THE WESTERN WAY – CONNECTING CONSTITUTION HILL TO MOUNTJOY STREET
Western Way was created as a circulation route c.1880, linking Constitution Hill to the south-west with Mountjoy Street to the east.
The Midland Great Western Railway (MGWR) developed a train station at Broadstone from 1841, and purchased the Royal Canal in 1845.
In 1877, the MGWR was given permission to close 150 yards of the canal branch line and to construct a new forecourt for the train station. The new approach road, Western Way, was built by way of Foster aqueduct, with Saint Mary’s Chapel of Ease, or the Black Church, as its eastern focal point. The road curves around the site of former Palmerston House at the north-west corner of Dominick Street Upper.
Dominick Street Upper was developed from the 1820s, but remained largely undeveloped until the Broadstone railway terminus was built.
Sites for villas and terraces were offered in the 1860s, and the north side was owned by the Palmerston estate, where they built Palmerston House north of the junction of Dominick Street Upper and Constitution Hill. The fine cast-iron railings and granite gate piers are indicative of the wealth of the MGWR as patron and high quality craftsmanship throughout the nineteenth century.
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