History

The land for the park was purchased in 1852 to ensure an open space in the west-end, which was undergoing rapid expansion in housing at this time. It was the first purpose built park in Scotland at this time and designed by Sir Joseph Paxton. Sir Joseph Paxtonhad designed the Crystal Palace in London a few years before and was the Head Gardener at Chatswoth House and also laid out Queen's Park. The park has hosted the International Exhibitions of 1888 and 1901, with the Doulton Fountain now located at Glasgow Green being originally displayed at the 1888 exhibition. The Kelvingrove Art Gallery was built for the 1901 exhibition and is the subject of the urban legend that it was built facing back to front, with the architect committing suicide upon discovering this mistake.

The 'Sunlight Cottages' also survived the 1901 exhibition and are at the western fringe of the park near to Glasgow University. A plaque at the cottage gives their history: "These buildings are facsimiles of two cottages at Port Sunlight [near Liverpool], occupied by the employees of Lever Bros Limited and were presented by that company to the corporation of the city of Glasgow after the exhibition in 1901."

The park also hosted the Scottish National Exhibition in 1911, billed as the Scottish Exhibition of History Art and Industry with its principal aim to be to raise funds to endow a Chair of Scottish History and Literature at The University of Glasgow. The park is home to the The Stewart Memorial Fountain, erected in 1872 to commemorate Lord Provost Stewart who was instrumental in the delivery of Glasgow’s water supply system from Loch Katrine which was inaugurated in 1859.

Facilities

The park has 5 seasonal bowling greens, a croquet green, 4 synthetic tennis courts, children's play area, orienteering course and skateboard park. The River Kelvin runs through the park and the Kelvin Walkway provides a path along its banks. The Band Stand and Amphitheatre dating from 1924 are currently in a state of disrepair and closed to access.

The Kelvingrove Heritage Trail covers the items of interest in detail - thetrail leaflet can be downloaded from here and the map from here in pdf formats.