The institution and the city: the impact of hospitals and workhouses on the development of Dublin's north inner city, c. 1773–1911

Cities develop around industry, markets and transport links. Dublin in the nineteenth century was similar, but additionally the north-west of the city developed around the expansion of a complex of institutional buildings for the reception, confinement and welfare of the poor and sick. This article argues that these institutions were implicit in the development of the modern city in the same way as industry and commerce. The physical development of the buildings altered and defined both the streetscape and, over time, the social identities and historical communities in the locale, in the same way that industrial development defined urban areas.