One of the most distinctive buildings in the centre of Cork City is situated at the junction of Saint Patrick’s Street and Daunt’s Square. This building for over a century was the well known premises of Woodford, Bourne & Co. wine merchants and grocers. The origins of this company can be traced back to a firm of wine merchants named Maziere and Sainthill, who had premises since 1750 in Cork in Nelson’s Place the former name of Emmet Place. In the mid nineteenth century John Woodford had a grocery shop on the Grand Parade. John Woodford engaged in charitable work during the Famine, while doing so he contracted a disease and died. After his death his widow married a Mr. Bourne an employee of the firm and thereafter the firm was known as Woodford Bourne & Co. In 1869 Woodford Bourne bought the stock of the wine merchants Maziere and Sainthill and expanded the business to include wines. Eventually an employee of the firm, an immigrant from England, named James Adam Nicholson became sole owner of the firm which remained in the hands of the Nicholson family for generations. The shop on Saint Patrick’s Street was one of the best-stocked shops in the city and the firm also owned extensive warehouse premises (now an amusement arcade and bowling alley) on Sheares Street. In 1980 the shop was converted to a fast food outlet named Mandy’s and the premises were taken over by MacDonald’s in the mid-1980s.
