George’s Court – stepping into history
The Barronstrand Street entrance to George's Court where Carter's is now located.
When you step into George’s Court Shopping Centre in Waterford, you’re immediately stepping into the colourful history of Ireland’s oldest city.
George’s Court is at the heart of Waterford city, every day it thrums with the buzz of people going in to grab a coffee, picking up shoes at the cobblers, or browsing through the shops.
This part of the Barronstrand Street/George’s Street nexus is an integral hub for businesses, locals and visitors.
There are few people as qualified as Kathleen Fitzgerald when it comes to the history of George’s Court, and so the sat down with Kathleen and was taken on a journey of these hallowed grounds.
Kathleen’s own history with this part of the city goes back over 50 years.
In 1971, she set up ‘Mother Needs’, a mother and baby shop that was sorely needed in the time before the likes of Mothercare or other baby brands – Kathleen had her first child Bill and saw the need for one in Waterford City. She was joined thereafter by her husband, who had been a Manager in Waterford Iron Foundry, in embarking on an entrepreneurial journey that recast this entire area of Waterford city.
Kathleen said: “Myself and my late husband Liam moved from the Apple Market to 22 George’s Street in 1976, where the Stable Yard Bakery is now situated. We acquired the Sportsman Toy Shop which was a well-known toy and fishing shop.”
At the time Hearne’s Department Store was a leading Waterford enterprise, similar to Arnott’s of Dublin, which spanned from George’s Street to the Quay.
“When it closed in 1979 we bought the George’s Street side of Hearne’s,” Kathleen said. “If you look at the front of The Granville, you know those lovely curved windows? If you look at Pamela Scott’s and Phelan’s, you’ll see the same curved glass, as they were the two entrances to the original Hearne’s Department Store. We developed that into George’s Court Shopping Centre, phase 1, with 13 shops and opened it on December 1, 1981.”
The shopping centre included clothing stores, shoe shops, a bakery, a China shop, a jeweller and a delicatessen. Of these, Full of Beans health food shop and The Salon hairdressers have always been part of George’s Court since that time, and McMahon’s Shoe Shop is now Phelan’s.
Prior to the Fitzgerald’s move to purchase Hearne’s, there was a fire in the Mother Needs shop at 22 George’s Street in 1979. The building, which included the family’s home upstairs, stretched deep within the now George’s Court and was sadly destroyed. The Fitzgerald family were devastated but after a time came to realise a new vision for the centre, and George’s Court Shopping Centre gradually took on a renewed momentum.
After the acquisition of Hearne’s, many lovely shops set up home in George’s Court, joining the original anchor, Mother Needs. These shops included Fitzmaurice Toy Shop, Torro – a Swedish shop on the style of Ikea and Flying Tiger, Teleport computer store, Harney’s Bakery, Bubbles China shop, Tony Roche Menswear, Plumes Ladies Fashion Shop, See-Saw Fashion – which brought brands like French Connection, Miss Sixty and Diesel to Waterford, John Martin Jewellers and Budget Travel.
The shopping centre was at the forefront of the then, quite literally, ground-breaking concept of pedestrianised streets. The process began in George’s Street in Waterford, shortly after the opening of a pedestrianised Grafton Street in Dublin.
As Kathleen describes it: “We started the pedestrianisation of Waterford with the Late Councillor Davy Daniels who was a champion for the city centre; every day Liam and Davy rolled barrels onto George’s Street to do a trial of pedestrianisation. It was a simpler time when you could try out what worked and didn’t work for the city centre.
“It was only as far as T & H Doolan’s when we first started it and bit by bit it extended and extended. Barronstrand Street was done in 1989/1990, and John Roberts Square, but it started here in the late 1970s.”
Parking was also an issue they tackled.
“My late husband and I were involved in the building of the car park on The Quay because there was nowhere to park. When they started building City Square Shopping Centre back in the early 1990’s the city lost a lot of parking spaces so we got together a group of city centre retailers and built the car park on the Quay, the first section of it, and then the Port built the rest of it. Giving us 300 spaces made all the difference in the world,” said Kathleen.
Very unfortunately Liam Fitzgerald died in September 1993, and Liam and Kathleen’s children Bill and Lisa, who were finishing school, joined Kathleen in running the business.
In 1998/1999 they started the next major reconstruction of premises in the shopping centre, paving the way for Boots and Mothercare, which opened in summer 1999.
