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Glasgow North Station

james73 — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 19:34:28 CDT

In the post-Second World War period a plan was devised and outlined in two reports into how to redevelop the city of Glasgow. The Bruce Report is the name commonly given to these reports of the Glasgow Corporation (the former local authority area for the city). Both reports were authored by City Engineer Robert Bruce, lending them their collective name. The name encompasses the First Planning Report, which was published in the closing stages of the Second World War (March of 1945) and the Clyde Valley Regional Plan. These reports recommended a series of initiatives designed to transform the city over the following fifty years.

Some of these initiatives were put into practice, some were not. The reports and their implementation significantly shaped modern day Glasgow, a good example of their impact being the M8 motorway which was built following proposals in the report. During the mid-20th century much of the city's population were resettled to new towns and housing schemes also following recommendations in Bruce's reports. The civic, architectural, geographic and demographic landscape of modern Glasgow would have been radically different without the influence of these two reports. Had the Bruce Report been implemented in its entirety, the city would most likely have been totally unrecognisable to the one in place today.

Rail

As well as housing reform and recommending changes to Glasgow's road network, Bruce also suggested radical changes to Glasgow's railways. At the time of the Bruce Report, the city had four major railway stations. Central and St Enoch both served primarily southbound destinations. Queen Street and Buchanan Street mainly served northbound destinations.

In order to rationalise the city's mainline services, Bruce suggested that all four stations be demolished and replaced with two new stations. A new Glasgow North station was proposed roughly on the site of Buchanan Street station (occupying a larger area) to replace Buchanan Street and Queen Street stations. A Glasgow South station was proposed on the approximate site of Glasgow Central station to replace Central and St Enoch stations.

These plans were never implemented, and all four stations remained until the mid-1960s when the Beeching Axe reforms changed the shape of rail services across the United Kingdom. Beeching's reforms spelt the end for both Buchanan Street and St Enoch stations which closed, effectively rationalising rail services in the city along similar lines to Bruce's two station plan, but without requiring the demolition of four stations and construction of two new ones. Beeching's reforms also removed low level services from Glasgow Central station in 1964, but these were partly reintroduced in 1979.

Glasgow North

The plan for Glasgow North Station, drawn up in 1951, set out a scheme whereby Buchanan Street and Queen Street stations were to be closed and a new station was to be built in their place. This station would have been built on land mostly including the site of Buchanan Street Station, although would have been many times larger. Queen Street High Level would've been closed and the lines into the station diverted into the new station at the top of the Cowlairs incline at Sighthill. The Buchanan Street tunnel would have been opened up and the tracks into the station increased from two to four. Bruce's plan would also have seen a new bus station built on the Queen Street High Level site, with the Queen Street Low Level railway station remaining to provide suburban services and to connect the new bus station to the rail network. The images below show the before and after plans for Glasgow North.

Queen Street

james73 — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 19:25:48 CDT

Glasgow Queen Street (Glaschu Sràid na Banrighinn in Gaelic) is a railway station in Glasgow, Scotland and is the city's second main line terminus. The station is the third busiest station in Scotland. It is situated between George Street to the south and Cathedral Street Bridge to the north, at the northern end of Queen Street adjacent to George Square.

Services

Queen Street is the main gateway to northern and eastern Scotland from Glasgow (with Glasgow Central station serving the South and rest of the UK), and is built on two levels. The station is managed by First ScotRail who operate all of the passenger services including the flagship Glasgow to Edinburgh shuttle.

High Level

The high level station serves a mainline to Edinburgh, with modern diesel trains completing the journey to the capital in around 45 minutes, with onward connections to Fife. The mainline to Aberdeen also runs from Queen Street Station. This Aberdeen line runs to Perth and Dundee while terminating at Aberdeen/Dyce. Services to Inverness along the Highland Main Line also depart from here, as do trains on the West Highland Line to Fort William, Mallaig and Oban. The high level station was remodelled in the early 1960's and currently has 7 platforms, although platform 1 can only accomdate a 3-car DMU (diesel multiple unit).

The main line approaches to the station come through the 1000 yards long Queen Street Tunnel, which runs beneath the Buchanan Galleries shopping centre to the Sighthill area northeast of the city centre where the tracks emerge and diverge to their various routes. Following the demolition in 1977 of St Enoch Station, which was situated near the opposite end of Queen Street, the high-level station is now the only vaulted railway station left in Scotland. Following the construction of an office block in front of the George Square station entrance in the 1970s, the main station building is effectively screened from view.

Low Level

The low level station forms the hub of the North Clyde Line of the Glasgow suburban electric network. Trains run frequently between Helensburgh, on the Firth of Clyde, and Airdrie — on the edge of the Greater Glasgow conurbation.

The low level line was electrified in 1960 to the 25kV AC 50Hz standard, with the central area, Springburn, Bridgeton and Milngavie branches and the Yoker loop at 6.25kV AC, later converted to 25kV throughout as insulation technology improved. Electrification brought the introduction of the legendary and locally-built Class 303 electric multiple unit, joined in 1967 by the similar, Sheffield-built Class 311, which survived only until the early 1990s.

The trains were quickly nicknamed the "Blue Trains" by Glaswegians owing to their bright Caledonian Blue colour scheme. This was later changed to the standard British Rail blue/grey livery in the 1970s, then to the distinctive SPT orange-and-black scheme in the 1980s. A few units received the new SPT carmine/cream livery in the late 1990s.

The last Class 303 train operated on the North Clyde Line on 30 December 2002, specially formed of two units, nos. 303011 and 303088 after an impressive 42 years of service.

The stretch of this line between High Street, Queen Street and Charing Cross was in fact built before the Glasgow Subway, making it the oldest piece of underground railway in the city. There are two low level platforms, numbered 8 and 9, although prior to electrification there were four, which were not numbered but lettered A, B, C and D.

