LEONARD’S CORNER [JUNCTION OF THE SOUTH CIRCULAR ROAD AND CLANBRASSIL STREET]

In 1953 all residents of Clanbrassil St. received a notice from Dublin Corporation that residences on the west side of the street would have to have 16 feet (4.9 m) removed from the frontage of the properties to make way for a new road. This proposal was constantly changed or deferred, so that in the 1960s and 1970s the street fell into ruin. One by one businesses, public houses and retail outlets closed up or were demolished, and that side of the road became a wasteland. By 1980 the road engineers had increased the amount of space needed to 60 feet (18.3 m), in order to run a 6-lane dual carriageway through the street, past St. Patrick's Cathedral on to Christ Church Cathedral.

After protests and demonstrations by locals and sympathisers against the road, and intervention by the Taoiseach, Charles Haughey, work on the road eventually began in 1989. A 4-lane dual carriageway was constructed, flanked by new houses and apartments. The cost of the road was estimated to be £2 million.

Among the features destroyed by the road construction was the crossing known locally as the "Four Corners of Hell" (the junction of Patrick St., Dean St., New St. and Kevin St.), because there was a public house on each corner; and the well-known hostelry the Bunch of Grapes (formerly Fitzpatrick's, constructed in 1739).

Several notable junctions in Dublin city in Ireland still carry the name (usually unofficially) of the pub or business which once occupied the corner.

While this practice is not unique to Dublin, the pace of recent development there has meant that the original source of the name is more likely to have disappeared.

Examples include:

•     Baker's Corner at the junction of Rochestown Avenue and Kill Lane in Deansgrange;
•     Doyle's Corner at the junction of the North Circular Road (R135 / R147) and Phibsborough Road (R135) in Phibsborough;
•     Hanlon's Corner at the junction of the North Circular Road (R101) with Prussia Street and the Old Cabra Road (both R805)
•     Hart's Corner at the junction of Botanic Road, Finglas Road, and Prospect Road (all R135) in Glasnevin
•     Kelly's Corner at the junction of the R114 road (Upper Camden Street and Richmond Street) and the South Circular Road (Harrington Street and Harcourt Road);
•     Leonard's Corner at the junction of the South Circular Road and Clanbrassil Street;
•     Vaughan's Corner at the junction of the N81 road (Terenure Road North and Terenure Place) and the R114 road (Terenure Road East and Rathfarnham Road) in Terenure.