Blessington Street Basin
Blessington Street Basin ( Irish Báisín Shráid Bhaile Coimín ) is the name of a drinking water reservoir operated from 1810 to the 1970s in the northern part of the Irish capital Dublin . The facility has been used as a public recreational area since 1994.
history
The Blessington Street Basin was established by the Dublin City Council in the early 19th century. Construction began around 1803, and in 1810 the complex was named after the then reigning British King George III. - Commissioned as the Royal George Reservoir .
The rectangular basin, around 120 m long and 60 m wide, held around 4 million gallons (15.1 million liters) of drinking water. The water came from Lough Ovel in the county of Westmeath , the supply was via the Royal Canal and an approximately 3 km long pipeline to the basin at the western end of the small Blessington Street. When the supply capacity was no longer sufficient, another drinking water collection point was built outside the city in 1869. From then on, the Blessington Street Basin only supplied Jameson's Distillery with drinking water to produce their whiskey until 1970, as well as another distillery until 1976. Thereafter, operations were closed.
In 1993/1994, the site was completely renovated. Since the reopening on November 4, 1994, there has been an artificial island in the park, which is now used as a bird pond, and fish also live in the water.
The small park is located in Dublin's Phibsborough district , at the west end of Blessington Street, a good 1 km from the north end of central O'Connell Street .
Naming
The original name Royal George Reservoir after the British king was soon abandoned and the facility was henceforth simply called the basin . Due to the relative unfamiliarity of the space as a quiet and leisure area, the name The secret garden was popular for a while . The facility is now named after Blessington Street, which ends on the east side of the basin.
See also
Web links
- Information on Blessington Street Basin on the Dublin City Council website ( Memento of May 10, 2014 on the Internet Archive )
- Blessington Street Basin information on the Dublin Libraries website (with video)
- Impressions from the Blessington Street Basin on dublin.de
Coordinates: 53 ° 21'26.1 " N , 6 ° 16'14.9" W.