We describe a synthetic methodology to prepare 1D coordination polymers using 5-aminodiacetic isophthalic acid (H₄adip) as chelating agent and 2,2′-bipyridine (bpy) as an auxiliary ligand. The function of the latter is to block two coordination sites on the metal(II) centres thus avoiding the formation of 3D networks and directing the assembly into low dimensional networks. The compounds [Co^II₂(adip)(bpy)(H₂O)₄]·3H₂O (1), [Ni^II₂(adip)(bpy)(H₂O)₄]·3H₂O (2) and [Cu^II(H₂adip)(bpy)] (3) were synthesised under hydrothermal reaction conditions with the motivation to investigate spin interactions in these 1D chain structures. We report the structures of the compounds and investigate and model their magnetic properties. The supramolecular structures of 1–3 are characterised by inter- and intra-chain π–π interactions and hydrogen bonding.