Places
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Curling on the Pollok Estate
Let Glasgow flourish, but do not let her forget the example of the curlers to whom she owes so much of her success, and who owed so much of their success to the curling by which they lightened the burdens of civic and commercial care. [1.] The remaining pond I was taking a […]
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Govan’s Monument to Mary Barbour
A reflection of history and the spirit of a community Mrs. Barbour’s Army spread through Glesga like the plague The maisters got the message and the message wisnae vague While oor menfolk fight the Kaiser we’ll stay hame and fight the war Against the greedy bastards who keep grindin’ doon the poor Alistair Hulett, […]
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Quoiting in Govanhill
The St. Andrew’s Quoiting Club on Butterbiggins Road From the late 1890s until about 1928, a small patch of ground just off Butterbiggins Road, near what we now call Eglinton Toll, was used to play one of the oldest games in the world – quoits – and was home to one of Glasgow’s […]
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Pollok Toon – Glasgow Southside’s vanished village
If you’ve ever been to Pollok House and stood on the old bridge across the White Cart River you might be forgiven for believing that the view you see is timeless. On one side sits the stately mansion, high on its mound surrounded by rich foliage; on the other side, empty fields with an […]
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Doune Castle – Shawlands’ forgotten music venue
Local folk passing the unloved and empty Poundworld shopfront on Kilmarnock Rd may not know of its colourful past and the contribution it made to the Scottish music scene in the 1970s and 1980s. Some key and influential names in Scottish, UK and global rock and pop plied their musical skills and […]
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Decoding the Gorbals’ Girl With Rucksack statue
This is a place founded on being ‘on the outside’—sited just beyond the original city limits, the Gorbals built its formidable reputation on the ability to accommodate migrants from around the world, give them a start, and then watch them leave to make way for the next arrivals. A tight community that paradoxically eulogises […]
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Art Deco fragments of Shawfield Stadium
Places have their own private and public life and can feel haunted in multiple ways: some because they’ve changed but remain familiar; others because they spark vivid personal memories difficult to express in words, embodying fragments of times past that we can’t – for better or for worse – return to. They help […]
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The White Cart Mills
Many of us who walk through the Linn Park area admire the river Cart and its surroundings, but if you look closely you can find some reminders of the river’s industrial past. Mills existed on the river Cart from Netherlee to Pollok from the late 1600s and provided employment for many local people, made […]
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Golf in Queen’s Park
Glasgow Golf Club was formed in 1787 and they played originally on Glasgow Green. Industrialisation in the first half of the nineteenth century led to a rapid increase in Glasgow’s population, which meant that there was more pressure on the available green space within the city than ever before. Faced with a lack of […]
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The Pollok Free State Story Connecting with Young People Decades On
In a recent blog post I highlighted material from our archive collection on the No M77 and Pollok Free State protests. I have since been in conversation with artists Hannah Brackston and Dan Sambo, currrent artists in residence in the ward of Pollok. Here they describe how they have been drawing upon the […]
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New Report: Why Do Historic Places Matter?
South Glasgow is the proud home of several historic architectural gems, the most well-known being Pollok House. It is maintained and funded by the National Trust for Scotland, which itself was established in this Maxwell family home in 1931. Places like Pollok House are preserved, in the words of NTS, to ‘encourage people to connect […]
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Southside Libraries : Pollokshields, Hutchesontown & Govanhill’s historic public buildings
With #LoveYourLibraries month drawing to a close, World Book Day fast approaching on 3rd March and Covid restrictions easing, there’s no better time to visit a local library and find a good book. The Southside of Glasgow boasts several historic libraries which have provided its communities with fiction, information and welcoming reading space down […]
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Southside Memories : Growing up in South Nitshill
The Ponderosa, that is what we called South Nitshill when we moved there from Harley St in Ibrox in October 1960. I was six months old, so it didn’t mean much to me. Bonanza had first aired in 1959 and my 11-year-old brother was a TV addict, though his preference was for Davy Crockett, […]
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Old Cathcart’s carved stones: a medieval mystery?
