South William Street is Dublin city centre's fastest changing street. In the space of three years it has been transformed from a dreary and deserted looking commercial drive-through, dominated by the wholesale rag trade, to a lively, buzzy street with cafe, restaurants, shops and two new superpubs.

Even during daylight hours the street used to be deserted. Now there are tables outside most bars and restaurants so that on recent balmy August evenings, the street was so lively and cosmopolitan, it has prompted comparison with nearby Temple Bar. "It's going to be much better than Temple Bar," says Sean Barron, "because it has such a good mix, between retail and restaurants and that's something that Temple Bar doesn't have." Mr Barron owns Flairline Fashions, one of the larger fashion wholesalers on the street and he's right about the interesting mix.

Among the retail outlets there are Blueriu, one of the city's most fashionable beauty shops, The Art Store, a trendy but accessible art gallery, and First Sofa, an upmarket sofa shop. There are also two "adult" shops on the street as well as a variety of small companies.

Restaurants include the Kyber Tandoori, Lemon, a creperie and coffee shop and the long established Cookes Cafe. Bruce College is a major presence, as is the Powerscourt Centre, while the Brown Thomas car-park exits on to the lower part of the street and probably helped to introduce the street to thousands of shoppers. But it is new bars Dakota, on one end of the street, and Viva on the other which are mostly responsible for reinventing the street as a cool hangout place.

Dakota, which is owned by Derek Philips and Paul Keaveney (who also owns the Odeon in the old Harcourt Station), opened at the start of the summer. The owners were so confident that this 5,000 sq ft bar was going to be the hippest place in town that they didn't even bother putting the name over the door. Their instincts proved right.

The vast bar gives an idea why the ground floor of these superb Georgian buildings are ripe for commercial use. They are simply huge and not only do they have impressively high ceilings, they stretch back as far as Drury Street. Dakota got a clear run during the summer but this August a competitor, Viva, opened at the other end of the street. Designed on three levels, the glass-fronted bar is one of the most different looking bars in the city, with its wall-to-wall basement area and its double height interior wall, which is covered in retro-chic flock wallpaper. Like Dakota, and with no publicity, it is jammed every night.

The person who sold them the buildings, Jim Fergus, secured permission to move a seven day publican's licence from Meath Street to 52 South William Street, a four storey over basement Georgian building with a total of 5,880 sq ft.

Viva is the first stage of a much larger hotel project devised by Gerry O'Farrell and Michael Featherstone, who also owns the Clifton Court Hotel on Eden Quay. They bought numbers 52 and 53 for a strong price of £4 million in November of last year and have applied for planning permission to open a 30-bedroom Georgian-themed townhouse hotel over Viva.

Meanwhile, Grogan's pub at the corner of South William Street and Castlemarket is the same as it ever was and its genuine "real pub" atmosphere is as popular as ever. Dublin Corporation, as well as private investors, have played a large part in the rejuvenation of the street. Over the past year, the top end has been repaved with wider paths, which as well as encouraging pedestrians, makes for a more attractive looking street. Also over 50 per cent of the buildings are listed and have been upgraded from list 2 to list 1 in the 1999 city plan. An inventory carried out by the Dublin Civic Trust in 1997 identified a number of interesting interiors with fine plasterwork, staircases and joinery.

According to Nigel King of Douglas Newman Good, rents on the street have rocketed from £10 per sq ft three years ago to £30 per square ft today. He also points out that in many ways, what has happened on the street has happened organically, which in the long run makes for a more interesting, vibrant mix.

Many rag trade wholesalers and agents have moved out, either because the rag trade is now a notoriously difficult business or because ever-increasing city centre parking restrictions mean that for wholesalers at least, an out of town, parking accessible premises off a motorway makes more sense.

Some, however are keen to remain and enjoy the new prospects the street has to offer. Sean Barron is considering moving his wholesale operation - but he's only going to move it upstairs. "I'm thinking of changing my ground floor from wholesale to retail," he says, "there's so much potential; give it a year and this entire street will be strong on retail."