The Temple Bar area was named after the family of Sir William Temple acquired the land that was to become this district in the 17th century. During this time, Sir Temple, who was a provost at nearby Trinity College, had a garden and walkway that was used as a thoroughfare not just by the Temple family, but by everyone traveling through the area. The area soon became associated with the Temple name. The term bar was added because a "barr" refers to a walkway that is near the waterside, which would be the Liffery River's south bank. The second "r" was soon dropped from "bar," and the area became known as "Temple Bar."
Economic activity started to occur in Temple Bar in 1707 when the Customs House was built where the Clarence Hotel now stands. The house oversaw all goods that Ireland received via ship, resulting in a booming warehousing business. Naturally, once the area was ripe with jobs, the entertainment options soon followed. Before long, there were pubs, performers, theaters, saloons and brothels lining the streets of the Temple Bar district.
In 1791, Temple Bar lost the Customs House, which was moved farther north. This resulted in a great economic downturn, as the Customs House took all the jobs and, therefore, paying customers with it. Unfortunately, the area remained in decline until the 1980s.
Córas Iompair Éireann (CIE), which is the Gaelic name of Ireland's state transport company, began to buy up land within the Temple Bar district in the 1980s in the hopes of building a bus depot. While the CIE awaited permission from the city to move forward with its depot plans, it began to rent out spaces within the still-standing buildings at a cheap rate to generate some revenue. This soon attracted a variety of artists and craftsmen who wanted to sell their works. Once the city saw Temple Bar as a once again profitable district, it resisted plans to tear it down.
As the artists, sculptors, painters and musicians moved into Temple Bar, so, too, did the patrons. The area quickly gained a reputation as an alternative Bohemian district where art, music and culture thrived. In addition to the art world, local merchants, farmers, seamstresses, shoemakers and just about anyone else with a good or service to sell moved into the area. Now that the employment and retail sectors were back, the hospitality options, not to mention numerous restaurants, pubs and nightclubs, were moved in as well, bringing about the Temple Bar that we know today.
