bridge

Triple-span railway bridge, erected c.1890, carrying track over Westland Row and adjoining west elevation of Pearse Street station. Flat-span riveted steel girder carriageway supported on moulded console bracket over cast-iron cylindrical columns, with acanthus leaf and beading to capitals, and diaper pattern to base. Yellow brick piers to either end having red brick recessed string courses and cornice with decorative terracotta tiles. Paired square-headed door openings to piers to east and west having moulded red brick architraves and decorative cornices. Shouldered panels to parapet with foliate motif to centre, having decorative panelled railing over. Square-profile downpipes to piers to drain carriageway.

Westland Row Station, now Pearse Street Station, was built in 1834 as the terminus of the Dublin and Kingstown Railway, the first railway opened in Ireland. It was extensively rebuilt to designs by T. Deane & Son in 1884, and again altered in 1891 to accommodate the Loop Line Railway, or the City of Dublin Junction Railway, which was constructed to link this station with Amiens Street Station, terminus of the Great Northern Railway, on the north side of the river. This elegant metal bridge, added as part of the later project, has similar decorative elements as those on the new frontage and may also have been designed by Deane. The ornate detailing of the piers and parapets belie the bridge’s essentially functional character. The design and massing form a striking and unusual entrance to the Westland Row side of the station, and provides a focal point in the streetscape. It remains an integral part of the public transport infrastructure of the city today.