History

The station was originally built for the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, opened on 18 February 1842, which became part of the North British Railway on 4 July 1844. The climb through the tunnel to Cowlairs was at 1 in 42 and until 1909 trains were hauled up on a rope operated by a stationary engine although experiments were carried out using banking engines between 1844/48. In 1945 there was a minor railway accident when a train leaving the station slipped to a standstill and rolled back into another train. Modern diesel trains have no difficulty with the climb.

The adjacent Buchanan Street station of the rival Caledonian Railway was closed on 7 November 1966 as a result of the Beeching axe and its services to Stirling, Perth, Inverness, Dundee and Aberdeen were transferred to Queen Street. This caused difficulties with longer trains, as Queen Street is in a confined position between George Square and the tunnel and barely takes six coaches. Current trains, however, are usually of two to six coaches, running more frequently.

Signalling

Queen Street signal box, opened in 1881, was located on a gantry spanning the tracks close to the tunnel mouth. It closed on 26 February 1967 when control of the High Level station was transferred to a panel in Cowlairs signal box. That box was superseded by the new Cowlairs signalling centre on 28 December 1998.

The Low Level station had two signal boxes, 'Queen Street West' and 'Queen Street East'. Both boxes were situated over the tracks and both were closed on 8 February 1960. The low level lines came under the control of Yoker Signalling Centre (IECC) on 19 November 1989.

In early 2007, Network Rail began construction work on a new Glasgow Signalling Centre on the Cowlairs site which will ultimately replace signal boxes in the Glasgow area, north and south of the River Clyde.

Proposals

Various schemes to link Queen Street to Central Station have been considered over the years, as Glasgow's weakest link in railway terms is that passengers travelling from the north of Scotland to the south via Glasgow and vice-versa have to traverse the city centre by road via a shuttle bus, or on foot. Even the Glasgow Underground serves neither main line station, although Buchanan Street underground station is at least adjacent to Queen Street.

The preferred solution to the problem is a Crossrail initiative which would use a disused freight line which links High Street to the Gorbals area. This initiative was recently awarded a grant from the Scottish Executive to investigate costs for possible link to be built between the two halves of the Glasgow rail network. A date of 2009 is estimated for completion of the project.

In August 2006, Network Rail revealed that it intends to redevelop Queen Street substantially, making use of the Hanover Street car park area to provide more retail space, and also to upgrade the station's entrances.

River Kelvin

james73 — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 21:42:47 CDT

The River Kelvin is nearly 22 miles (35km) long as it flows from its source, Dullatur Bog, near the village of Kelvinhead, to the East of Kilsyth to its confluence with the River Clyde at Partick, Glasgow. Many burns and streams feed the Kelvin, the three largest of which are Luggie Water, Glazert Water and Allander Water.

The Kelvin turns south and enters the city at Killermont, on the border with Bearsden, which is where we first encounter milling at the saw mill. Unfortunately the majority of mills on the Kelvin have now been demolished.

As we follow the course of the river downstream we come to one of the oldest bridges in the city at Dawsholm, which was built in the late 18th century. Further downstream the river is crossed by an aqueduct, which at the time it was built was the largest in the UK, carrying the Forth and Clyde canal across the Kelvin and shortly after this we come across the support piers of an old railway bridge, highlighting Glasgow's past dependance on industry.

From here the river now enters Kelvinside and then the Botanic Gardens, flowing under the Ha'penny bridge. The original Ha'penny bridge was swept away by the river when it burst its banks in 1994. The bridge was subsequently replaced by the Friends Of the River Kelvin. As we leave the Botanic Gardens we pass under the imposing bridge which carries Queen Margaret Drive over the river and also pass by the former home of BBC Scotland.

A short distance later we come across the ruins of an old flint mill, the outlines of the buildings remaining just a few bricks high, the large millstones being instantly recognisable along with the mill race, lade and furnaces.

We now reach Kevlinbridge and another major bridge over the Kelvin, this time carrying Great Western Road (A82) over the now fast flowing river, past the remnants of Kelvinbridge railway station, with bars now occupying the tunnels where steam trains once ran. The river then passes under Gibson Street and enters Kelvingrove Park on the final leg of its journey towards the Clyde.The Kelvin then flows between Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery on one side and Glasgow University perched high on Gilmorehill on the other and then under Partick Bridge with the Kelvin Hall, housing the Museum of Transport and an indoor sports arena on one bank and Partick Pumping Station on the opposite bank.

We are now in Partick and pass the only operating mill on the Kelvin, Scotstoun Mill, which is operated by Rank Hovis. Opposite this we find the Regent's Mill which has been converted into luxury housing. We then come across the site of Partick Central railway station, which is currently the subject of a controversial attempt to build a large supermarket and housing complex. Shortly after this we reach the River Clyde.

River Clyde

james73 — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 21:42:07 CDT

The River Clyde runs through the heart of Glasgow but begins its journey in the Lowther Hills at the confluence of the Daer Water and the Potrail Water. From here, The River Clyde runs north and west towards Lanark, joined by many tributaries until the Falls of Clyde where the water was at one time used to power the mills on New Lanark and now is a source of hydroelectricity.

The Clyde continues its journey north and enters the Glasgow City boundary where the North Calder Water enters the Clyde. From here,the Clyde forms the boundary of the City of Glasgow until the King's Bridge at Richmond Park, when the river is fully within the city boundary.

The river at the SECC looking over to the new BBC studios

Looking down the river towards Govan Shipbuilders and the new riverside development

Glasgow Undergound

james73 — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 21:40:44 CDT

Underground Station Names Pre Modernisation

Underground Station Names Post Modernisation

The Glasgow Underground was opened in 1896 and is the third oldest such system after the London Underground and the Budapest Metro. The system was originally powered by a cable running round the circular layout with the cable winding buildings housed in Scotland Street.

The original powering system explains why the Glasgow Underground stations are built on the brow of a hill to allow the cable grips to be released before entering the stations with the trains gliding to a halt. It also helped when the trains had to grip the cable to start again with the trains moving downhill.

