We begin our walk of Victorian Dublin outside the city's oldest cathedral, Christchurch. Why? Because much of the architecture we see in Christchurch Cathedral is in the Victorian high Gothic revival style, and was part of a major refurbishment of the building in the 1870s. This was the work of George Roe, owner of the Roe Whiskey Distillery in nearby Thomas Street. Charity and philanthropy were very important aspects of Victorian society and the leading citizens of the city all played an important role in this regard. As we leave Christchurch and head south towards the other medieval cathedral, St Patricks, we will pass the beautiful red-brick Iveagh Buildings financed by Benjamin Lee Guinness (Lord Iveagh). A fine example of late nineteenth-century philanthropic housing for the working classes and dating from the 1890s.

Wander into the old liberties district in the industrial western part of the city. Walk along Francis Street, one of the most historic streets in these parts, our destination the old Iveagh Market buildings of 1900. The Iveagh Market is a fine example of philanthropy in the Victorian city. The leading families of the time such as the Guinnesses and others, were responsible for erecting markets and housing for the working classes, examples of which we will see shortly. To build the new markets the Guinness family purchased the Sweetman Brewery in 1895 (its biggest competitor), then immediately demolished the old brewery to build the new Iveagh Market in 1900.

St Patrick's Park, also funded by the Guinnesses, was laid out in the 1860s to replace previous slum housing (one of the most notorious slums in Victorian Dublin). We will hear more about tenement housing in the nineteenth-century city as we walk. Guinness also renovated St Patrick's Cathedral in the 1860s. Like it neighbour Christchurch, St Patrick's was also in a very bad state of disrepair and the Guinness family put tens of thousands of pounds into its refurbishment. Here you can enjoy spectacular views of the old cathedral with plenty of photo opportunities from the vantage point of the splendid Victorian gardens.

The Royal Exchange was built by Thomas Cooley in the 1760s for the wealthy protestant merchant community. It remains one of Dublin's finest eighteenth-century neo-classical buildings. When in 1852 it was taken over by Dublin Corporation to serve as the new City Hall, this was symbollic of the rise of the new Catholic middle classes within the previously protestant-dominated Corporation. The rise of the Catholics led to the expansion of the suburbs as the protestant class left the city to set up their own elite protestant townships in the suburbs. The beautifully preserved rows of terraced red-bricked housing in the old townships of Rathmines and Rathgar are just as important for Victorian Dublin, as the eighteenth-century townhouses are for the Georgian period. Just inside the doorway of City Hall we will view the impressive 18-foot statue of Daniel O'Connell and use this as a focus to discuss his achievements and how they paved the way for the development of Victorian Dublin.

Here you can enjoy the wonderful spectacle of the South City Markets. Built by the Pim family of Quaker merchants towards the end of the nineteenth century, the Pims were also responsible for introducing the railway to Dublin in 1834 (we'll see the terminus later). Enjoy wandering around the stalls of this authentic Victorian market arcade, and its wonderful exterior gothic revival architecture. The Pims also built a department store on same street. Rise of department store marks the mid Victorian period and is connected to the Great Exhibition 1855 at Leinster House (will visit this site later). Many of the exhibitors were small drapers with their own businesses and took ideas from the large exhibition halls where the public could walk, talk, browse and examine items. Results in owners extending their premises and so begins the rise of the department store and the new retail culture of the Victorian period.

View the splendid Victorian architecture of Dame Street's numerous bank buildings set in the financial heart of the Victorian city. These bank buildings as monuments to capitalism serve a similar purpose to the railway termini of the city insofar as each building emphasizes the prosperity of the institution in question through a dazzling display of ornate Victorian architectural features. As with the railway companies, a small group of elite business people in the city held directorships in all the prominent financial and commercial institutions in the city. Through these bank buildings we see how money was managed in the Victorian city while earlier we saw how it was put to good charitable and philanthropic use. Later on we will see how this money and wealth was generated as we continue our walk towards the port.

