[2] It was developed as a series of sloping terraces, leading from Beresford Place to Mountjoy Square,[3] and was intended to be Dublin's largest, widest, longest and grandest street.

However, owing to the Acts of Union in 1801, the economic depression that Dublin experienced and the associated drastic fall in demand for city townhouses, the street was never fully completed to its intended grandeur and scale.

[citation needed] Gardiner Street has another notable poetic connection by way of featuring in Patrick Kavanagh's poem "Memory of My Father".

Boucicault was involved with over 150 plays, and is best known for The Shaughraun, other works include: “Napoleon’s Old Guard”, “A Legend of the Devil’s Dyke”, “London Assurance”, and “The Colleen Bawn”.

Number 41 Gardiner Street Upper was home of Joe McGuinness, elected as a Sinn Féin TD for Longford South to the first Dáil in 1918 while in Lewes Gaol, under the slogan of “Vote him in to get him out”.