The service first opened on December 14 1896, however by the end of that day both tunnels were out of action.

A cable fault on the inner circle caused a car to be derailed at Buchanan Street, after this happened only the Inner circle ran. All the cars were filled to capacity, however a collision between two cars near St Enoch Station caused all services to be halted. The system was closed until January 21 1897.

The system was electrified in two stages, the first being the Inner Circle, with the last cable hauled train running on March 28th 1935, being replaced with the first power hauled train on March 31. The outer circle continued to be cable hauled until November 30 1895. The system was shut on December 1 , which was a Sunday, and from Dec 2 to Dec 4 it ran on the Inner Circle only, until the Outer Circle went 'live' on December 5.

The pictures below show the car shed in 1955.

The network ran like this until 21st May 1977, when at 12.50pm the station master at Copland Road (now Ibrox) received a phone call to say that services were being suspended due to a crack appearing in the roof at Govan Cross Station (now Govan).This turned out to be the end of the old system as it never re-started, thus ending the era of the old underground.

Below is a copy of the picture of the station master calling 'service suspended', the people in the picture are leaving the system for the last time ever.

Below is a mock up of the old Merkland Street station, which is currently housed in the Transport Museum.

Glasgow Central

james73 — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 21:36:07 CDT

Glasgow Central is the larger of the two present main-line railway terminals in Glasgow, Scotland, and is managed by Network Rail. It is the northern terminus of the West Coast Main Line, and was opened by the Caledonian Railway on July 31, 1879.

It is the busiest railway station in the United Kingdom outside London. According to Network Rail, the station has over 34 million people departing from, or arriving at Glasgow Central each year. Glasgow Central serves all of the Greater Glasgow conurbation's southern towns and suburbs, the Ayrshire and Clyde coasts, as well as being the terminus for all inter-city services from Glasgow to destinations south of the border. The station is on two levels - the High Level station at the same level as Gordon Street and which bridges over Argyle Street, and the underground Low Level station.

Original station

The original station, opened in 1879 on the north bank of the River Clyde, had eight platforms and was linked to Bridge Street station by a railway bridge over Argyle Street and a four-track railway bridge, built by Sir William Arrol, which crossed the Clyde to the south. The station was soon found to be too congested.

A temporary solution of widening the bridge over Argyle Street and inserting a ninth platform on Argyle Street bridge was adopted. It was also initially intended to increase Bridge Street station to eight through lines and to increase Central Station to 15 platforms.

Low level station

The low level platforms, in what was originally a separate station, were added to serve the underground Glasgow Central Railway, which was authorised on 10 August 1888 and opened on 10 August 1896. The Glasgow Central Railway was taken over by the Caledonian Railway in 1890. Services ran from Maryhill Central and from the Lanarkshire and Dunbartonshire Railway in the west through to Rutherglen and via Tollcross through to Carmyle, Newton and other Caledonian Railway destinations to the east of Glasgow.

The 1901-1905 station

Between 1901 and 1905 the original station was rebuilt. The station was extended over the top of Argyle Street and thirteen platforms were built. An additional eight-track bridge was built over the Clyde; and the original bridge was raised by 30 inches (0.75 metre). Bridge Street station was then closed.

The High Level station now has 14 platforms covered by a large steel ridge/furrow roof. These platforms are numbered 1-11, 11a and 12-13. Platform 11a was created during the 1901 to 1905 rebuild but was not originally for passenger use - it was known as the Fish, Fruit and Milk platform

Central Station has a spacious concourse containing a variety of shops, catering outlets, ticket offices and a travel centre. The station is fronted by the Central Hotel on Gordon Street, designed by Robert Rowand Anderson. The station building also houses a long line of shops and bars down the Union Street side. Although not obvious to the general public, there is also an extensive system of tunnels and underground caverns used for car parking and utility purposes built underneath the station.

The station's famous architectural features are the large glass-walled bridge that takes the station building over Argyle Street, nicknamed as the "Heilanman's (or Hellaman's) Umbrella" by locals because it was used as a gathering place for visiting Highlanders; and the former ticket offices/platform and train destination information building. This was a large oval building, with the booking office on the ground floor and the train information display for passengers, on via large printed cloth destination boards placed behind large windows on the first floor by a team of two men. Underneath the "Umbrella" is a bustling array of shops and bars, as well as the "Arches" nightclub, theatre, gallery and restaurant complex.

Signalling

The original 1889 signal box was replaced with an electro-pneumatic power operated signal box based on the Westinghouse system. Work started in October 1907 and it opened on 5th April 1908. It was built directly over the River Clyde, sitting suspended between the two river bridges, well above the level of the tracks. Inside was a frame of 374 miniature levers, making it the longest power frame ever built in Great Britain.

The present Glasgow Central Signalling Centre, located in the 'vee' of Bridge Street Junction, opened on 2 January 1961. It replaced signal boxes at Central Station, Bridge Street Junction, Eglinton Street Junction and Eglinton Street Station. When initially opened it was capable of handling 1,000 routes.

The new signalling centre was needed for three reasons:

The 1907 power signal box was worn out

The original 1879 bridge over the River Clyde was coming to the end of its useful life, and it was more effective to use the newer, 1904, bridge to handle all the traffic, with the lines signalled by-directionally
Electrification of, firstly, the Cathcart Circle Lines, to be followed by the Gourock and Wemyss Bay services and the West Coast Main Line

Plans are in hand to install new signalling at Glasgow Central, which is to be controlled from a new signalling centre being built at Cowlairs.

Electrification

Overhead power lines began to appear on the high level platforms by the mid 1960s. Firstly, 6.25 kV AC Overhead power lines from the Cathcart Circle Line electrification scheme, which started on 29 May 1962. During this period the old 1879 bridge over the River Clyde was removed and the railway lines were rearranged.

