Map of the Terenure Terminus
Map of the Terenure Terminus
This map shows Terenure village as it would have been near to the close of the Dublin & Blessington Steam Tramway. The line of the tramway is just visible as it arrives in from the Templeogue Road to the south-west, swinging into the terminus yard on the right hand side of the road. A dotted line shows the rail link between the lines of the DBST and the DUTC. It was here that goods trains would be marshalled to await transport by night across the city tramway network.
Passengers arriving into Terenure on the steam tram would make their way past the small booking office and out through a gap in a whitewashed wall onto the Rathfarnham Road. From there they had a choice of the number 15 tram, waiting at the end of Terenure Road East, the number 16 tram, waiting at Terenure Road North, or the number 17 tram, travelling through from Rathfarnham to follow the number 16 tram into the city.
The Dublin tram services only received numbers in the mid 1920s. From early horse tram days, a system of easily distinguished symbols were carried at each end of the tram to denote the route travelled. This was because many people around the turn of the century were illiterate, and could not read the destination boards on the trams.
The symbol formerly used by the Nelson Pillar-Rathmines-Terenure (number 15) tram was a red triangle. The symbol used by the cross city Whitehall-Drumcondra-City-Terenure-Rathfarnham (number 16 & 17) trams was a green maltese cross.
In the late 1920s, too, bus services began to arrive serving Terenure.
The Dublin Bus Company was one of the better known independent bus
operators, being owned by Mr.
The first DUTC buses to run into Terenure were on the number 49 service, through to Tallaght, and shortly after, the 49A, an extended service to Bohernabreena. These routes survive today as well, although before the war they served via Kimmage Road, Kimmage Cross and Terenure Road West, only being rerouted to their present course direct through Terenure in 1939.
Today, Terenure Public Library sits on the former site of the tramway yard. In the background can be seen the large sheds of the neighbouring DUTC tram depot, but alas, the trams are long since gone, and commercial enterprise now occupies the much rebuilt sheds. Terenure cross roads is much the same today as it was then, and on a quiet Sunday morning, before the crowds come out, one can listen carefully, and just imagine hearing the ring of the conductor's bell, as the Dublin United tram prepares to head off for the return trip to Nelson's Pillar in the city centre.