Blessington Street Basin, Phibsborough, Dublin
Located at the end of Blessington Street, a 10 minute walk from O’Connell Street, Blessington Street Basin could be best described as a quiet area in the middle of the city, created around a disused water reservoir.
Blessington Street Basin was built in the nineteenth century to provide a clean water supply to the northside of Dublin city. It was opened in 1810 and officially named the Royal George Reservoir, but most Dubliners simply referred to it as ‘the basin’. The basin could hold four million gallons of water and it got its water from Lough Owel in Co. Westmeath.
In 1993, after many decades of neglect, Dublin Corporation’s Parks Department began restoring it as a recreational facility, removing 6000 tons of silt and debris, adding a fountain, enlarging the central island for wildlife and undertaking extensive replanting. The Blessington Basin still obtains its water from the canal above the 8th lock, two miles away, but it is currently an attractive walled park of one and a quarter acres, with a beautifully paved and landscaped walk around a large oblong body of 4.7 million gallons of water, fenced off by wrought-iron railings, and scattered with sculptures and places to sit.