This was followed by the 25 kV AC overhead power lines electrification of the Glasgow and Paisley Joint Railway and the Inverclyde Line to Gourock and Wemyss Bay, completed in 1967; and the WCML northern electrification scheme in 1974. Part of the Cathcart Circle was upgraded to 25 kV AC supply, in 1974, to provide a diversionary route. The whole of the Cathcart Circle route was later upgraded to 25 kV AC supply.

Plans exist to electrify other routes, such as the Whifflet Line, as part of a scheme to improve rail services in Scotland.

Late 20th century developments

Low level station

Closure

Services through the Low Level station were withdrawn on 3 October 1964, said to be due to competition with the tram. However, the trams had been withdrawn by 1962, so this may be a contradiction of the "Beeching Axe." It's also said that the recently electrified Queen Street Low Level line, which served many of the same areas as the Central Low Level service, was also a contributing factor as the public weren't so keen to be covered in smoke from the old steam trains and had taken an immediate liking to the clean, electric 'Blue Trains.'

Re-opening

In 1979 part of the low level line was electrified and the Low Level station was re-opened as the Argyle Line of the Glasgow suburban railway network. It consists of a single island platform, numbered as platforms 14 & 15. The Low Level station originally had 4 platforms (consisting of two island platforms) but only the southern platform was reinstated.

Initially services were provided by Class 303 and Class 314 units. The latter units were built specifically for this service. Following the withdrawal of the Class 303 units, the service is currently (in 2007) provided by Class 318 and Class 334 "Juniper" units. Class 320 units were intended to be used on the route, but the narrow tunnels made this proposal impossible, and these units are restricted to the North Clyde Line.

Flooding

Over the festive period of 1994 on 11 December, torrential rain caused the River Kelvin to burst its banks at the closed Kelvinbridge, with the water making its way through the disused tunnels to Exhibition Centre and the Low Level station, which was completely submerged by the resultant flash flood. It was closed for many months while repairs were made.

In August 2002, torrential rain flooded out the low-level stations from Dalmarnock through Exhibition Centre for a number of weeks. Most services were routed to the High Level platforms, or to Queen Street station. Incidentally, the flooding had a number of other effects, most infamously causing a cryptospiridium outbreak in Glasgow's water supply.

1980s redevelopment

The high level station's facilities were substantially redeveloped in the mid 1980s. The old ticket office/rain information building was replaced by an all new Travel Centre in 1985 adjacent to the Gordon Street entrance; and by 1986 a massive electro-mechanical destination board at the end of the platforms, with a smaller repeater board at the western side of the concourse had replaced the archaic manually-operated train information boards. The old booking office/train information building was retained and redeveloped into shops, eateries and an upstairs bar/restaurant; and the station was refloored in marble.

1998 to 2005 refurbishment

In 1998, a five-year renovation programme was initiated by Railtrack, which saw the station completely re-roofed and internally refurbished. The 1980s vintage mechanical destination boards were replaced with modern LED style information signage. The final improvement, the upgrading of the upstairs restaurant area was completed in 2005.

Future

In order to accommodate the proposed Glasgow Airport Rail Link, scheduled to open in 2008-09, an extended Platform 11a will be created by demolishing the present platform-level car park, and passenger drop off area. There are no plans to replace indoor parking or passenger drop off within Central station. The existing multi-storey parking facility on Oswald Street and on-street parking surrounding Central station will remain, with passenger drop off also moving to surrounding streets.

Queens Park F.C.

james73 — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 20:32:01 CST

Queens Park Football Club

Queens Park Football Club are the oldest club in Scottish football, formed in 1867. They currently play at Hampden Park, south east Glasgow, which is also the home to the Scottish National Team and is one of 29 UEFA five-star stadia. The club is steeped with much history and tradition, and remains the only amateur club in the Scottish League. Queen's Park have won the Scottish Cup the third most amount of times, behind Celtic and Rangers.

History

Queen's Park, also known as "The Hoops", "The Spiders" and "The Braindeads" were founded on 9 July 1867, and are the oldest in Scottish Football. Queen's had soon developed its own code of rules for football. The club has historically resisted professionalism in the game; former professional players from other clubs were not allowed to play for Queen's Park and in 1890 the club refused to join the newly-formed Scottish League. The club also feared the League would dominate the game and cause the demise of smaller clubs. Six of the founder members of the League soon went out of existence. Queen's Park were however being left behind by the League, so in 1900 they took up the opportunity to enter. Special favours were granted by the League; not only were they the only amateur members, they were also protected from relegation to the Second Division until 1922.

The club has twice finished runner-up, both times to Blackburn Rovers, in the English national competition, the FA Cup. This was in 1884 and 1885. Such was the club's dominance in the early days of football that it did not concede a goal until January 16, 1875, 8 years after the club's formation.

Since World War II the club has been comparatively unsuccessful, rarely playing in the top division and failing to make a big impression when it did. Only since the 1990s have former professional players been allowed to play for the club, thus allowing many of the higher quality players to play for Queen's Park. Only under the influence of coach John McCormack did the club management allow players to come on loan from professional clubs. Although still amateur, the managers are now paid "honorariums". The Spiders' last trophy win came in 2000, when they won the 3rd Division Championship.

Queen's Park's stay in the SFL Second Division was all too short however and despite a 1-0 victory over Queen Of The South at Palmerston Park on the final day on the season they were relegated back to the basement division of Scottish Football for season 2001/02.

Famous Players

These include Alex Ferguson, current manager of Manchester United, Ronnie Simpson, later a Goalkeeper for Glasgow Celtic, Andy Roxburgh, ex Scotland Manager, Ian McCall current manager of Partick Thistle.

Rivals

Despite being located midway between Celtic and Rangers, Queen's Park's long resistance to professionalism has resulted in not having competed in the same division as them for long periods of time, and thus turning to rivals in lower divisions, such as Partick Thistle, Clyde and Albion Rovers.