On our way to the National Art Gallery, we cut through the spectacular Trinity College campus which forms an island site in the centre of the city. Here we will view some outstanding examples of high culture in the Victorian city in the form of Trinity's outstanding architectural pieces. None more so than the delightful Museum Building of 1860 designed by Deane and Woodward, with the help of the wonderful O'Shea brothers sculptors. Across the Trinity playing fields we can also see another of Deane and Woodwards buildings, the Kildare Street Gentlemen's Club of the same period. The delightful work of the O'Shea's is evident in all its glory on this building. We then cut across to the Lincoln Place exit gate and walk to nearby Merrion Square and the National Art Gallery, site of the 1855 Exhibition of Dublin.

Stand between National Gallery (1854) and the Natural History Museum (1857), two great symbols of the rise of science and the arts in the Victorian period. Here also can be see the statue of Prince Albert by John Foley (1871). This the only royal statue left in the city, the others having been taken down by nationalist groups. Albert a great champion of Victorian virtues of improvement and progress. This reflected by the young figures of Art, Manufacturing and Science surrounding him. Outside the Art Gallery stands a statue of William Dargan, the man responsible for staging on this very site, the Great Industrial Exhibition of Dublin in 1855. An event of great importance, it required the construction of a massive crystal exhibition hall. This represents the embodiment of Victorian enterprise and ambition. From the exhibition grows a culture of display as shop owners extend their premises to emulate the layout of the exhibition halls, thus giving rise to the modern department store.

Walk down Westland Row towards the city's first railway station opened in 1834 by James Pim (mentioned earlier in relation to the Pim family associated with the South City Markets). This the beginning of the railway age in Dublin, its arrival dramatically transforming society, bringing far-flung places into direct communication and enabling the rapid movement of people and goods. The railway also provided a new means for investing surplus capital for the city's major businessmen who took out directorships with the various companies to improve their social capital and reputations in the city. Next to the terminus is the parish church of St Andrew's, Westland Row. This imposing Roman Catholic church really symbolises the new-found confidence of the Catholic church following the passing of the Catholic Emancipation Act 1829.In the years following we see a spate of Catholic church building in the city throughout the Victorian period.

We now come to the port area and the fresh salty waters of the Liffey. Major engineering works were carried out in the port during Victoria's long reign as there was an urgent requirement for deeper berthage to accommodate the largest steamships of the day. Here we learn about the remarkable port engineer Bindon Blood Stoney who devised a number of innovative methods for excavating the riverbed. So innovative that the British Association for the Advancement of Science held its 1876 meeting in Dublin to view the works in the port. One method was the designing of a diving bell that was submerged on the bed of the river with three men working inside to excavate the bed of the river. The actual bell is located on this site and has been opened as a mini museum.

Our focus here is not on James Gandon’s magnificent Custom House (1785), but on the Loop line railway bridge crossing the River Liffey to the west. This structure was erected in 1891 as a solution to the problem of Dublin’s disconnected railway system that had occupied the attention of railway engineers and city planners since the late 1850s. At the time the bridge was controversial but has since become assimilated into the psyche of the locals who now see it as part of their city. As a subtle acknowledgement of Gandon’s nearby eighteenth-century masterpiece, the loop line bridge, included some Portland stone carving on its pilasters to match that of the Custom House.

Stand on O'Connell Bridge and look north along O'Connell Street, Dublin premier thoroughfare. Here we see the famous General Post Office, the world’s first purpose-built Post Office building and site of the 1916 Easter Rebellion. Opposite side of street is former Clery’s department store on site of former McSwiney & Sons, world’s first purpose-built department store from 1859. Victorian period witnesses the transformation of Sackville (O’Connell) Street from residential to commercial thus emphasizing the city’s economic buoyancy. Also John Foley’s O’Connell monument at the top of the street. The erection of this statue in 1883 symbolizes the rise in status of the Catholic middle classes throughout the Victorian period. A bit further down the street is a statue of Sir John Gray, lord mayor of Dublin in 1867 when the city received its fresh water supply from the Vartry reservoir. Another great innovation of Victorian engineering and the envy of all British cities.