The area was once known as Hoggen Green from the Old Norse word haugr meaning mound, or barrow. The cemetery at College Green consisted of several burial mounds, which are thought to have contained the remains of some of the Norse kings of Dublin. Between Church Lane and Suffolk Street the Norse had their Thing, an assembly and meeting-place, which was still to be seen in the 17th century. All along College Green, called Hoggen Green by the English, lay their barrows. Hoggen gave its name to the convent of St Mary de Hogges, which stood roughly where the Bank of Ireland is now, and was a major landowner in the area until the Reformation. Several public monuments stand in College Green, including a 19th-century statue of Henry Grattan, one of the leading members of the old Irish Parliament, which stands facing Trinity College. Another statue, standing further back, is of patriot Thomas Davis. Previously, this was the location of one of Dublin's finest equestrian statues, of King William III of England on horseback, by Grinling Gibbons, which features in James Joyce's story The Dead. It was taken down after it was badly damaged in an explosion in November 1928. Daly's Club, originally frequented by members of the old Irish Parliament, moved to number 3, College Green, in 1791 and remained there until it closed in the 1820s. College Green now exists as a street running from the front gates of Trinity College Dublin to pedestrian traffic lights close to The Central Bank in Dame Street at the junction of Trinity Street. The houses are numbered starting with 1 on the north side of the Street at Westmoreland Street and Trinity College and continuing across to the south side and back on the opposite side to Trinity College and the bottom of Grafton Street. Dubliners often incorrectly identify the street as Dame Street because it continues into Dame Street. College Street which runs from Pearse Street and Westmoreland Street passing railings on the Northern side of Trinity College Dublin is often thought to be College Green.
Traffic restriction
Since July 2009, College Green, during peak times on working days, has been accessible only to pedestrians, buses, taxis and cyclists. In 2016, plans were published for College Green to be fully pedestrianised, apart from a public-transport lane along the Trinity College side, to create a large public space in front of the Bank of Ireland. However, in October 2018 An Bord Pleanála, the state planning agency, rejected the plan.
Proposed developments
There is ongoing debate about the future of College Green, with plans being led by the Green Party-led Dublin City Council to pedestrianise the plaza being piloted during 2019, after planning permission for a permanently pedestrianised plaza was rejected by An Bord Pleanála in 2018.
