Cork’s Oliver Plunkett Street named best in Ireland and the UK

Oliver Plunkett Street - the city centre’s longest street - hosted two judges from The Academy of Urbanism in August to assess whether the street had what it took to earn the “The Great Street Award 2016”.

Speaking after the adjudication process in August, Geoff Haslam, lead assessor for the Academy of Urbanism said: “It’s fair to say that we have been overwhelmed by Oliver Plunkett Street today…It offers everything that we are looking for in a Great Street, and more.

“We sometimes have to search for the DNA of a street, but Oliver Plunkett Street exudes it – it’s a vibrant living street and community, full of surprises and it is clearly on an upward trajectory.”

Fellow judge, Alastair Barr also noted that the Oliver Plunkett Street was once of the best organised communities that they had seen in the award competition and process.

In the six years of judging the awards, the judges said that Cork’s Oliver Plunkett Street had really “raised the bar” for the other two finalists in Liverpool and London.

Oliver Plunkett Street was laid out across the marshes east of the old medieval city in 1715, was originally named after the newly crowned King George, and became the centre of Cork’s commercial life.

It was renamed Oliver Plunkett Street following the creation of the Irish Free State in the 1920s, and at 525-metres, it is the longest street in the city centre.

#ArdMhearaCorcaigh #OliverPlunkettStreet wins the greeting Street Award pic.twitter.com/GGotAoVR33

— Cristóir O'Laoire (@chrisjoleary) November 6, 2015

WE salute you Oliver Plunkett St in #Cork. They have collected best street in the UK and Ireland MTF

— Irish Examiner (@irishexaminer) November 6, 2015

Wow isn't that an amazing award to win.Well done to all on Oliver Plunkett street #Cork #GreatFoodCork https://t.co/XV8dRrmwJP

— #GreatFoodCork (@GreatFoodCork) November 6, 2015