The area is largely situated north and west of a three-arch stone bridge across the River Dodder, on the south side of the city.

Situated on the Dodder, this village had a ready source of power for small industries, including by the 1720s, a linen and cotton printers, and, by the 1750s, a paper mill and a gunpowder factory.

After the Royal Dublin Society (RDS) moved into its present site near Ballsbridge in 1879, the Earl of Pembroke began to develop these lands into suburban residential housing.

[2] In 1916, the Mount Street bridge, which spans the Grand Canal at the foot of Northumberland Road, was the site of an important battle during the Easter Rising.

Another resistance leader, Eoin MacNeill, who refused to participate in the Rising, lived down the road at 19 Herbert Park.

The Royal Dublin Society (RDS) has its grounds here, and the Lansdowne Road headquarters of the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) is on the boundary between Ballsbridge and Irishtown.

The British, American, Italian, Spanish, Dutch and Israeli embassies are all located in the Ballsbridge area of Dublin.

[2] Gurdwara Guru Nanak Darbar, the place of assembly and worship for the Irish Sikh community, is located on Serpentine Avenue.