Sweny's Pharmacy
Victorian-era chemist's shop turned literary hideaway, still selling the lemon soap from Ulysses.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Sweny's Pharmacy in Dublin follows the little chemist's shop from its 1847 opening through the day James Joyce sent Leopold Bloom in for lotion and a bar of lemon soap that goes on to trail through the rest of Ulysses. You'll hear how the real pharmacy dispensed prescriptions for over a century and a half before closing in 2009, and about the volunteer who refused to let the door stay shut, turning up most days in a white chemist's coat to read Joyce aloud. The guide follows the shop into a more recent crisis, when a rent letter threatened to end the story for good.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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