As of 2020, the area is the subject of a major redevelopment plan, running for more than a decade, under the aegis of the Grangegorman Development Agency, including the new Technological University Dublin campus.

[2] Grangegorman has evolved over time to its current boundaries, which, like those of most Dublin suburbs, are imprecise, while for the purposes of redevelopment, an extended "neighbourhood" was defined.

The geographical definition of the north Dublin electoral division known as Arran Quay B, encompasses Grangegorman.

Bordered by the parishes of Castleknock, Finglas, Glasnevin, St. George's, St. Paul's and St. Michan's it encompassed the localities of Broadstone, Cabra, Phibsborough and the northern half of Stoneybatter .

William Basil Kingsbury Maturin (1803–1887), a Tractarian, was the Church of Ireland perpetual curate of Grangegorman and also librarian of Archbishop Marsh's Library, Dublin, from 1872 until 1887.

With the dissolution of the monasteries, King Henry VIII on 10 May 1541 by letters patent authorised the transformation of the Prior and Canons of Christ Church to a Dean and Chapter.

From the eighteenth century onwards, Grangegorman was to be transformed from an agricultural hamlet to an urban centre dominated by penal and welfare institutions.

In 1771–72 a philanthropic body called "The Corporation for the Relief of the Poor" was instituted following the passage of permissive legislation and this entity was responsible for the opening in 1773 of Dublin's second House of Industry[19] which was situated at the site of the derelict malthouse on Channel Row on what is now North Brunswick Street.

[20] Channel Row at this time was considered to form part of the locality of Glassmanogue to which also belonged the area known as Broadstone.

[21] The decision to site the House of Industry in this part of the city no doubt reflected the fact that the local population in Grangegorman and the surrounding districts of the northwest of Dublin were and are overwhelming proletarian in nature.

In September 1791 work began on the New House of Industry at a plot adjoining and to the north of the original building.

The building used for this hospital had been a convent constructed in 1688 by the Benedictine Nuns in Channel Row, opposite Red Cow Lane.

[26] In 1810, the governors of the House Industry were instructed by the lord lieutenant to purchase land for the construction of a penitentiary.

They obtained a 3+1⁄2-acre site from Lord Monck in Grangegorman which was at that time planted with apple and pear trees.

[29] At the beginning of the nineteenth century, there was minimal specialist institutional provision for those deemed insane in Ireland.

The lunatic department of the House of Industry, which in 1809 had forty-six cells reserved for this population, was heavily over-subscribed as individuals were sent there from throughout Ireland.

Therefore, the governors of the House of Industry petitioned the British parliament for funds to construct additional buildings to meet this demand.

The government agreed to fund the construction of an asylum and at the cost of £2,000 lands adjoining and to the east of the site of the House of Industry were purchased and an architect, Francis Johnston, was appointed.