The road was often mentioned in the newspaper in the latter part of the 19th Century and early part of the 20th as one of Dublin city’s main Morgue was located near where the Boy Scouts hut is presently located. Much of the business of investigating deaths by the city’s coroners was moved to Store Street but the morgue continued to be in use until the 1960’s. The matter was raised in Dail Eireann on March 22nd 1960 when the then newly elected TD for Dublin South West asked the then Minister for Local Government Neil Blaney TD ‘what was the present position in regarding the proposal to close London Bridge Road Morgue and whether any steps can be taken to expedite its closing in view of the distress and inconvenience caused to the next of kin of deceased persons and witnesses who have to attend inquests in such an unsuitable building. To which the Minister replied the Dublin Corporation had the decision to close the morgue under advisement and would be completed as soon as work was completed on the City Morgue at Store Street.
The morgue had often made the news with sensation cases none more so when in October 1928 two boys playing in allotments off Bath Avenue found the body of a male infant about a week old wrapped in a bundle of newspapers and old clothes. The newspaper reported that the incident was reported to the Civic Guards and the body removed to the Morgue at London Bridge Road.
Another sensational case was the finding of a female body near the bridge on August 23rd 1900. When E Division of the Dublin Metropolitan Police located in the Barracks were informed that the partially clad body was found Constables Henry Flower, John Hanily and Constable Toal were sent to investigate. There was no identification on the body and no one had been reported missing. The unidentified body was taken to the London Bridge Morgue and the coroner deemed the death by drowning and the body was buried in Glasnevin Cemetary.
On September 11th 1900, Constable Henry Flower was charged with murder. The dead girl was thirty year old Bridget Gannon and she had been going out with Flowers. He had asked her to marry him but as he was a Protestant and she was a Catholic, the local parish priest warned her not to marry outside her faith. Gannon’s friend and fellow parlour maid Margaret Clowry had been dating two constables Flowers and Thomas Dockery. On the night of the death Gannon and Clowry had met with Flowers and they had a drink in Davy’s public house on Baggot Street. Clowry said that she left the two to walk on alone and that was the last she saw of Bridget Gannon.
The case took another twist on September 14th three days after Flowers was charged when Constable John Hanily was found in the police station dead having cut his own throat. The was insufficient evidence to convict Flowers who after his acquittal resigned from the force left the country.
In the 1930’s in front of a parish priest in a death bed confession Margaret Clowry confessed to killing Gannon in a robbery as Clowry had recently lost her job and was desperate for cash.
June 1921 in the midst of the Irish War of Independence local Head Constable Fry of the Royal Irish Constabulary was shot as he walked along London Bridge Road with his wife.
In April 1958 the newpapers reported that two fourteen years olds from the road Thomas McKeon and Michael Clarke were rescued from the River Liffey after they got into difficulty on a homemade raft.
In November 2008 Dane Pearse of London Bridge Drive was found guilty of the murder of Mark Spellman on August 4th 2007. In the early hours of the morning a verbal altercation between the two men occurred which led to the fatal stabbing of Spellman who collapsed in the garden of Number 9. Pearse who was also taken to hospital with minor injuries was arrested and charged. After the guilty verdict he was given the mandatory life sentence in prison.
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