A distinguished Dublin gentleman named Ball lived in an elegant little house beside an old wooden bridge over the river Dodder. In 1791 a new, more substantial bridge was erected and named after Mr Ball as Ball’s Bridge.

This area, including the vast expanse as far as Ringsend, became known as Ballsbridge and had its own local authority, the Pembroke Council from 1863 to 1930, when it was subsumed into the Dublin City Council.

At the heart of the district, the Royal Dublin Society was central and remains so to this day. The nuclei of many societies had their origins here, including the National Botanical Gardens at Glasnevin.

In 1806 Trinity College leased land for 175 years at a rate of 15 guineas per acre per annum. For 160 years the Ballsbridge Trinity College Botanical Gardens flourished. Budding botanists from far and wide researched and studied here.

The plant collections were highly regarded by botanists from similar institutions around the world, while Trinity’s own botanists travelled far to collect and add to these unique lists.

Botanist, Thomas Coulter discovered the Romneya plant in Mexico and he managed to establish it in Ireland. He was honoured by the name Romneya Coulteri being given as the official international name of this rare plant.

In 1892 Todea Barbara was found in a ravine near Port William in Australia. Transported in a bamboo cage, it survived and flourished in Ballsbridge until 1967, when the gardens finally ended.
However, the demise of the Trinity Gardens did not end for the Todea transferred to the National Botanical Gardens in Glasnevin and a thriving re-propagated specimen of it is on display in the Fern House labelled the oldest plant in the gardens.

Frederick F. Burbidge successfully bred a Calceolaria later called calceolaria burbighei in his honour. This hybrid is growing in the replaced Trinity College botanical gardens off the Dartry Road in Rathgar and one of the parents of the cross grows freely in the grounds of the RDS.

The demise of the gardens at Ballsbridge started in 1942 when part was sold for an extension of the Veterinary College. This was followed some years later by the sale of a five acre plot where Jury Doyle Hotel now stands.

If the proposed sale of this property goes ahead what will happen to the Californian Redwood originally called Sequdia Gigantea? This redwood is a mere infant in comparison with those in California. Nevertheless, its girth is now three metres at base while its height reaches above the seven-storey bedroom block nearby. While this specimen is not rare, many fine ones were lost with the break up of the land estates around Dublin.

However, some trees escaped the clear-out notably the Holm Oaks (quercus ilex) hybrids which have been growing beside the railings along Pembroke and Lansdowne Roads for the past 103 years. It remains to be seen how the face of Ballsbridge will change in the future.

Above, The Sequdia.