Shelbourne Road

Shelbourne is not a formally recognised district of Dublin, Ireland. However, the informal use of the moniker Shelbourne is sometimes used to refer to the area around Shelbourne Road, Ballsbridge, in the south east part of Dublin city.

In John Rocque's map of 1756, today's Shelbourne Road and Upper Grand Canal Street, from which it extends, appear together as Beggars' Bush Road. Wilson's Plan of 1793 shows that Beggars' Bush Road has become known as Artichoke Road. Some sources attribute this change of name to John Villiboise, a French huguenot, who had obtained a ninety-year lease on 1 rood of land from Richard 5th Viscount Fitzwilliam in 1736 and who planted artichokes on the land adjoining his house. This house, located in the vicinity of today's Holles Street, became known as Artichoke House and eventually the road became known as Artichoke Road. In William Duncan's map of 1821, the district known as Beggars' Bush is a rather ill-defined area that seems to coincide more or less with the area of land now occupied by Lansdowne Road's rugby stadium and the houses to its west. Later ordnance survey maps give the precise size and boundaries for Beggars Bush: it is an area of 116 acres, 2 roods and 21 perches bounded on the east by the Dodder from the bridge at Ballsbridge to the bridge at Ringsend; on the north by Ringsend Road from Ringsend bridge to South Lotts Road; on the south-west by South Lotts Road to Beggars Bush Road (Shelbourne Road); from Shelbourne Road to Lansdowne Road; the boundary then runs south-west on Lansdowne Road alongside Trinity College's botanical gardens and turns south on Pembroke Road to join the bridge at Ballsbridge. Old street directories show that the name Artichoke Road was still in use in the 1860s, but that the numbering of houses ran in the opposite direction from that currently employed - for example, no.2 Artichoke Road corresponds to no.68 Shelbourne Road; no. 3 Artichoke Road corresponds to no. 66 Shelbourne Road.

The 1876 Ordnance Survey map refers to the road as Shelburne Road, a spelling that conforms to that of one of the titles of William Petty-Fitzmaurice, Marquess of Lansdowne, second Earl of Shelburne (family name Petty-FitzMaurice). Petty-Fitzmaurice, born in Dublin, was Prime Minister from 1782 to 1783. It is unclear how the spelling of today's Shelbourne Road acquired an o; Shelburne Falls in Massachusetts, also named in commemoration of William Petty-Fitzmaurice, has conserved the original spelling.

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