Limerick was still a fortified city when John Pardon and Edmund Sexton started work on the building of New Square, now known as John's Square. This development which cost £630 was designed by Francis Bandana and it was begun in 1751 and was Limerick's first taste of fashionable urban architecture and civic space. The development was to test the local gentry on their taste of townhouses. The development consists of two L-shaped blocks of houses built in local limestone.