The Crescent Shopping Centre is a major shopping centre serving

Limerick Limerick ( ; ) is a city in western Ireland, in County Limerick. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is in the Mid-West Region, Ireland, Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. W ...

, Ireland. It is located in Dooradoyle, on the southern outskirts of the city. The complex in its original form was opened in 1973, making it one of the earlier shopping centres to open in Ireland. It has an estimated of space, 2,500 free car parking places and 94 shops (including stalls). The shopping centre takes its name from the adjacent Crescent College, whose original building was in The Crescent in the city centre.

History

The main original part of the centre was built with a cross-type layout, with four malls (City Mall, Dooradoyle Mall, Garryowen Mall and Shannon Mall) running from a central atrium. It opened in 1973, one of the early contemporary shopping centres in the country (the earliest 'modern' shopping centre in Ireland was opened in 1966 at

Stillorgan Stillorgan (, also and previously or ), formerly a village in its own right, is now a suburban area of Dublin in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Stillorgan is located in Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, and contains many housing estates, shops and oth ...

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

, followed by Northside Shopping Centre in Coolock). The main anchor stores have been

Quinnsworth Quinnsworth was a supermarket chain that operated in Ireland from 1966 to 2001. During its time in operation, it grew to be one of Ireland's leading retailers, with approximately one quarter of the grocery market in the Republic of Ireland, an ...

(now

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in the United Kingdom at its head offices in Welwyn Garden City, England. The company was founded by Jack Cohen (businessman), Sir Jack Cohen in ...

) and Shaws (a department store) located near the central area, and Penneys, located on one of the malls. The other units in the centre have varied over the years, although some shops and eateries have maintained a long presence. The centre remained largely unchanged but for some redecoration in the late 1980s, early 1990s, and the addition at one stage of shop units in the central atrium. A major plan was drawn up in the late 1990s to expand the centre. A first step was the moving of the Limerick County Council library to a purpose built building separate from the main centre. A new section of mall was added to the Garryowen mall, creating a modern shopping space similar to those in the new large Dublin shopping centres. An underground car park was built below this to compensate for the above-ground parking taken up by the new development. Other developments in association with this included the opening of a new 12-screen cinema, the Omniplex. Limerick County Council also acquired land next to the development for their new headquarters (previously their headquarters was in the city on

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 Henry ...

). The final stage of the work was the redevelopment of the old part of the shopping centre. New modern lighting, flooring and decor was added to the centre, and shop fronts were redesigned to conform to a standard fashion. The result was the reverse-engineering of a 1970s shopping complex into a centre similar to modern developments elsewhere in Ireland. The shopping centre for now remains the largest shopping centre in Limerick after further expansion of the Dooradoyle mall in 2005. A

playground A playground, playpark, or play area is a place designed to provide an environment for children that facilitates play, typically outdoors. While a playground is usually designed for children, some are designed for other age groups, or people wi ...

was planned on the grounds of the centre in 2013. Building of the playground began in May 2014, and it officially opened in July 2014.

Criticism

The Crescent Shopping Centre is at times the subject of criticism due to the out-of-town nature of the development. The development mirrors the American model of large retail centres on the outskirts of towns with ample parking and easy access for customers. While the centre has been one of the most successful in Ireland, its success has come at a cost to the older established retailing areas within Limerick city centre, which have seen decline due to dropping footfall and subsequent lack of spend and investment, resulting in high levels of vacancy, with centres like the Crescent partly supplanting the city centre as key shopping districts. The well-documented potential negative knock-on effects to high levels of out-of-town development include increased sprawl of the city and car dependency, a reduction in tourism and appeal of the city as a potential destination area (tourism & living) and a decline in the

socioeconomic Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

profile of the city centre impacting negatively on the overall city economy. Although the Crescent centre is not the only cause for the city centre's decline it is often cited as one of the main reasons for Limerick's ' doughnut effect'.

References

{{Shopping centres in the Republic of Ireland Buildings and structures in Limerick (city) Shopping centres in the Republic of Ireland