, the home of the 4th Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers, which was under the command of John Henry Patterson.The Zion Muleteers of Gallipoli, Jewish Virtual Library
The barracks was adopted as General Michael Collins' Military Headquarters after the Irish War of Independence. The barracks hospital became Collins' home when he set up his headquarters, it was from here that he set off to Cork, the day he was killed 22 August 1922.
Basin
The Dublin section of the Grand Canal was opened on 23 April 1796, while Portobello Harbour came into use in 1801. In 1812 Richmond Basin, Portobello, (later called the "City Basin"), located between Lennox Street and the canal, was opened as a water reservoir for the south side of the city. From 1860 investigations of the water quality coming from the Basin showed that it was not up to standard – in particular, levels of sulphuric acid were relatively high. Public representatives from Rathmines were unwilling to supply the necessary money for new water-works, but the will of the majority prevailed, and the new Vartry Reservoir was completed in 1863.Samuel A. Ossory Fitzpatrick: A Historical and Topographical Account of the City 1907
Hotel
The hotel at the harbour, the Grand Canal Hotel, was opened in 1807 (the architect was James Colbourne). In 1858, it was taken over by a Catholic order of nuns, who used it as an asylum (St. Mary's) for blind girls. A few years later they successfully appealed to the Guardians of the South Dublin Union for some finance (it cost £10 to keep a girl for a year), though The Irish Times in an editorial frowned upon this proselytising by "Romanists", while they lauded the efforts of the Protestant-run "Home for Orphans" at 7 South Richmond Street (which advertised frequently for "fresh souls to save" in the same newspaper). Ten years later the asylum was sold to a Mr. Isaac Cole, who renovated it and returned it to its original function as a hotel, to accommodate 100 persons. It was popular among officers visiting the nearby Portobello Barracks (who would occasionally pop across South Richmond Street to the Grand Canal Tavern for a drink) and claimed it was the nearest hotel to the Royal Dublin Society grounds. However, it was slow in providing catering facilities – in 1871 a Rathmines businessman, in a letter to the Irish Times, lamented the absence of restaurants in the neighbourhood, and enjoined upon Mr. Cole to provide same, preferably a two-course meal for two shillings (the price to include beer and punch). In the 20th century the building became a nursing home.
Observatory Thomas Grubb (1800–1878), a notable optician, developed his first telescope in a small house between Portobello Bridge and Charlemont Bridge and erected a public observatory at No. 1 Upper Charlemont Street. He founded the Grubb Telescope Company. One of his earliest instruments – the telescope for Markree Observatory in County Sligo – was, for several years, the largest telescope in the world. They provided the telescopes for many observatories worldwide, including Melbourne, Vienna and Aldershot Observatory in 1891. The company was acquired in 1925 by Charles Algernon Parsons and renamed Sir Howard Grubb, Parsons and Co. Ltd.
Development
Most of the area was developed in the latter half of the 19th century, the houses along the South Circular Road being built between 1850 and 1870, although the smaller houses off Lennox Street were built by the Dublin Artisans' Dwellings Company sometime later, from 1885 (just in time, in fact, for the increasing number of Jews looking for houses in the area). This company also built houses on that part of Portobello Basin that was filled in 1883.
In 1868, a new street was opened to connect Harold's Cross with Lower Clanbrassil Street The Lord Mayor, the Aldermen and Frederick Stokes, who had purchased the land and led the project, attended the opening. The street was to be called Kingsland Street, but in fact, that name was never used, and it became Upper Clanbrassil Street.
Transport From the 1850s, horse-drawn omnibuses provided transport along South Richmond Street from Rathmines to the city centre. On 6 October 1871 work was commenced on the Dublin tram system on Rathmines Road, a few yards from Portobello Bridge. They came into operation the following year, linking Rathgar, via Richmond Street, with College Green. There was just one standard fare within the city limits, which was much cheaper than the old horse-drawn omnibuses. That year also the long-awaited improvements to Portobello Bridge (after the fatal accident of 1861) were carried out, the Tramway Company paying one-third of the total cost of £300.
At the time the trams were introduced an impediment to efficient transport along Richmond Street was the curve in the street at Moyer's building works (west corner of Lennox Street, was part of the Portobello College complex until its demolition in 2006). The constant traffic in and out of Moyer's blocked the traffic at this narrow spot. Despite complaints, the curve was never removed and is there to this day.
Portobello Gardens Part of Lennox Street, Victoria Street and Florence Street stretching from the canal to the South Circular Road were part of the Kingsland estate, which contained a park with a large pond and fountains, which opened as the Royal Portobello Gardens in 1839. The name survives in Kingsland Park Avenue. From 1858, Mssrs. Kirby and Webb leased the Portobello Gardens. Kirby was a pyrotechnician who lived in Sackville Street. During the summer months, gas and Chinese lamps illuminated the gardens, a band played outdoors, and the public were entertained by acrobats, dancers and "a highly trained troupe of performing dogs". And of course, fireworks.
In June 1850, the celebrated circus owner and performer, Pablo Fanque (a black man, later immortalised in The Beatles song "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" written entirely from his circus advertisement) announced that the sponsor of the events at the gardens "has the honor to inform the Nobility, Gentry, and the Public that he has entered into an arrangement with Mr. Pablo Fanque for three Grand Equestrian Day fetes, which will take place on the 10th, 12th, and 14th of June in an immense Pavilion which will be erected for the purpose." The same advertisements announced performances by R. W. Pelham, the American minstrel.The Freeman's Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser, 10 June 1850.