Support

The Spiders' support is known for being vociferous, especially during away games, where the loyal support gets behind their team, win, lose or draw. For a relatively 'small' team, the fans take impressively strong numbers on their travels, usually more to local games. Some of the Spiders' support call themselves the "Irn Bru Firm" and currently share an enjoyable relationship with supporters of German club SG Wattenscheid 09.

This friendship resulted in Queen's spending their pre-season for season 2006/07 in the small German town where Queen's have now made many friends. The Wattenscheid lads and lassies were last over on January 27th, 2007 as Queen's won 2-1 away at Stenhousemuir.

Q.P.S.A.

The Queen's Park Supporters' Association was founded over fifty years ago to help bring together people that share a common interest in the Queen's Park Football Club. In recent years membership has increased steadily, with supporters now registered throughout the world. This rise has partly been due to the recent success of the club on-field, but primarily it has been attained through the dedicated work of association secretary, Keith "Beardie" McAllister.

As well as providing a channel to keep the poor souls (who are coming out of the woodwork now that they got promoted) informed of activities in and around Hampden, the association generates much needed income which in turn goes towards helping to maintain the various activities within the club such as donations toward the youth set-up, club website or acknowledging the service of past and present players.

Running a club shop on match days and providing supporters' buses to away grounds as well as organising social events, are only some examples of the work the Association carries out every season. The success of the Q.P.S.A is such that a special section for the younger supporters has been established.

Stadium

Hampden is one of the homes of football and celebrated its centenary on October 31, 2003. The stadium also houses the offices of the Scottish Football Association.

Hampden Park was the largest stadium in the world until 1950, when the Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro was completed. After the release of the Taylor Report in the wake of the Hillsborough disaster, among other football tragedies, Hampden Park was converted to an all-seater. The current capacity is around 52,500.

The crowd who came to see football matches at Hampden were renowned for creating the Hampden Roar. The noise created was said to terrify opposing teams who came to play there. In recent times the roar has said to be more muted, with the capacity of the stadium being reduced from its heyday.

Outside of Hampden Park sits a smaller, much lesser known ground with a bizarre and interesting history. This small part of footballing history is called Lesser Hampden.

The ground dates back to 1923 when Hampden's owners, Queen's Park F.C. were searching for a subsidiary venue that would house all of Queen's Park's teams except the first team (which would continue to play at Hampden). The club purchased a farm to the west of Hampden, this land was soon converted into Lesser Hampden. Lesser Hampden opened the next season, with a capacity of around 12,000. One of the most unique features of the stadium is the farmhouse, which the club retained to save money, this building originally served as the pavilion and dressing rooms for Lesser Hampden. This farmhouse, which dates back to the 19th century is believed by many football historians to be the oldest football building in the world.

World War II saw Lesser Hampden commandeered by the British Government to serve as a base for the Home Guard. The ground was returned to the club in 1945. Queen's Park found themselves relieved that the stadium wasn't converted back to its original state as a farm, a plan that was on the cards if the nation faced a food shortage.

In the 1980s Lesser Hampden nearly became home to the Queen's Park first team, as the government backed out of a promise to help fund the redevelopment of Hampden Park. Eventually the money did come, and Hampden was redeveloped. During the redevelopment Lesser Hampden did host league football as the Spiders were granted dispensation to host league matches at the National Stadium's sister ground.

In 2002 it was discovered that Lesser Hampden was tainted with chromium, this was cleaned up at a cost of around £40,000. A steep price for a side the size of Queen's Park.

Trivia

Queen's Park have won the Scottish Cup ten times. Only local rivals Rangers F.C. and Celtic F.C. have won more cups.

During the inaugural meeting, debate raged over the club's name. Proposals included: 'The Celts'; 'The Northern' and 'Morayshire'. Perhaps such choice of names suggest a Highland influence within the new club. After much deliberation, 'Queen's Park' was adopted and carried, but only by a majority of one vote.

The Scotland team at the first official football international consisted entirely of players from Queen's Park FC. This match between Scotland and England was the brainchild of C. W. Alcock and took place in Glasgow on November 30, 1872. During the match the Scottish players wore their club jerseys, which were dark blue, and this has remained the first-choice kit for the Scotland national team to this day. Contrary to the club's official website, this match was played under the Football Association rules (which had been first written in 1863).

In the early days of England's FA Cup, Scottish clubs were often invited to compete. As a result, Queen's Park twice finished runners-up in this competition.

After Queen's Park's tour of Ireland in 1879, it produced so much excitement that the first Irish club, Cliftonville, was founded.

At Lesser Hampden the old farmhouse used for dressing rooms for the Queen's Park reserves and youth had originally been earmarked for demolition, but this was never carried out, reputedly making it the oldest football related building in existence.

Queen's Park has the distinction of being the first Scottish club to feature on television. The date was March 1951, when they played a televised friendly match against the famous London amateur side, Walthamstow Avenue F.C. The Spiders won the game 2-0, courtesy of a Derek Grierson double.

Home

james73 — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 20:44:34 CST

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The City of Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. It is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands.

Glasgow grew from the medieval Bishopric of Glasgow and the later establishment of the University of Glasgow, which contributed to the Scottish Enlightenment. From the 18th century the city had become one of Europe's main hubs of transatlantic trade with the Americas.

With the Industrial Revolution, the city and surrounding region grew to become one of the world's pre-eminent centres of engineering and shipbuilding, constructing many revolutionary and famous vessels.

Glasgow was known as the "Second City of the British Empire" in the Victorian era. Today it is one of Europe's top twenty financial centres and is home to many of Scotland's leading businesses. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries Glasgow grew to a population of over one million, and was the fourth-largest city in Europe, after London, Paris and Berlin.

