Designed by the City Architect C.J. McCarthy and completed in 1904, the Bull Alley Corporation housing scheme was designed to complement the adjacent Iveagh Trust Scheme. These housing blocks are of five stories surmounted by copper domes over stairwells and ornate art nouveau details in the gable ends. The ground floor of the buildings was devoted to small shop units, most of which are still in use today.

Although Bull Alley is the name of one street, it has also come to mean the complete area of housing on Ross Road, Bride Street, and Bull Alley itself.