Hume Street, Dublin
Hume Street is a street in central Dublin located between Ely Place and St. Stephen's Green. It is named after Sir Gustavus Hume, 3rd Baronet and his family.
Most of the south side of the street is taken up by the former City of Dublin Skin and Cancer Hospital, which was located in this street for over 100 years, until 2006. It was moved to St. Vincent's Hospital in 2006.
The geologist Richard Griffith was born in no. 8.
History
The street was laid out in 1768. Gustavus Hume built one of the corner houses demolished in 1969. Other developers included Timothy Turner, John Ensor, Nicholas Tench and John Meares.In June 1969, one of the earliest battles to preserve Georgian Dublin took place at the corner of the street and St Stephen's Green. An attempt by property developer Green Property to demolish a number of Georgian houses hit the national headlines, and became a cause célèbre.
The Minister for Local Government, Kevin Boland, had overridden the decision of Dublin Corporation, and given permission for the demolition. The buildings were then occupied by students, in an effort to prevent their destruction. However, a crew of demolition men entered the buildings during the night and destroyed the roofs and interiors. That afternoon 1,000 protesters were joined by Garret FitzGerald, Senator Mary Bourke, Deirdre Kelly, Noel Browne and Justin Keating and others to prevent the destruction. Though the original buildings were lost, the developer ended up building Georgian pastiche buildings on the site, but further destruction of the street was likely prevented.