In the 1960s large-scale relocation to new towns in the suburban area of the city, followed by successive boundary changes, have reduced the current population of the City of Glasgow unitary authority area to 578,790. 1,171,390 people live in the Greater Glasgow Urban Area according to the 2001 census. The entire Glasgow conurbation covers approximately 2.3 million people, almost half of Scotland's population.

History

The present site of Glasgow has been used since prehistoric times for settlement due to it being the forded point of the River Clyde furthest downstream, which also provided a natural area for salmon fishing. The origins of Glasgow as an established city derive ultimately from its medieval position as Scotland's second largest bishopric. Glasgow became important in the 12th century as the site of this bishopric, reorganized by King David I of Scotland and John, Bishop of Glasgow. There had been an earlier religious site established by Saint Mungo (also known as Saint Kentigern). The bishopric became one of the largest and wealthiest in the Kingdom of Scotland, bringing wealth and status to the town.

Somewhere between 1175 and 1178 this position was strengthened even further when Bishop Jocelin obtained for the episcopal settlement the status of burgh from King William the Lion, allowing the settlement to expand with the benefits of trading monopolies and other legal guarantees. Sometime between 1189 and 1195 this status was supplemented by an annual fair, which survives to this day as the Glasgow Fair. Glasgow grew over the following centuries, and the founding of the University of Glasgow in 1451 and elevation of the bishopric to an archbishopric in 1492 increasing the town's religious and educational status.

Daniel Defoe visited the city in the early 18th century and famously opined that that Glasgow was "the cleanest and beautifullest and best built City in Britain, London excepted." At that time, the city's population numbered approximately 12,000, and its structures largely consisted of compact wooden buildings, none of which remains today.

Union

After the Acts of Union in 1707, Scotland gained trading access to the vast markets of the British Empire and Glasgow became prominent in international commerce as a hub of trade to the Americas, especially in the movement of tobacco, cotton and sugar into the city's deep water port at Port Glasgow. Many of Glasgow's streets, including Glassford Street and Buchanan Street, are named after local tobacco traders who grew rich from goods produced by slave labour in the American Colonies until the American War of Independence, after which the merchants concentrated mainly on the West Indies.

In its subsequent industrial era, Glasgow produced textiles, engineered goods and steel, which were exported. The opening of the Monkland Canal in 1791, facilitated access to the Iron-ore and Coal mines in Lanarkshire. After extensive engineering projects to dredge and deepen the Clyde, Shipbuilding became a major industry on the upper stretches of the river, building many famous ships including the Cunard liners RMS Lusitania, RMS Aquitania, RMS Queen Mary, RMS Queen Elizabeth, RMS Queen Elizabeth 2, and the Royal Yacht Britannia. Glasgow's population had surpassed that of Edinburgh by 1821. By the end of the 19th century the city was known as the "Second City of the Empire" and was producing most of the ships and locomotives in the world. During this period, the construction of many of the city's greatest architectural masterpieces and most ambitious civic projects were being funded by its wealth.

20th Century

The city experienced mixed fortunes during 20th century. After World War I, the city suffered from the impact of the Post-World War I recession and from the later Great Depression, this also led to a rise of radical socialism and the "Red Clydeside" movement. The city had recovered by the outbreak of the Second World War and grew through the post-war boom that lasted through the 1950s. However by the 1960s, a lack of investment and innovation led to growing overseas competition in countries like Japan and Germany which weakened the once pre-eminent position of many of the city's industries. As a result of this, Glasgow entered a long running period of relative economic malaise, leading to high unemployment, urban decay, population decline and poor health for the city's inhabitants. There were active attempts at regeneration of the city, when the Glasgow Corporation published its controversial Bruce Report which set out a comprehensive series of initiatives aimed at turning round the decline of the city.

By the 1990s, there had been a significant resurgence in Glasgow's economic fortunes, finding a new role as a European centre for business services and finance, as well as benefiting from an increase in tourism and inward investment. The latter is largely due to the legacy of the city's status as European City of Culture in 1990, and attempts to diversify the city's economy. This economic revival has continued and the ongoing regeneration of inner-city areas has led to people moving back to live in the centre of Glasgow.

Saint Enoch

james73 — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 18:07:34 CST

St Enoch Station was a former mainline railway station in Glasgow.

Located on St Enoch Square in the city centre, it was opened by the City of Glasgow Union Railway, in 1876. The first passenger train stopping there on 1 May 1876, with the official opening taking place on 17 October 1876. The St Enoch Hotel at the front of the station opened on July 3rd 1879. With 200 bedrooms and 20 public rooms, it was the largest of the city's three railway hotels. The imposing frontage facing St Enoch Square was 360ft long and 120ft high and the North wing, extending to Dunlop Street was 500ft long.

In 1883 it was taken over by the Glasgow and South Western Railway and it became their head quarters. St Enoch Station was the first major public building in Glasgow lit by electricity. The original six platforms were covered by an arched roof measuring 83ft high, 204ft wide and 525ft long, modelled on St Pancras Station in London.Such was the success of the station, that extra platforms and a second roof, 70ft high by 143ft wide were added in 1901. In the 1923 grouping it was taken over and then operated by the London Midland and Scottish Railway. After the nationalisation of the United Kingdom rail network, the station was run by British Railways.

It was a large station (the second largest in the city) with 12 platforms and two impressive semi-cylindrical glass/iron overall roofs. The station was closed in 1966 as part of the rationalisation of the railway system undertaken by Dr Richard Beeching. In an act that can be described as nothing more than architectural vandalism, the roofs of the structure were demolished, despite protests, in 1976. The St Enoch Hotel which fronted the station and the brick-arch viaducts which supported the station were then demolished, beginning in 1977, with the city council claiming the site was earmarked for a building for use by the Ministry of Defence - this never materialised. 1978 was Architectural Heritage Year. The site is now occupied by another glass structure, the St Enoch Centre, a large and rather hideous shopping centre which opened in 1988. The remains of the station and hotel were used to help in fill the Queen's Dock on the banks of the River Clyde, today the home of the SECC.