The puzzle of four carved stones in Old Cathcart Parish churchyard remains unsolved but the time is ripe for further investigation, writes Dougie McLellan… Many people are familiar with the history of the growth of Cathcart from sleepy post-industrial village, home to many mill workers, to the grand Victorian suburb of Glasgow whose […]
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The Cathcart Cemetery Scandal
While it can be entered at points from within Glasgow city’s south side, the picturesque Cathcart Cemetery sits largely in the modern-day council boundary of East Renfrewshire. Designed and laid out in 1878, it’s a tranquil place for locals and visitors to escape the urban hubbub, but less known are the circumstances surrounding the […]
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Polmadie and the Ancient Hospital of St John the Apostle
Bruce Downie immerses himself in some of the oldest known references to Polmadie, and explores the history of the ancient hospital. Get lost in a world of medieval references and travel through Polmadie’s history via kings, popes, pigs and recycling. In the 19th century, Polmadie, just east of what we now know as […]
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First Hampden Archaeological Excavations
The bowling green ultrasound aims to seek out the centre spot and maybe some old pitch lines like penalty areas. The recreational ground dig aims to find evidence of the grandstand. And the rose garden dig hopes to find remains of the clubhouse.
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Renewing Lyceum Govan’s faded ambition
How did this grand Streamline International Style cinema come to be, what does it tell us about Glasgow’s Art Deco era and where next after 15 years lying empty?
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Pollok Free State: Archive Selections and Reflections
Thanks to these generous donations there is a lot to be found within the archive.
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James Miller’s Art Deco Leyland Motors
Can this derelict Art Deco icon in Glasgow’s Southside be reanimated?
People
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Govan’s Monument to Mary Barbour
A reflection of history and the spirit of a community Mrs. Barbour’s Army spread through Glesga like the plague The maisters got the message and the message wisnae vague While oor menfolk fight the Kaiser we’ll stay hame and fight the war Against the greedy bastards who keep grindin’ doon the poor Alistair Hulett, […]
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Decoding the Gorbals’ Girl With Rucksack statue
This is a place founded on being ‘on the outside’—sited just beyond the original city limits, the Gorbals built its formidable reputation on the ability to accommodate migrants from around the world, give them a start, and then watch them leave to make way for the next arrivals. A tight community that paradoxically eulogises […]
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Golf in Queen’s Park
Glasgow Golf Club was formed in 1787 and they played originally on Glasgow Green. Industrialisation in the first half of the nineteenth century led to a rapid increase in Glasgow’s population, which meant that there was more pressure on the available green space within the city than ever before. Faced with a lack of […]
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The True Story of a First World War Nurse from Crosshill
Mary Mortimer Geddes My great aunt Mary died when I was a baby. I don’t recall meeting her. She was my father’s maternal aunt. My mother told me when I was older that she was a nurse during World War One and showed me a family album with her photo in nurse’s uniform. When […]
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The Tobacco Lords Part 1
The connections between Glasgow and the tobacco trade of the eighteenth century are well-known.
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Hannah Frank
Early Life and Education Hannah Frank (1908-2008) was an artist and sculptor based in the Southside. She was born in Glasgow and lived in the Gorbals in her formative years, first in Abbotsford Road and later in South Portland Street. She then moved further south, living at 72 Dixon Avenue, Crosshill, where she was […]
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The Gorbals Vampire
The children were hunting the ‘Gorbals Vampire’ – a seven-foot-tall monster with long metal fangs who had killed and eaten two local boys.
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The Stevens and Bellahouston Park
Bellahouston Park is known for its outdoor artworks, sculptures, and House for an Art Lover, designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and built in 1996. Few know of the estate’s connections to the transatlantic slave trade.
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The Pollok Free State and its Legacy
In the early 1990s, local communities gained international attention for protesting against having their access to the park obstructed by a motorway.
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The Maxwells of Pollok
20 minute read Introduction to The Maxwells The Maxwells, particularly the Stirling Maxwells, have had a significant impact on the local area. Most people will have benefitted in some form from their generosity whether that is attending an event in Pollokshaws Burgh Hall, attending the Sir John Maxwell School (before it was closed), walking through […]
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Bashir Maan CBE
Maan’s life was ground-breaking. He was a founding member of many organisations, and played a significant role in developing the infrastructure of the Muslim community in Glasgow.
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Stan Laurel
Stan Laurel (1890-1965) Langside Stan Laurel, of famous comedy duo Laurel and Hardy, was born Arthur Stanley Jefferson in Ulverston in the North of England, and moved with his family to 17 Craigmillar Road in Langside, South Glasgow when he was 15 years old. His father, Arthur Jefferson was an actor, playwright, and theatre manager, […]
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Mary Barbour
1875-1958 Govan Mary Barbour, based in Govan, is most famous for leading what was known as Mrs. Barbour’s Army in the Glasgow Rent Strikes of 1915. She was born and raised in Renfrewshire, the third of seven children, to carpet weaver parents. She worked as a thread twister until she married David Barbour and moved […]
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Sir Thomas Lipton
Sir Thomas Lipton
1848 – 1931
Gorbals
World Famous Tea Merchant, Grocer and Yachtsman