Bowling Green first appears without a name on a map in 1608. It features a little later as Bóthar Alasandair or Alexander’s Lane (eventually shortened to Sander’s Lane ) which in turn was named after Alexander’s Tower, a medieval tower nearby. It is difficult to know exactly when the name Bowling Green originated, but we must presume there was a bowling green in the area at some point. On an Ordnance Survey map of 1839, the part of Bowling Green we see in our photograph was known as ‘Bowling Green Lane’ while the section connecting with Lombard Street was known as ‘The Bow’. Both sections are collectively known as Bowling Green today.
Griffith’s Valuation, published c1855, records one landlord named Gunning owning 17 houses here. By 1883 a report of the Town Commissioners stated that many of the houses on the street were occupied in tenements while others were held by single families and most of these had deteriorated. “In none of the houses is there any provision as to water closets, privies or drains which, in itself, is deplorable: but your committee feel they would be ill discharging their duty if they stopped short at such an exposition and remain silent as to the absence of every feature which could recommend them as habitations for human beings, but when a gentleman enters into commercial relations with them, on a well intended profitable scale to himself…. He should not be exempted from the obligation of providing them with accommodation somewhat better then Indian wigwams.”
Things began to improve slowly in the area; Thomas Clarke ran a company known as Bowling Green Mills that made celebrated homespuns and specialised in tweeds, blankets, and rugs. Michael J Lydon had a business manufacturing fishing tackle; Joseph A Cloherty, a contractor, had an office and yard here; The Fire Station was established here early in the last century; W O’Flaherty had a joinery workshop at the junction with Market Street; and later in the century, Peter Heaney had a butcher shop on the street. Nevertheless, the street always was and remains almost exclusively residential.
Some of the houses were very small, one room upstairs, one on the ground floor, with a small yard behind. The yard was often used as a kitchen in the summertime. It was in the 1940s that some of these houses finally got running water.
The gap we see on the far left of our photograph (kindly given to us by an ‘old Galwegian’ ) was the entrance in to the Corporation yard. The houses were once occupied by (from the left ) Lynskeys, O’Gradys, Colmans, Griffins, Conneelys, Jordans, O’Regans, Lynchs, MacMahons, the abbatoir, and O’Connors. The last four are all demolished. Our thanks to Jimmy Mannion for his help with the above.