Street seating, which was not a common sight in Irish city spaces, was another forward thinking initiative, with outdoor seating introduced in George’s Court, on Barronstrand Street, around the time of the first Tall Ships festival in 2002.
A highlight of Christmas from the early days of the shopping centre was the establishment of The Giving Tree in association with Milton Bradley. Children in Waterford schools, and at home, made decorations. The tradition continued with Hasbro and most recently Cartamundi, running for over 30 years, with gifts given to countless Waterford children over all those years as a result.
In 2012 Lisa’s husband Philip, who had moved from Dublin, opened what was originally Lily O’Brien Chocolate Shop for Christmas and it quickly became a fast favourite with customers and has grown over the years to become Carter’s Chocolate Café.
“Loughman’s Restaurant had been a mainstay for the centre and in 2013 we decided to update it and No.9 Barronstrand Street was born. With changing times, particularly in retail, we had to look at the direction we were taking George’s Court,” Kathleen said.
“We had to think about what we were going to do, to bring it up to the modern day, and what people want from a city centre. That’s how Lisa and Philip came up with the idea of a food hall, turning all the different parts and assembling them into different types of food, not just all the same kind of food.”
In 2020, The Stable Yard food hall was established at George’s Court, quickly proving popular with locals and visitors alike, thanks to its wide array of delicious offerings.
Fast forward a decade and The Stable Yard food hall now comprises of No.9 Restaurant, Carter’s Chocolate Café, The Ice Cream Place, The Stable Yard Bakery, Carter’s Little Sweet Shop and The Deli & Mediterranean Food Store.
Running The Stable Yard is now firmly in the hands of the next generation and requires a small army of dedicated, hands-on staff with five kitchens making everything onsite, including the breads and ice-cream.
George’s Court has always been at the forefront when adapting to changing times, and the addition of The Stable Yard food hall is the latest in a long, illustrious story, where time and again this city hub has played an essential role in the life of Waterford city.
When we sat for our chat, Kathleen spoke of her excitement for Waterford’s Winterval festival, which was just around the corner. She said: “We all love Christmas of course and the Winterval festival has become a wonderful addition to the city. There have been many changes over the 50 plus years that I have run a business in Waterford and I hope future generations look back fondly on George’s Court and its impact on the city.”
The wishes Kathleen and the Fitzgerald/Carter family, and all the staff and businesses in George’s Court Shopping Centre, continued success carving its future.
Prominently built on Waterford’s Medieval Walls, visitors can peruse the history trail at George’s Court, and learn about the grounds that they’re within.
Kathleen Fitzgerald says: “The city wall goes across the street there, through T & H Doolan’s.”
In the 16th century, Waterford’s only Catholic Church was a thatched store where worship was conducted secretly, due to the anti-Catholic reign of King Henry VIII. An information board (one of a series of carefully curated history boards) within George’s Court records for posterity where this church was situated.
Locals were able to evade persecution thanks to this ‘secret church’, helped by the network of medieval lanes, which connected the Quays into this area of the city.
As Kathleen said: “You couldn’t have a church on the main street, or anything like that so it had to be hidden really. That was on the little lane there, where you come in from Carter’s.
“There was a lane all the way over from George’s Street, between the Hangar and Barronstrand Street. You had ways of getting out in case they caught you going to Mass.”
Following the reign of King James in 1693, a new purpose-built church was built on Barronstrand Street.
Architect John Roberts designed the Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity a century later – he is also well-known for designing Christ Church Cathedral in the city, and other prominent buildings.
Kathleen was involved in setting up the John Roberts Festival, celebrating the architect whose influence on the city can be felt to this day. The establishment of the festival coincided with the time Barronstrand Street was fully pedestrianised, and the upper part of that street renamed John Roberts Square. (It was known locally as Red Square for a short while).
“Calling it John Roberts Square, and things like that, brought the renowned architect into the current century,” Kathleen said.
The site of The Stable Yard’s Italian Bakery on George’s Street was originally the Royal Oak Bar – it was upstairs there that the First President of Ireland (and Connacht) died.
In the 19th century, where The Stable Yard deli now stands was the site of the stables for the horses of Ireland’s first integrated public transport service. The Bianconi Coach Company operated over a thousand horses and a fleet of stagecoaches, connecting Waterford to the rest of the country.
According to Kathleen: “When the Bianconi company was started, the stables were downstairs here, the horses were kept in the stable yard, and that’s where the name came from.”
The rest, as they say, is history.
