Why is O'Connell St (Dublin) so wide?

actuallylike

How do,

Apologies if in the wrong thread, thought it would be more to do with Historic reasons than Infrastructure, please move if necessary.

Was just talking about this with my parents and neither of us could settle on a definitive answer. Why is O'Connell Street so overly wide? Was there initially a market in the middle? Were there more lanes? Was it a homage to Champs-Élysées and streets like that?
Probably a simple answer but just looking for a definitive answer (if any) if anyone has one?

chughes

The layout was determined by the Wide Streets Commission

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wide_Streets_Commission

Hope this helps.

ardmacha

O'Connell Street didn't originally reach the river. It wasn't seen so much as a street as a long square, perhaps like Wenceslas Square in Prague. Only when it reached the river and the bridge was widened did it become a street as we now know it.

katarin

From an ideological perspective, streets like O'Connoll Street may be said to be so wide so as faciliatate perambulating, to see and to be seen. See Gary Boyd's Dublin: Hospital, Spectacle and Vice

Feadpool

I'd agree with Katarin, that's the expanation given by my urban archaeology lecturer, it was all part of Georgian fashion, showing off and being seen. I would also assume that a wide street like that would act as a fire break