Big changes in store for well-known Waterford shopping centre
Barronstrand street entrance to George's Court Shopping Centre as it stands today
George's Court Shopping Centre has submitted a bumper planning application to Waterford City and County Council.
They hope to remove the mall hallway linking George’s Street to Barronstrand Street. Instead of this corridor, there will be a large expansion of Boots pharmacy, making it one of the largest Boots stores in the country.
The Stable Yard food market and the Italian bakery are not included in the new plans for the historic shopping centre.
The ground floor of the new shopping centre will consist of just Phelan’s shoes, Pamela Scott and Boots.
Phelan's shoes will be expanded into where the George's Street entrance currently is.
Boots will be significantly expanded, taking up the majority of the ground floor of the shopping centre.
Part of what is currently Boots Pharmacy will be turned into café use, presumably for Carter's.
The second floor of the shopping centre will be the ‘mall area’ with the usual shops found in George’s Court; Full of Beans, Banshee tattoo studio and The Salon hairdressers. The second floor will also see an expansion of No.9 Café.
They also hope to install an upstairs seating area in Carter’s Café where No.9 currently is.
The third floor will consist mainly of storage space, a staff canteen, a locker room and an admin office. There are also plans to have four small commercial units on the third floor, although it has not yet been disclosed which shops will go in there.
A decision is due from Waterford City and County Council on February 21.
This historic shopping centre was first opened on December 1, 1981. At the time it had 13 shops. Pedestrianisation of George's Street followed, not long after a similar move on Dublin's Grafton Street.
The shopping centre was opened by Kathleen Fitzgerald and her husband Liam. Kathleen sadly passed away earlier this month. She was described in an editorial published by the Waterford News and Star as, “A formidable woman, she did Waterford some important and crucial service.”
The connection between George's Street and Barronstrand Street has been there for over 500 years.
Locals were able to evade persecution thanks to a ‘secret church’, helped by a 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.”
However, the history of George's Court is also a story of change and innovation. Certainly, the people of Waterford will be intrigued to see what new shape the iconic centre will take.
George's Court Ltd. were reached for comment but declined at the time of publication.
