An Economic and Spatial Plan for Limerick Appendices

Limerick 2030 An Economic and Spatial Plan for Limerick
Core Area
This area to the immediate south of Abbey River and centred on the intersection of William Street
and O’Connell Street is effectively the heart of the City Centre. It retains remnants of its Georgian
origins in the form of a number of buildings along Patrick Street, and in particular the Hunt
Museum building but much of the remainder of the area is Victorian/20 th Century in character,
with a number of more recent developments.
The area encompasses the principal shopping streets, namely O’Connell Street, William Street,
Cruises Street and Catherine Street, as well as the only purpose built shopping centre in Limerick
City Centre – the Arthur’s Quay Shopping Centre. The area includes the principal
department/general stores in Limerick, including Brown Thomas, Debenhams and Penneys.
However, the overall character of the area is more mixed with a number of office buildings,
including Sarsfield House on the River, the Granary and various leisure/tourism uses, including the
Savoy Hotel on Henry Street.
The principal open space in the area is Arthur’s Quay Park facing on to the River, to the north of
the Arthur’s Quay West Shopping Centre, although there are open space areas to the rear of the
Hunt Museum and the Bank Place/Charlotte’s Quay frontage to the Abbey River. A number of
streets in the area have seen improvements as part of the implementation of the City Public
Realm Strategy. These improvements have included extensive pedestrianisation, for example
along William Street.
As outlined earlier there is a growing level of vacancy in the heart of the City Centre, in particular
the number of vacant units on Cruises Street is rapidly increasing. The area comprises the principal
development site, the Opera Site which was purchased by the Limerick City Council from NAMA
in 2012.
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