Rock Street has a long and proud history when it comes to business

FEW streets in the county’s capital have a history like Rock Street and this is one part of Tralee that has always had an autonomous feel to it when it comes to business, tradition, history and sport. Rock Street is said to have been the first access road to Tralee from the north Kerry region; a view that makes sense given Rock Street’s origins stem from a thriving market centre for agriculture and livestock, a tradition that lasted into the late 1980s when the market and creamery closed.

The original market place in Tralee was situated in The Square, but it later moved to Rock Street in the mid-1800s and a market-house was built in 1848 to reflect the rising merchant industry within Rock Street (the building is where the Rose Garden Chinese Restaurant is located today).

The old ‘Shambles’ (or slaughter house) functioned off Rock Street in the late 1800s and was a prelude to the larger CWS Bacon Factory that opened in 1901 - a company owned and controlled from Manchester. The CWS factory played a huge role in the development of Tralee at a time when agriculture was its main staple. The construction of The Great Southern & Western Railway and The Waterford/Limerick lines in the 1800s helped boost the economic and social profile of Rock Street (a rail line ran adjacent to the CWS factory which hastened output), while a line also ran the length of where North Circular Road is today to a junction at Pembroke Street/Balloonagh.

Rock Street’s origins grew incrementally from a street at the heart of the rising merchant trade to one that absorbed high populations. The street suffered a catastrophic fire in 1782 which destroyed both sides of the street, while an 1852 Parliamentary Borough Report identified 90 dwellings on Rock Street. Initially, places like Market Place, Castle Terrace and Brogue Lane are where families would have lived in close proximity. But Town Council plans to build Urban Terrace (constructed around 1906) and Reidy’s Terrace, were the beginning of a much larger influx of population.

From the 1930s to the 1970s, Casement Avenue, Stack’s Villas, St Brendan’s Park, John’s Park, and Connolly Park, were constructed. Later developments during the 1980s include Shanakill, Rock Park Avenue and Cahermoneen - all of which shape the character of what’s known today as ‘Upper Rock Street’. Ironically, it’s the people living in these areas that continue to support businesses on Rock Street today, helping to maintain that historic link between people and industry in the area.

Above: From the top of the Rock to the bottom of the Rock.