Copeland Avenue

Copeland Avenue, running from the Malahide Road to the Howth Road, has its origins in the plans for a main road to run from Whitehall to the Howth Road.

In August 1925 the Corporation Commissioners¹ considered a motion for the compulsory purchase of as ‘much of the land lying between Philipsburgh Avenue and Drumcondra Road as is necessary to enable the Corporation… to continue the 100ft. roadway’.²

The land was to be purchased in two sections, ‘from Whitehall to Philipsburgh Avenue’, which became Griffith Avenue, and ‘Malahide Road to Howth Road’.

Although Griffith Avenue was constructed and named by 1927, it was to be a few more years before the second section was completed.

The land for Copeland Avenue was to be acquired under a compulsory purchase order from Mr T. Picton Bradshaw, owner of Mount Temple. Negotiations with Bradshaw weren’t straightforward and at the end of 1927 the Commissioners instructed the Corporation’s Law Agent to withdraw all proceedings in relation to the acquisition of the lands.³ Negotiations continued however, and the following year it was reported that Picton Bradshaw had proposed a sum of £19,026 but had accepted £14,000.⁴

The outcome was that the lands on the south side of the Mount Temple estate were acquired and Copeland Avenue duly constructed. The road was originally intended to be 100 feet wide and to line up with Griffith Avenue, but the Commissioners had dropped that requirement in 1925.⁵ Thus, Copeland Avenue is narrower than Griffith Avenue and not directly aligned.

It’s not clear how and when the road came to be named. As late as 22 August 1933 the road was still being referred to the ‘New Road from Malahide Road to Howth Road’, when authority was granted for laying a 12-inch water main along it.⁶ By 11 October it was referred to as ‘Copeland Avenue’,⁷ while a fortnight later, on 25 October, it appears as both ‘Copeland Road‘ and ‘the new road from Malahide Road to Howth Road’ in the same report.⁸ By 8 November, ‘Copeland Avenue’ was the settled name:⁹ I can find no record of a formal naming.

I can also find no evidence as to where the name ‘Copeland’ comes from.

Houses on Copeland Avenue were first advertised in 1933.¹⁰ By 1935 most of the houses on the north side of the street were occupied,¹¹ and by 1938¹² development on both sides of the street was complete.

1. The Corporation was abolished on 20 May 1924, and three commissioners were appointed to act in place of the elected members.
2. Minutes 1925/382.
3. Minutes 1927/487.
4. ‘Extending Griffith Avenue’, Irish Independent, 22 September 1928, p. 8.
5. Minutes 1925/382.
6. Reports 1933/496.
7. Reports 1933/56/573.
8. Reports 1933/62/614.
9. Reports 1933/62/647.
10. ‘Houses and lands for sale’, Irish Independent, 9 December 1933, p. 15.
11. Thom’s 1935.
12. Thom’s 1938.