St Patrick's Street

St. Patrick's Street

St. Patrick's Street looking south in 2006
Location	Cork, Ireland
Major junctions	Grand Parade, Merchant's Quay, Lavitt's Quay

St Patrick's Street (Irish: Sráid Naomh Pádraig) is the main shopping street of the city of Cork in the south of Ireland. Since its redevelopment in 2004, it has twice won the award as Ireland's best shopping street. St Patrick's Street is colloquially known to some locals as "Pana".

St Patrick's Street runs in a curve from Saint Patrick's Bridge to Daunt Square, where it meets Grand Parade. The street obtains its curved shape due to its location over an arm of the River Lee.

The street dates from the late 18th Century as the city expanded beyond the walls of the ancient city which was centered on North & South Main Street. During the 1780s many of the streets that now form the city centre of Cork were formed by the spanning of the river channels between the islands of the Lee.

Parts of Patrick Street were extensively damaged during the Irish War of Independence in an event known as the "Burning of Cork" in 1920. This included the Munster Arcade and Grant's department store.

From 1898 to 1931, the street was served by the Cork Electric Tramways and Lighting Company. Services started on 22 December 1898, however closed on 30 September 1931 due to increasing popularity of bus services operated by The Irish Omnibus Company, and the takeover of the company's electricity plant by the Irish Electricity Supply Board.

In 2004, the street was redeveloped by architect Beth Gali in order to make the street more friendly to pedestrians. This included repaving of the street and widening of pedestrian pavements in order to create plazas.

The street is home to a number of large retail outlets, including Brown Thomas, Dunnes Stores, Debenhams (located in the previous Roches Stores building), Marks & Spencer and Penneys, at the northern end of the street. The opposite end includes smaller units, with stores ranging from high end stores such as Pandora, video game stores such as GameStop and health stores such as Holland & Barrett. In the early 21st century, the street saw various modernisation and rejuvenation projects. These included the opening of Opera Lane in 2010, the redesigning of shop facades in 2016, and the development of the former Capitol Cinema site in 2017.