Dublin has closed more streets to traffic in the last five years than in the previous forty. Capel Street in 2022, Parliament Street in 2025, and a string of lanes around Grafton Street in between. If you are learning the city for the SPSV Area Knowledge module, or you already drive and keep meeting new bollards, this is the current list. Each street links to its spot on Google Maps.
How the list was built: we took every named street in Dublin 1 and 2 that OpenStreetMap records as closed to motor traffic along most of its length, then checked the main streets against Dublin City Council notices and news reports; the small lanes rest on the map data. Streets we could not confirm went into the “restricted” group at the end, or were left out.
Northside: Henry Street to Capel Street
One continuous pedestrian corridor runs from O’Connell Street west along Henry Street and Mary Street to Capel Street, then turns south down Capel Street to the river. For a driver that means the block between O’Connell Street, Parnell Street, Capel Street and Abbey Street has no through route east to west except Parnell Street and Abbey Street themselves.
| Street | Between | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Henry Street | O’Connell Street Lower and Mary Street | The main northside shopping street. Traffic-free since the 1970s. |
| Mary Street | Henry Street and Capel Street | Continues the Henry Street pedestrian zone west to Capel Street. |
| North Earl Street | O’Connell Street Lower and Talbot Street | Traffic returns at Marlborough Street, where Talbot Street begins. |
| Liffey Street Upper | Mary Street and Middle Abbey Street | Liffey Street Lower was rebuilt in 2022-23 with a pedestrian plaza between Strand Street and the quays. |
| Capel Street | Grattan Bridge (Ormond Quay) and Parnell Street | Traffic-free since May 2022, the longest such street in the city. Deliveries 6am to 11am, then bollards go up. North of Parnell Street it is a normal two-way street. |
Grafton Street quarter
Grafton Street itself has been closed since 1982. What changed recently is the web of lanes on either side, most of them made traffic-free during 2021 and never reopened. Set-down for this whole area is Nassau Street, Dawson Street, St Stephen’s Green, or Clarendon Street.
| Street | Between | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Grafton Street | Nassau Street and St Stephen’s Green | Pedestrianised since 1982. The short northern stub between College Green and Nassau Street still carries traffic. |
| Suffolk Street | Grafton Street and St Andrew Street | Closed to most traffic under the 2021 mobility measures and kept that way. |
| Anne Street South | Grafton Street and Dawson Street | |
| Coppinger Row | South William Street and Clarendon Street | |
| Johnson’s Court | Grafton Street and Clarendon Street | Lane beside the Clarendon Street church. |
| Duke Lane Upper | Duke Street and Anne Street South | |
| Harry Street | Grafton Street and Chatham Street | The Phil Lynott statue is here. |
| Lemon Street | Grafton Street and Duke Lane | |
| Castle Market | South William Street and Drury Street | Leads into George’s Street Arcade. |
| Clarendon Market | off South William Street | |
| Dame Court | Dame Lane and Exchequer Street |
Temple Bar
Temple Bar has been effectively car-free since the 1990s, but the boundary is the confusing part. Dame Street on the south and the quays on the north are busy traffic routes; between them only Eustace Street, Sycamore Street and Anglesea Street still take vehicles, and those with restrictions. Parliament Street, the western edge, joined the pedestrian zone in 2025.
| Street | Between | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Temple Bar (the street) | Fleet Street and Essex Street East | The spine of the district. Cobbled and closed to through traffic. |
| Parliament Street | Grattan Bridge and Dame Street | Made permanently traffic-free in 2025 under the Dublin City Transport Plan. Local access and deliveries 6am to 11am on the Dame Street half. |
| Crow Street | Dame Street and Cecilia Street | |
| Cecilia Street | Temple Lane South and Fownes Street | |
| Crown Alley | Temple Bar and Cope Street | Runs under Merchant’s Arch to the Ha’penny Bridge. |
| Merchant’s Arch | Wellington Quay and Temple Bar | |
| Fownes Street Lower | Wellington Quay and Temple Bar | |
| Temple Lane South | Dame Street and Temple Bar | |
| Meeting House Square | Eustace Street and Sycamore Street | Square with retractable canopies, used for markets and outdoor cinema. |
| Essex Street West | Parliament Street and Fishamble Street | |
| Cow’s Lane | Lord Edward Street and Essex Street West | Steps at the top; the Saturday market street. |
Restricted rather than pedestrianised
These get called pedestrianised in conversation but are not fully closed. On a test question about which street is “closed to general traffic”, they would be the wrong answer.
| Street | Between | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| South William Street | Wicklow Street and Stephen Street Lower | Traffic-free from 11am, but the Grafton car park still exits onto it, so it is not fully closed. |
| King Street South | Grafton Street and Mercer Street | Through traffic banned; functions as an extension of the Grafton Street zone, with access for the Gaiety and the shopping centre. |
| Drury Street | Stephen Street Lower and Exchequer Street | The stretch beside George’s Street Arcade has been traffic-free since 2021, but the street as a whole is one-way northbound, and that is how the NTA’s own sample question treats it. |
| Moore Street | Henry Street and Parnell Street | Market trading street. Stalls occupy the road during trading hours; not formally pedestrianised for its whole length. |
Why this matters beyond the test
Stopping on a pedestrianised street is a road traffic offence, and the same bollards that stop you entering will also stop you leaving if you go in behind a delivery van at 10.55am. The set-down points regulars use: Nassau Street for Grafton Street, the Abbey Street side of Jervis for Henry Street and Mary Street, Wellington Quay or Dame Street for Temple Bar, and Ormond Quay for the Capel Street end.
The Area Knowledge module since October 2025 covers exactly this kind of knowledge: main streets, one-way systems and how districts connect. Our Dublin practice has a pedestrian streets topic drawn from the same data as this page, and a one-way streets topic for the streets you can drive down but only one way. Both are in the free demo.
Sources: OpenStreetMap (street geometry and access tags, September 2026), Dublin City Council public realm and traffic-free scheme notices for Capel Street (2022), Suffolk Street, Liffey Street and Parliament Street (2025), and contemporaneous news reports. Corrections welcome: if a street here has reopened or a new one has closed, email us.