The small red sandstone ticket hall which stands in St Enoch Square immediately west of the shopping centre is not part of the former rail station, but in fact the former ticket hall for the adjacent St Enoch subway station on the Glasgow Subway. Though the mainline station is gone, parts of the arcaded approach embankments (now containing shops and restaurants) can be seen to the east of the shopping centre's carpark. Though these currently go nowhere they once connected with the Glasgow City Union Railway and the City Union Bridge of 1899 which still spans the River Clyde to destinations in the south. The much spoken of Glasgow Crossrail scheme hopes to use this section of track and incorporate it into the SPT network.

Tolbooth

james73 — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 14:45:59 CDT

Tolbooth & Steeple erected in 1625-6
Tollbooth rebuilt in 1814 (Steeple saved by Town Council vote of 15 to 9)
Tolbooth demolished in 1921
Steeple refurbished in 1923-5

Glasgow Story

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Little information is available about the earliest of Glasgow's Tolbooths, which lay at the northwest corner of the modern High Street and Trongate. A 12th century burgh may well have been expected to have a centre of civil administration, but until 1454 there are no surviving records of its early medieval history. In 1578, the city’s treasury accounts, describes payment , 'gevin to the maister of work and debur sit be him upon the biggin of the foir work of the tolbuithe and settin up of the bell'. Other records in the same year mention 'gevin David Kay for the pryce of the knok', (clock), 'buithis' (shops) in the street and repairs to the Tolbooth’s great oak and iron door.

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With the decline of ecclesiastical privilege, power and patronage the city's secular institutions burgeoned at the lower end of the town, where the citizens lived in a huddle of long narrow closes built back from the street. At the crossing of the four main streets the town council in 1626 began to erect a new Tolbooth. Five storeys high, it was overtopped by the steeple (a solitary remnant today) containing the town clock and with the only crown steeple in the west of Scotland with arches upholding a miniature gallery and steeple. Given its scale, its heraldic insignia and little pediments over the windows it was no wonder that the Tolbooth was hailed as "the paragon of beauty in the west." And indeed not only in the west but across Scotland.
The Glasgow Story

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John Boyd
(fl. c.1625 - c.43)
Operating as a mason and builder, he was involved in the design and building of some of Glasgow’s most important 17th Century buildings.

Between 11 February and 18 March 1626, he worked with Patrik Colquhoun in demolishing the old Tolbooth at Glasgow Cross, and was appointed as Master of Work on the construction of its replacement, of which only the 126ft steeple stands today

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Tolbooth Steeple, Glasgow Cross
Glasgow Arms, Royal Monograms and Symbols (C.1625)
Sculptor: unknown; Designed by: J Boyd
Sculpture Database

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The steeple features some of the oldest sculpture in the city, including a small shield carved with an early version of the Glasgow coat of arms, and thistle motifs similar to the many others that were also on the building's demolished facade.

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THE town-house or tolbooth is a magnificent structure, being of length from east to west sixty six foot, and from
the south to the north twenty four foot eight inches ; it hath a stately stair-case ascending to the justice-court-
hall, within which is the entry of a large turnpike or staircase ascending to the town-council-hall, above which there was the dean of gild's old hall ; but now is turned into two prison houses for prisoners of note and distinction. The council house is adorn'd with the effigies of king James VI. king Charles the I. and II. king James VII. King William and queen Mary, queen Anne, king George the I. and II. all in full length, and a fine large oval
taLle, where the magistrates and town-council and their clerk sits. The first story of this great building consists
of six rooms, two whereof are for the magistrates use, one for the dean of gild's court, and another for the collector of the town's excise, these appartments are all vaulted from the one end to the other, and there is a new addition built, appointed for a quorum of the council to sit, in order to determine and dispatch nil such affairs as may be expede without the consent of the whole ; but above all, the king's hall is the finest, the length whereof is forty three foot eleven inches from east to west, and from south to north twenty four foot, and the turnpike upon the east end.

In this great building are five large rooms appointed for common prisoners ; the steeple on the east-
end thereof being one hundred and thirteen foot high, adorn'd with a curious clock all of brass, with four dial
plates ; it has a large bell for the use of the clock, and a curious sett of chymes and tuneable bells, which plays
every two hours, and has four large touretts on the corners thereof, with thanes finely gilded, and the whole
roof is cover'd with lead, upon the frontispiece of this building is his majesty's arms finely cut out, with a fine
dial, and below the same is this Latin inscription. Hs'c domus odit, amat, punit, conservat, honorat, Nequitium, pacem, crimina, jura, probos. In English thus, This house doth hate all wickedness, Loves peace but faults corrects, Observes all laws of righteousness, And good men it erects.*

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The Tolbooth Steeple played an important part in the jurisprudence of the period. Its High Street face was cheerfully garnished with spikes for the heads of traitors and other first-class misdemeanants. Commoner criminals were hung against its Trongate face. A scaffold was raised for them to the height of the first floor, facing appropriately down the Gallowgate, and the prisoner was brought out from the Tolbooth by a little window door, which, in these good old times, was as constantly open as the Temple of Janus. Below this, on the level of the street, a low half door (6) led direct to the prison, by a turnpike stair in the steeple.
Old Country Houses

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These branks and the stocks are examples of implements of corporal punishment used in early modern Glasgow.

Branks (top) were first mentioned in the city's records in 1574. They were sometimes known as "scolding bridles" or "gossip's bridles" and were used to punish scolding, nagging or gossiping women. The device consisted of an iron frame which fitted on the head, with a triangular metal gag which was inserted over the tongue to "silence" the offender for the duration of her sentence. The one seen here is fairly tame compared to others that have been preserved, featuring a sharp iron mouthpiece that could pierce the unfortunate woman's tongue.

