St Stephen's Green is the city's best-loved central park, a Victorian pleasure garden of ponds, fountains, and flowerbeds laid out in the 1880s with money from the Guinness family. Office workers and tourists alike spread out on its lawns in summer, and a bandstand still hosts concerts on warm afternoons.
The streets fanning out from the Green are among the most enjoyable in Dublin for a drink. The cosy snugs of Kehoe's and the Victorian splendour of nearby pubs draw a mix of locals and visitors, while the top of pedestrian Grafton Street and the grand St Stephen's Green shopping centre cater to shoppers.
Georgian terraces, the Little Museum of Dublin, and the literary haunts associated with Joyce and his characters all lie within a few minutes' stroll of the park's railings.