 North end near Trinity College | |
  | |
| Native name | Sráid Chill Dara (Irish) |
|---|---|
| Former name(s) | Coote Street |
| Namesake | James FitzGerald, 1st Duke of Leinster and 20th Earl of Kildare |
| Length | 400 m (1,300 ft) |
| Width | 15 m (49 ft) |
| Location | Dublin,Ireland |
| Postal code | D02 |
| Coordinates | 53°20′31″N06°15′17″W / 53.34194°N 6.25472°W /53.34194; -6.25472 |
| north end | Nassau Street, Leinster Street South |
| south end | St. Stephen's Green North |
| Other | |
| Known for | Leinster House,National Library of Ireland,National Museum of Ireland – Archaeology,Royal College of Physicians of Ireland,Alliance française |
Kildare Street (Irish:Sráid Chill Dara) is a street inDublin,Ireland.
Kildare Street is close to the principal shopping area ofGrafton Street andDawson Street, to which it is joined byMolesworth Street.Trinity College lies at the north end of the street whileSt Stephen's Green is at the southern end, with the well-knownShelbourne Hotel on the eastern corner.[citation needed]
Kildare Street is named afterJames FitzGerald, 1st Duke of Leinster and 20th Earl of Kildare, who builtLeinster House. The street was previously known as Coote Street[1] up to 1753, earlier as Coote Lane, with the area was historically known as Molesworth fields or "lands of Tib and Tom".[2]
In 1972, in advance of Ireland joining the thenEuropean Economic Community the thenChief Justice, and laterPresident of Ireland,Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh wrote to theMinister for Foreign Affairs,Patrick Hillery, also laterPresident of Ireland, seeking for the street to be renamed Rue de l'Europe.[3]
On the corner with Leinster Street is the formerKildare Street Club, which before thepartition of Ireland was at the heart of theAnglo-IrishProtestant Ascendancy. The building now houses the Dublin offices ofAlliance française.[2]
Some Irish government departments have their offices on this street but Leinster House, the current seat of theOireachtas (Irish parliament), built byRichard Cassels in 1745 is Kildare Street's most important building.[2] TheNational Library of Ireland and the Archaeology branch of theNational Museum of Ireland[4] are located on either side of the Leinster House and were built in 1885.[2]
The 1935 Department of Industry and Commerce government buildings are a rare and largely unaltered Art Deco public building. The building features relief sculptures byGabriel Hayes.[2]
In 1969, the Irish government announced it would be building the largest office block built in Dublin to that date on a plot of land on Kildare Place behind theShelbourne Hotel. The plan was to build an 8-storey block providing theDepartment of Agriculture with 4 acres of office space. Named Agriculture House, it was designed by Stephenson Gibney and Associates. It is constructed using Armagh limestone aggregate which helped the building sit in its surroundings.[5]
