Georgian Dublin (Fitzwilliam & Merrion Square)

Overview

Georgian Dublin refers to the elegant 18th-century residential core of the city, best represented by the sweeping terraces of Fitzwilliam Square and Merrion Square. These streets showcase Dublin's golden age of architecture — uniform redbrick facades with distinctive coloured doors and ornate fanlights.

Highlights

• Fitzwilliam Street: Once the longest unbroken Georgian streetscape in Europe before partial demolition in the 1960s.
• Number Twenty Nine: A restored Georgian townhouse museum showing middle-class life from 1790 to 1820.
• Fanlights & Doors: Each door is painted a different colour, supposedly because residents returning home after a few whiskeys needed to identify their own house.

History

Dublin's Georgian expansion was driven by the Wide Streets Commission (1757) and peaked before the Act of Union in 1800, which moved political power to London and began the city's 19th-century decline. Many houses were subdivided into tenements before mid-20th-century restoration.

Visitor Tips

• Walk Merrion Square → Fitzwilliam Street → Fitzwilliam Square for the full effect.
• Number Twenty Nine is free and gives excellent context.
• Duration: 45–60 minutes.