Premodern history In medieval (Anglo-Norman) times, the district was part of St. Andrews Parish and one of the earliest structures in the area was the
Augustinian Friary of the Most Holy Trinity which was located near present-day Cecelia Street from around 1259 onwards. It was a suburb, located outside the city walls. However, the area fell into disuse beginning in the 14th century, as it was exposed to attacks by the native Irish. It is generally thought that the street known as Temple Bar got its name from the Temple family, whose progenitor
Sir William Temple built a house and gardens there in the early 1600s. Temple had moved to Ireland in 1599 with the
expeditionary force of the Earl of Essex, for whom he served as secretary. (He had previously been secretary of
Sir Philip Sydney until the latter was killed in battle.) After Essex was beheaded for treason in 1601, Temple "retired into private life", but he was then solicited to become provost of
Trinity College, serving from 1609 until his death in 1627 at age 72. William Temple's son
John became the
Master of the Rolls in Ireland (a senior judicial position) and was the author of a famous pamphlet excoriating the native Irish population for an
uprising in 1641. John's son
William Temple became a famous English statesman. Despite this grand lineage, however, the name of Temple Bar street seems to have been more directly borrowed from the storied
Temple Bar district in London, where the main toll gate into London was located dating back to medieval times: , a historic laneway in the Temple Bar district of Dublin, Ireland, on a rainy day|Pedestrians walking through
Merchants' Arch in Temple Bar London's Temple Bar is adjoined by Essex Street to the west and Fleet Street to the east, and streets of the same names occupy similar positions in relation to Dublin's Temple Bar. It seems almost certain therefore that Dublin's Temple Bar was named firstly in imitation of the historic Temple precinct in London. However, a secondary and equally plausible reason for using the name Temple Bar in Dublin would be a reference to one of the area's most prominent families, in a sort of pun or play on words. Or as it has been put more succinctly, Temple Bar 'does honour to London and the landlord in nicely-gauged proportions'.
Fishamble Street near Temple Bar was the location of the first performance of
Handel's
Messiah on 13 April 1742. An annual performance of the
Messiah is held on the same date at the same location. A republican revolutionary group, the
Society of the United Irishmen, was formed at a meeting in a tavern in
Eustace Street in 1791. In the 18th century, Temple Bar was the centre of prostitution in Dublin. During the 19th century, the area slowly declined in popularity, and in the 20th century, it suffered from
urban decay, with many derelict buildings.
Modern history In the 1970s and 1980s, the state-owned transport company
Córas Iompair Éireann (CIÉ) proposed to buy up and demolish property in the Temple Bar area to build a bus terminus, which would have included a large underground carpark with 1,500 spaces, a shopping centre on the ground and first floors, and the bus station at second-floor level accessed by long ramps for double-decker buses. While these plans were in development, CIÉ leased the buildings at low rents, which attracted artists, galleries, small shops, cafes, and other creative enterprises, creating a bohemian atmosphere despite widespread urban decay. Protests by
An Taisce, residents, and traders led to the cancellation of the bus station project. In 1987,
Taoiseach Charles Haughey publicly stated that CIÉ should not control the area. In 1991, the
government established a not-for-profit company,
Temple Bar Properties, initially managed by Paddy Teahon and later by
Laura Magahy, to oversee the regeneration of the area as Dublin’s cultural quarter. The area was described in a pre-1996
Dublin Tourism booklet as a network of narrow, cobbled eighteenth-century streets evolving into an inner-city Bohemia with restaurants, theatres, cafes, arts centres, galleries, and second-hand shops, with old buildings restored, streets recobbled, and new street lighting installed. On 1 July 1996, The Ark children’s cultural centre in Meeting House Square was inaugurated with a performance by soprano
Virginia Kerr and concerts featuring Anuna, Shaun Davey, and
the Corrs. Noise and anti-social behaviour remained a concern as of 2008. At its peak in 2011, the Temple Bar residential population reached approximately 2,000, mainly in the west end between Parliament Street and Fishamble Street. Persistent issues with noise and late-night activity led residents to engage with Dublin City Council, An Bord Pleanála, and other authorities to regulate amplified music and licensing conditions for bars and nightclubs. ==Features==