South Lotts

South Lotts is a small area to the south of the river Liffey in Dublin 4, 1 km east of Dublin City Centre, Ireland. It was created following the embankment of the River Liffey in 1711 between the city and Ringsend, thereby reclaiming the North and South Lotts.^[1] It is at the West end of Ringsend, but is generally accepted to be within Ringsend.

Boundaries of district

South Lotts is bordered to the north by Ringsend Road, to the west by Barrow Street, to the east by South Lotts Road and to the south by Grand Canal Street.

The district takes its name from the auction when the land was sold to the highest bidder, after it had been reclaimed from marsh.

Included in South Lotts are

• South Lotts Road
• Doris Street
• Gerald Street
• Gordon Street
• Hastings Street
• Hope Street,
• Howard Street
• Joy Street
• Ormeau Street
• Penrose Street
• Somerset Street
• South Dock Place
• South Dock Street

Buildings

The South Lotts originally included the lands south of Gordon Street which has been developed by an Irish property developer (now in receivership) into an area called The Gasworks. The Gasworks is the current location of Google's European headquarters as well as a flat complex.

The Alliance building is a converted gasometer which was developed into a block of apartments.^[2] The building was owned by Liam Carroll's Zoe Developments originally, but the company went into receivership.^[3][2] Forty of the apartments were sold but none of those who paid deposits went on to sign contracts and many left as they realised the apartments were overpriced.^[2] Zoe Developments applied for and received permission from Dublin City Council to convert the building into a hotel, but it shortly turned out that a combination of too many hotel rooms and price cutting meant there was no market for that either.^[2]

South Lotts is also home to the Shelbourne Park Greyhound Stadium, located on South Lotts Road. Racing on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday nights.

Also within the area there is a small park, known locally as "The Swings". The park consists of a small playground, a netted Astroturf Football/Basketball court and a small grassy area.

South Lotts is an area of single and double storey terraced houses which were built between 1890 and 1910 to house the dockers working locally. The area was developed by James Beckett between 1890 and 1910 The two storied dwellings are typically Red Bricked, two up, two down terraced houses with a small back yard. They are fronted directly onto the footpath.

The two up two down houses were built in the Belfast syle with two rooms upstairs and two rooms downstairs. The houses have two upstairs windows and a single larger window downstairs overlooking the street. The lavatory was built within the back yard when built at first. The facades are red bricked with blonde bricks around the door and windows.

Some of the houses in the area were built without the blonde bricks, however, decoration is with granite support plints above the windows and doors. Each house contains a large fireplace in the front room downstairs and a smaller cast iron fireplace in the upstairs front and back rooms. Between the houses are older reclaimed bricks. Those bricks are believed to have been reclaimed from houses knocked down elsewhere in Dublin.

The single storied houses are at the west end of South Lotts.

A number of commercial business operate in the South Lotts area including Ringsend's post office, coffee shops, a sandwich bar, beauty salon, dry cleaners and accountant's.

Bin Collection is Monday and recycling is collected every two weeks on Tuesday. Street Parking is Pay-and-Display or resident permit only.

Films

The area has been used as location in Films including In The Name Of The Father, Educating Rita and The General. Advertising agencies have filmed and photographed in the area for various commercials such as Eircom and Vodafone.

References