Londonbridge Road, The First Home of Shamrock Rovers, Hockey, Tennis, Rugby & Fontenoy GAA

 

Thousands of rugby and soccer fans walk by it on their way to the Aviva Stadium perhaps stopping to buy a hat or scarf from the sellers at the wall but few would have any idea of how complex, colourful and diverse the history of the Lansdowne Lawn Tennis Club has but here are just some of the highlights.

The Lansdowne LTC itself was founded by the well-known Dublin sportsman Henry Dunlop in 1875 and was then known as the All-Ireland Lawn Tennis Club, located in the Lansdowne Road rugby ground. It was in 1880 that the club was changed title to the Lansdowne Lawn Tennis Club. Lansdowne players were instrumental in the Irish invasion of Wimbledon in the 1890’s. Joshua Pim was the Wimbledon champion in 1893 and 1894 and with Frank Stoker (cousin of Bram Stoker the creator of Dracula) won the Doubles titles in 1890 and 1893.

In 1929, Lansdowne moved across the river from the grounds of Rugby Union to the grounds of the Irish Hockey Union and Three Rock Rovers. It was not until the early 1980’s, when “Three Rock Rovers” moved to Marley Grange, that Lansdowne LTC became an all year round club.

But lets go back to the beginning. Once the River Dodder had been tamed and banked, the open ground where the Tennis Club is today, became known as the Dodder Fields and was leased out by the Pembroke Estate, the landlords of the area. The first sport to be played at Londonbridge Road was rugby with the grounds being used as the home venue for Carmichael’s College. Carmichael College of Medicine was located on the corner of Whitefriars Street and Aungier Street in the building currently housing a Starbucks. In 1889, the College was incorporated into the Royal College of Surgeons. The grounds were used as a venue for a Hospital’s rugby competition.

In late 1884, a new lease holder for the Dodder Field was advertised for.

Another club to use the Londonbridge Road grounds was the local Claremont Club formed on the nearby Claremont Road in Sandymount.

But it was not just rugby that found a home by the Dodder. The Freeman’s Journal reported on December 3rd 1893 athletics were taking place on the ground with County Dublin Harriers using the venues including D.D. Bolger who would go on to be a British champion.

 

In the newspaper report it Athletics is referred to being held at ‘The St. Matthews Football Ground’. St Matthews was the Church of Ireland church located at the top of Londonbridge Road at the intersection with Irishtown Road and Tritonville Road.

It was then the turn of soccer to be played Mr. Bernard Leech who hosted that dinner lived at Number 7 Londonbridge Road and was a well known builder in the city.

In 1897 it was reported that a branch of the ’98 Club’ would be formed with its headquarters in the clubhouse on Londonbridge Road. These clubs formed all over Ireland were nationalist gatherings remembering the events of the 1798 Rebellion. The branch was dedicated to William Orr.

Orr was an Antrim born (1766) revolutionary and member of the United Irishmen. He was executed in 1797 in what was widely believed at the time to be "judicial murder" and whose memory led to the rallying cry “Remember Orr” during the subsequent 1798 Rebellion

The grounds were also regularly used by the British military regiments in Dublin for sporting competitions including rugby, soccer, archery and shooting competitions. The proximity to the Beggars Bush Barracks and the fact that the now Royal Chapel of St Matthews was the local church for the British forces in the area made Londonbridge Road an ideal venue. These military sporting events attracted large crowds both the military and their families and locals.

 

In 1899 another sport arrived with the Sandymount Cricket Club both practicing and playing one season at Londonbridge Road.  According to cricket historian and journalist Ger Siggins,

‘Monkstown CC played in Leinster league competitions from 1921 up to 1946, winning several trophies and competing in the Senior Cup in the early ’40s. It moved to Milltown Road, folding soon after. A revived club calling itself Monkstown played on the Irish Hockey Union grounds on Londonbridge Road from 1965-68.’

Meanwhile rugby continued to be played at Londonbridge Road.

In 1899 a new soccer club was formed in Ringsend and named themselves Shamrock Rovers. The Hoops went onto to be and continue to be one of Ireland’s most successful clubs but their first home matches were played at the Londonbridge Road venue. Their first recorded match away from home was against Linfield Swifts but not the Northern Ireland based team but a Linfield based in Clonskeagh who played their home games on Bird Avenue. Rovers would for many years later find their home at Glenmalure Park in Milltown before in the 1980’s becoming homeless, finding themselves playing at Tolka Park, Harold’s Cross greyhound stadium and the RDS before moving to their current home in Tallaght.

By 1901 other soccer clubs were using the Grounds as a home venue including junior league side Haddington FC from nearby Haddington Road and Alliance who were based in Ballsbridge.

Another sport graced the Londonbridge Road venue in 1901 when Gaelic games were played both hurling and football. Fontenoy’s GAA club was formed when the first meeting took place at 20 Bath Avenue on 7th October 1887, the name Fontenoy was proposed for the new club and adopted. Fontenoy was the scene of a battle on the 11th May 1745 and was part of the War of the Austrian Succession between the French on the one hand and the British and Dutch on the other. Numerous locals from Sandymount and Ringsend lost their lives in the battle. The current formation of the club as we know it today took place in 1968 with the amalgamation of Fontenoy (hurling) and Clanna Gael (football) which had been founded in 1929.  

In 1929 after numerous matches taking place at the venue, Londonbridge Road became the home to Three Rock Rover Hockey Club and as the premier international venue for the next fifty years. The project was almost singlehandedly spearheaded by Thomas Sydney Dagg.  According to the Irish Hockey website

‘He played on the Irish hockey team twice (1903, 1911) and after leaving TCD joined Three Rock Rovers, where he was captain and President of the club. Called to the bar in 1909, he became assistant principal officer in the Department of Finance in November 1923 and principal officer in November 1931. After his hockey-playing career was over, he became the only official of the Irish Hockey Union (IHU) to serve as President (1920–24, 1930–31), Honorary Secretary (1907–8), Honorary Match Secretary (1908–11), and Hon. Treasurer (1943–8). As an official he did more than any other individual to promote the game in Ireland and was responsible for the purchase of the IHU’s headquarters and grounds at Londonbridge Road and of the Leinster branch’s grounds at Templeogue. As a mark of gratitude for his service he was made the first patron of the IHU (1954).’

The first issue to be dealt with was the 44 allotments that had been given to locals since 1917 to grow their own produce. Londonbridge Road Irishtown 1917 1929 44 Hockey pitch and now tennis club. They had been there for 12 years and the Pembroke UDC had not acquired land under the 1926 Allotment Act, this meant an unusually large compensation package had to be paid to clear the allotments from the venue.

Once the ground had been renovated and a new club house built, a second sports body joined at the ground with the Lansdowne Road Lawn Tennis club moving from their home at Lansdowne Road to Londonbridge Road. Irish international hockey player Harry Cahill’s sister Irene Johnston was captain of the Irish women's hockey team and president of the Irish Ladies Hockey Union (1994–6); she and Harry shared the unique distinction of playing for victorious Irish teams, which beat Belgium, on the same day at the same venue (29 April 1973, Londonbridge Road, Dublin), this was Harry's last Irish appearance. 

Another sport to be found at Londonbridge Road in the 1930s was the female sport Lacrosse with tournament matches also played at Lansdowne Road.

Following their move to Rathfarham and the sale of the grounds in 1981, Londonbridge Road today it is the sole home of the Lansdowne Lawn Tennis Club and the area where the hockey pitch once stood is now the housing development Lansdowne Village but let us not forget the great sporting traditions that graced Londonbridge Road for almost one hundred and fifty years.