Grafton Street, Dublin

Grafton Street is Dublin's principal shopping street, running from St. Stephen's Green in the south to College Green in the north. The street was named after the first Duke of Grafton, who owned land in the area. It was developed from an existing country lane by the Dawson family in 1708, after whom the parallel Dawson Street is named.

Since the 1980s, the street has been mostly pedestrianised, with the exception of the short stretch running between Nassau Street and College Green. This short stretch contains two notable Dublin landmarks, the eighteenth century Trinity College Provost's House and the late twentieth century statue of Molly Malone, which has become a popular Dublin meeting place. A life-size bronze statue of Phil Lynott was unveiled on Harry Street, off Grafton Street, on 19th August 2005.

Street entertainers such as buskers, poets and mime artists commonly perform to the shopping crowds.

The opening of the Luas tram system at the end of June 2004 has led to a 20% increase in pedestrian traffic on the street as of October 2004, although the construction of a large shopping centre in Dundrum (the largest in Ireland) toward the other end of the line could threaten these figures. Grafton Street rents increased by 46% between 2003 and 2004. The average 2005 rent was €3,653 /m²-year, making the street the seventh most expensive street in Europe. However, certain key retail sites rent for an astonishing €15,000 /m²-year, beating the world record. (Europe's most expensive, Champs-Élysées rents for €6,600 /m²-year while the world's most expensive is Fifth Avenue, New York, which goes for €11,500 /m²-year ).

Bewley's Oriental Cafe, a Grafton Street institution since its opening in 1927, announced at the end of October 2004 that it would be closing before Christmas, along with its Westmoreland Street cafe. Following a campaign by the Mayor of Dublin, Catherine Byrne, the Cafe on Grafton Street was kept.

Famous Shops

• Brown Thomas department store, in the old Switzers building.
• Weirs jewellers.

Chain Stores

This is an incomplete list -

• Dunnes Stores women's clothes.
• HMV record store.
• Marks and Spencer clothes and food hall, in the old Brown Thomas building.
• River Island clothes, in the old Arnotts building.
• Boots Pharmacy
• Meteor
• Vodafone
• O2
• McDonald's
• Burger King
• Specsavers
• Habitat
• Roches Stores
• Champion Sports
• Pamela Scott
• Jack Jones Jeans

Famous Buskers

• The Public Health Service three piece rock and roll music
• Roadmage comedy magic show
• The Man And The Machine beatbox and original rap
• Shah Smooth enigmatic limbo show

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