Editing O'Connell Street (section)

===Sackville Street (Gardiner's Mall)===
In the 1740s, the banker and property developer [[Luke Gardiner]] acquired the upper part of Drogheda Street extending down to [[Henry Street, Dublin|Henry Street]] as part of a land deal.{{sfn|Wallis|Connolly|Greenwood|2002|p=130}} He demolished the western side of Drogheda Street creating an exclusive elongated residential square {{convert|1050|ft}} long and {{convert|150|ft}} wide, thus establishing the scale of the modern-day thoroughfare.{{sfn|Casey|2005|p=212}}

A number of properties were built along the new western side of the street,{{sfn|Bennett|2005|p=224}} while the eastern side had many mansions, the grandest of which was Drogheda House rented by the [[Charles Moore, 1st Marquess of Drogheda|sixth Earl of Drogheda]] and sat on the corner of [[Cathedral Street, Dublin|Cathedral Street]].{{sfn|Casey|2005|p=213}} Gardiner also laid out a mall down the central section of the street, lined with low granite walls and [[obelisk]]s.{{sfn|Casey|2005|p=212}} It was planted with trees a few years later. He titled the new development Sackville Street after the then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland [[Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset|Lionel Cranfield Sackville]], Duke of Dorset.{{sfn|Killeen|2010|p=45}} It was also known as 'Sackville Mall',<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.universitytimes.ie/2018/02/the-demise-of-oconnell-street/|title=The Demise of O'Connell Street|newspaper=University Times|first=Phoebe|last=Eddleston|date=5 February 2018|access-date=29 September 2020}}</ref> and 'Gardiner's Mall'.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/last-georgian-house-on-dublin-s-o-connell-street-is-at-risk-from-neglect-1.3784304|title=Last Georgian house on Dublin's O'Connell Street is at risk from neglect|newspaper=Irish Times|date=7 February 2019|access-date=29 September 2020}}</ref> However, due to the limited lands owned by the Gardiners in this area, the [[Rotunda Hospital]] sited just off the street at the bottom of [[Parnell Square]] – also developed by the family – was not built on axis with Sackville Street, terminating the vista.{{sfn|Casey|2005|p=212}} It had been Gardiner's intention to connect the new street through to the river, however, he died in 1755, with his son [[Charles Gardiner|Charles]] taking over the estate.{{sfn|Casey|2005|p=118}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://dib.cambridge.org/viewReadPage.do?articleId=a3424-A#A|title=Gardiner, Luke|work=Dictionary of Irish Biography|publisher=Cambridge University Press|access-date=4 October 2020}}</ref>

Work did not start until 1757 when the city's planning body, the [[Wide Streets Commission]], obtained a financial grant from Parliament.{{sfn|Carroll|2006|p=152}} For the next 10 years work progressed in demolishing a myriad of dwellings and other buildings, laying out the new roadway and building new terraces.{{sfn|Casey|2005|p=213}} The Wide Streets Commission had envisaged and realised matching terraces of unified and proportioned façades extending from the river.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iar.ie/Archive.shtml?IE%20DCLA/WSC/|title=Wide Streets Commission|work=Irish Archives Resource|access-date=29 September 2020}}</ref> Because of a dispute over land, a plot on the northwest of the street remained vacant; this later became the [[General Post Office, Dublin|General Post Office]] (GPO) which opened in 1814.{{sfn|Casey|2005|p=213}} 

In 1764, an English traveller named John Bush visited Dublin and made the following assessment of the street: "''There are on this side (north of the Liffey) many spacious and regular streets: one in particular in the north-east part of the town. Sackville-Street, about 70 feet wide or nearly, with a mall enclosed with a low wall..."''. Bush, however, bemoaned the failures of the builder for not having aligned the street with the Rotunda Hospital at its northern end.<ref name="Bushp10">{{citation |url = https://archive.org/details/hiberniacuriosa00bush/page/10/mode/2up?view=theater |last=Bush |first=John |title=Hibernia Curiosa: A Letter from a Gentleman in Dublin to his Friend at Dover in Kent, Giving a general View of the Manners, Customs, Dispositions, &c. of the Inhabitants of Ireland. | year=1769 |publisher=London (W. Flexney); Dublin (J. Potts and J. Williams) |location=London | page = 10-11 }}</ref>

The street became a commercial success upon the opening of [[O'Connell Bridge|Carlisle Bridge]], designed by [[James Gandon]], in 1792 for pedestrians and in 1795 for all traffic.{{sfn|Casey|2005|pp=213,420}}