Shopping in Cork

Cork City's Main Shopping area's include Patrick Street, Princes Street, Oliver Plunkett Street, and the North Main Street. All are close by each other and only minutes apart.

The large shopping centre's in Cork City include Merchant's Quay Shopping Centre, Paul Street Shopping Centre, French Church Street, North Main Street Shopping Centre, and the English Market.

Patrick Street is Cork City's longest shopping street, here you will find Marks & Spencers, Debenhams, Brown Thomas, Fitzgeralds Men Shop Primark, Gentlemen's Quarters just to name a few. Princes Street and The Grand Parade is where you can gain access to the English Market.

MacCurtain Street is has a range of shops from Antiques, Cafe's and Musical Instruments shop's including Crowley's Music Centre shop where the renowned guitarist Rory Gallagher purchased his trademark 1961 Fender Stratocaster Guitar.

MacCurtain Street was renowned in olden times by those sweet toothed shoppers where they could purchase the renowned 'Turkish Delight' sweet from Hadji Bey's shop from the 1900's, a retail until on the ground floor of the Metropole Hotel, the shop closed in the 1980's. When visiting the Metropole Hotel today, the bay window area of the Hotel, was where the sweet shop existed.

French Church Street has a number of little shops hidden away, ranging from clothes, shoes, chocolate shops and cafés with heated outside seating for some of the cafés there is always a buzz around. The area around Paul Street, Carey's Lane and French Church Street being known as the Huguenot Quarter where you can find a walled Huguenot graveyard, with the Huguenot history being tied to Cork from the 1700's, when they fled to Cork from France and worked in the textile area and also in manufacture of linen and silk and property development.

Cornmarket Street, this area known as the Coal Quay has a history of street trading in Cork from the late 1800's, where much of Cork City citizen's purchased their goods. Cornmarket Street was home to St Peter's Market which opened as a food market in olden times, today it is a lively bar and restaurant, much of this area has since been newly developed for apartments and a shopping unit which branches out also onto Paul Street. Presently, Saturday morning on Cornmarket Street still proves to be a favourite with street traders in this area. Cornmarket Street or the Coal Quay as the name suggests this area was once a quay, before this area where the channel from the River Lee flows, was built over to the present day Cornmarket Street.

Cork's Opera Lane is a fine example of a new shopping area blending in with the old historic buildings of Cork such as Crawford Art Gallery and the Queen Anne house on Emmet Place. Here in Opera Lane you will find a number of well know high street shops, such as H&M, Topshop, Gap, Topman, Next, River Island, Kuyichi, New Look, Tommy Hilfiger Apple Compu store and many more.

Cork's English Market is a delight, the backbone of Cork's history since the 1700's, one of the oldest markets of its kind, supplying the people of Cork and its Visitors, a covered market area in Cork City. The English Market in Cork has a range of wonderful stalls for you to browse such as fresh meat, fish, poultry, fresh fruit and vegetables, many local cheese's, smoked salmon, olives, spices, confectionery and Cork's traditional Tripe and Drisheen stall, French soaps, Lavender, Flowers, Wool, Wine, Champagne and many more delights. Having enjoyed browsing the many stalls in the English Market stop and enjoy a coffee and some people watching in one of the wonderful Café's, Coffee Docks in the English Market and enjoy some delectable chocolates at the same time! The English Market was visited by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip on a great Summer's day in May of 2011, where she enjoyed a walk through the stalls of this old Irish market. The English Market can be accessed from either Princes Street, Patrick Street, Oliver Plunkett Street or the Grand Parade.

Stretching out a little from Cork City are many more of Cork's large shopping centres in Blackpool and Mahon, Douglas and Carrigaline, Bishopstown and Wilton and Midleton.

Map of Cork's Shopping Centre's