Arnotts is the oldest and largest department store in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

. Its flagship store is located on Henry Street, on the north side of central

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

. It has been a member of the

International Association of Department Stores The International Association of Department Stores (IADS) is a retail trade association founded in 1928 by a group of department stores with the goal of introducing modern management methods derived from the scientific management movement to their ...

from 2007 to 2012.

History

The store has its origins in a business founded in 1843 at 14 Henry Street, by George Cannock and Andrew White. In 1845, two bankers, Andrew and Patrick Reid, became partners in the business. In 1848, White died, and the entrepreneur John Arnott took shares in the company. In 1865, Cannock departed the business, and the business was renamed as Arnott's. The main shop occupies much of the block behind the GPO to the west of

O'Connell Street O'Connell Street () is a street in the centre of Dublin, Ireland, running north from the River Liffey. It connects the O'Connell Bridge to the south with Parnell Street to the north and is roughly split into two sections bisected by Hen ...

, between Henry Street and

Abbey Street Abbey Street () is located on Dublin's Northside, running from the Customs House and Store Street in the east to Capel Street in the west. The street is served by two Luas light rail stops, one at the Jervis shopping centre and the other near ...

, covering an area of some 300,000 square feet. The original store was completely destroyed in a fire on , and a new building was constructed in the following year. It was registered as a

private company A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in the respective listed markets, but rather the company's stock is ...

on . The main entrance is on the pedestrianised Henry Street. Across

in North Earl Street was Arnotts sister store, Boyers & Co, which closed down on 31 January 2016. A footwear-only branch of Arnotts was located in the

Stillorgan Stillorgan (, also ''Stigh Lorcáin'' and previously ''Tigh Lorcáin'' or ''Teach Lorcáin''), formerly a village in its own right, is now a suburban area of Dublin in Ireland. Stillorgan is located in Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, and contains man ...

Shopping Centre until 2011, with a former branch on

Grafton Street Grafton Street () is one of the two principal shopping streets in Dublin city centre (the other being Henry Street). It runs from St Stephen's Green in the south (at the highest point of the street) to College Green in the north (the lowes ...

initially changed to be branded as a

River Island River Island is a London-based, multi-channel fashion brand, founded in 1948 by Bernard Lewis. The retailer has a presence in over 125 of worldwide markets, in stores and online. Best known for its trend focused womenswear offering, River Isl ...

, before being sold in 2003. Before the 2010 takeover, Arnotts was privately owned by a consortium, Nesbitt Acquisitions, comprising about 50 members of the Nesbitt family, led by Richard Nesbitt. The original owners retain one per cent of the business. In July 2010, Arnotts was taken over by

Anglo Irish Bank Anglo Irish Bank was an Irish bank headquartered in Dublin from 1964 to 2011. It began to wind down after nationalisation in 2009. In July 2011 Anglo Irish merged with the Irish Nationwide Building Society, forming a new company named the Iri ...

and

Ulster Bank Ulster Bank ( ga, Banc Uladh) is a large retail bank, and one of the traditional Big Four (banking)#Ireland, Big Four Irish clearing banks. The Ulster Bank Group is subdivided into two separate legal entities: NatWest, National Westminster Ban ...

, due to large outstanding loans on its failed "Northern Quarter" property development. On , the store was taken over by

Selfridges Selfridges, also known as Selfridges & Co., is a chain of high-end department stores in the United Kingdom that is operated by Selfridges Retail Limited, part of the Selfridges Group of department stores. It was founded by Harry Gordon Selfridg ...

, a chain of department stores, and now trades as a sister store to

Brown Thomas Brown Thomas & Company Limited is a chain of five Irish department stores, located in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick and Dundrum Town Centre. Part of the Selfridges Group, Brown Thomas is an upmarket chain, akin to Britain's Selfridges store ...

which is part of the same group. The newsreader

Aengus Mac Grianna Aengus Mac Grianna (born 9 July 1964) is a former Irish newsreader for RTÉ. Mac Grianna was born in Raheny, a suburb in north Dublin, to an Irish-speaking family. His father was a scientist and his mother was a teacher. Mac Grianna was educated ...

used to work in the Sports Department. Arnotts were one of the longest standing sponsors of GAA until 2009, when their 18-year partnership as sponsors of

Dublin GAA The Dublin County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) ( ga, Cumann Luthchleas Gael Coiste Contae Átha Cliath) or Dublin GAA is one of the 32 county boards of the GAA in Ireland, and is responsible for Gaelic games in the Dublin Regi ...

came to an end.Arnotts end sponsorship deal
On 24 December 2021 it was announced that the Selfridges company had been sold to a joint venture between Thai Central and Signa Holding in Austria for $5.37 billion, a deal which included Arnotts as well as the Brown Thomas chain and De Bijenkorf in the Netherlands.

Northern Quarter

Arnotts department store (geograph 6215205)

In 2006, Nesbitt Acquisitions announced their plans to redevelop their properties located between O'Connell Street and Liffey Street, incorporating the former Independent Newspapers building on Abbey Street. The new development was to be called the Northern Quarter and was to be one of the largest rejuvenation projects to ever be undertaken in this area of the city centre. The estimated cost of the project was €750,000,000. Following planning difficulties and the financial crisis in Ireland, the project never went ahead. Arnotts incurred large debts in acquiring property, leading to their takeover by financial institutions in 2010. As part of this project, it was intended to move the department store to a nearby former

Debenhams Ireland Debenhams Ireland was a national chain of department stores in Ireland, that was owned ultimately by Debenhams plc. It was largely based on the former Roches Store chain, though after that business divested its grocery units. History Roches S ...

branch in the Jervis Shopping Centre, but as plans changed this opened as "Arnotts Project"; which operated for less than a year before being surrendered back to the landlord.

References

External links

Official website
{{Coord missing, County Dublin 1843 establishments in Ireland Clothing retailers of Ireland Companies based in Dublin (city) Department stores of Ireland Retail companies established in 1843 Selfridges Shops in Dublin (city) Abbey Street