Pedestrian street in Gibraltar, historically linked to monastery and Navy.
Irish Town is a pedestrianised street in Gibraltar’s city centre, running parallel to Main Street between Cooperage Lane and John Mackintosh Square. Formerly Calle de Santa Ana, it grew around a Mercedarian monastery later called the White Cloisters, later used by the Royal Navy, and now occupied by Cloister Building.
Irish Town is a pedestrianised street in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar and one of Main Street’s sub-districts, running parallel from Cooperage Lane in the north to John Mackintosh Square in the south. Tito Benady describes it as the second most important street in Gibraltar’s city centre after Main Street. The street was originally named Calle de Santa Ana after a hermitage at the corner with Market Lane. The Mercedarian Fathers established themselves in Gibraltar in 1581 and built their monastery around this chapel. The monastery became known as the White Cloisters and formed part of an order founded in Barcelona in 1380 for ransoming Christian captives in Muslim hands. The site is now occupied by Cloister Building, housing the offices of Blands and MH Bland. The building may have served as barracks before Lord Portmore handed it to the Royal Navy in 1720 as a naval storehouse with apartments for victualling clerks. It was destroyed during the Great Siege of Gibraltar, and four cloister columns now flank the entrance to Trafalgar House on Trafalgar Road. The Navy owned stores in Irish Town were later sold to finance the new Royal Navy Victualling Yard at Rosia Bay.