The stocks were used to secure the legs or arms of prisoners convicted of any of a variety of crimes. A convicted man or woman was locked into the stocks at the Tolbooth Steeple, where members of the public were free to deliver verbal or physical abuse to the hapless and helpless offender.
The Glasgow Story

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The seven-storey Tolbooth Steeple is the Cross's most important feature and it is topped by a clock and a stone crown. This was once part of a much larger building, the Tolbooth, which provided accommodation for the Town Clerk's office, the council hall and the city prison. The debtors' prison had a steady stream of inmates who elected their own provost and generally ran the place like an exclusive club. They produced their own regulations, including one from 1789 which stated: It is firmly and irrevocably agreed upon that the members of these rooms shall not permit the jailor or turnkeys to force any person or persons into their apartments, who are thought unworthy of being admitted. There was even a rule about celebrating freedom: Every member, when liberated, shall treat his fellow-prisoners with one shilling's worth of what liquor they think proper.

The Tolbooth provided the backdrop to many of the city's dramas and it was here that witches, thieves and murderers were summarily dealt with, by hanging if necessary. It also had a special platform from which proclamations were read, important in the days before general literacy. The paved area in front of the Tolbooth was the in place to be seen and here the rich paraded in their finery, particularly the Tobacco Lords, attired in red cloaks and sporting gold-topped canes. The cross developed as a communications hub, with stagecoaches from Edinburgh and London bringing visitors and news, and a reading room in the Tolbooth providing newspapers. However, as the city expanded and moved westwards, the Tolbooth was abandoned and eventually demolished, leaving the steeple as an isolated reminder of bygone days. This tragic loss of an important building was the result of the work of the City Improvement Trust which had the unenviable task of ridding the city of its slums.

Fire in 1677

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On 3rd November, 1677, another great fire occurred in Glasgow. The Tolbooth was full of Covenanters at the time, and the people burst the doors open and allowed the prisoners to escape. The heat spoiled the clock in the Cross Steeple.
Glasgow Fire Service

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In 1677, another great conflagration took place in Glasgow, when 130 houses were burned. It originated at the head of the Saltmarket, near the cross; and was kindled by a smith's apprentice, who had been beaten by his master, and who set fire to his smithy during the night in revenge. Law, in his ` Memorials,' says: " 'The heat was so great that it fyred the horoledge of the tolbooth, there being some prisoners in it at the tyme, amongst whom was the laird of Caraldone. The people brake open the tolbooth doors' and set them free." Though this fire was painfully disastrous in its effects, yet the inhabitants were now in a position much better fitted to stand the infliction, and accordingly there was not experienced the tithe of the suffering which marked the former conflagration.

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Marshall, John
Shotts. Covenanter. Prisoner in Glasgow Tolbooth. Banished to the Plantations, at Glasgow June 1684. Transported from the Clyde to America on the Pelican by Walter Gibson, merchant in Glasgow, June 1684

Marshall, Thomas
Shotts. Covenanter. Prisoner in Glasgow Tolbooth. Banished to the Plantations, at Glasgow June 1684. Transported from the Clyde to America on the Pelican, by Walter Gibson, merchant in Glasgow, June 1684

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John Richmond died at Glasgow Cross at 2.00 pm on 19th March, 1684. He was arrested in November 1683, accused of having been present at the Battle of Bothwell. At his trial, dubious evidence as to his involvement on the side of the Covenanters was produced. Such was the fever in those killing times that he and four others were sentenced to die within two days. John Richmond made his speech on the scaffold, then had his head cut off, and it was placed on a spike on the Glasgow tollbooth.

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The invasion of Scotland, conducted by the earl of Argyle, was of short duration. On 2nd May the earl sailed from Amsterdam, and by the middle of June his army was dispersed. Having been taken prisoner near Paisley, he, along with others similarly implicated, seems to have been temporarily placed in Glasgow tolbooth. He was executed at Edinburgh on 30th June, 1685

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Humble people could only afford a passage to Virginia by becoming indentured, and even Scots did not really want to go, but being already in custody and sentenced
radically simplified your options. In 1700, for example, the Lord Justice Clek, a senior criminal judge, gave a boy of about fifteen, James Hall, who was under sentence of death in Glasgow tolbooth for "thieving and pickery," the alternative of transportation to Virginia. Hall accepted.

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Kennedy Murray was born around 1771 in Dundonald, Ayr, Scotland. In September, 1786, Murray was convicted in Glasgow of stealing goods from Malcolm Ward, a travelling salesman. The stolen goods included a wooden box, a pair of knittings with buckles and six knives. Murray's trial took place in the Tolbooth of Glasgow on 24 September 1786. As Murray had been committed on at least one previous offence, he was considered by the Magistrate as a thief by habit and repute and was sentenced to 14 years. As the Scottish jails were full, the authorities were forced to take part in the transportation program. Murray earned the dubious honour of being one of the first 20 convicts from Scotland to be transported to New South Wales.

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An oil painting of the Trongate c 1770-1790 by an unknown artist.
The painter chose to depict a view of Glasgow popular with artists of this period, looking west from Glasgow Cross. Several 18th century city landmarks are shown, including the statue of King William III on a plinth outside the town hall to the right, and the Tron Church tower and steeple in the distance to the left. There are many soldiers on view, both in kilts and in red coats, and there is a soldier on guard in the sentry-box near the door of the Tolbooth, at the end of the paved area in front of the town hall known as the "plainstanes".

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A FITTING addition to this volume has been found in the sketch of the Trongate and the Cross taken in 1774 by James Brown, merchant in Glasgow.

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A physician in extensive practice at the head of Stockwell Street, in 1787, and was the grandfather of Charles Wilsone Browne, the husband of the widow Swinfen. On the 10th January 1787, Dr. Wilsone was knocked down in Argyle Street at night, and robbed by two men named Veitch and M'Aulay, who were tried and sentenced to death for the crime. At two o'clock on the 30th of May, they were taken out of the Tolbooth at the Cross, and up the High Street to the place of execution in the Castle Yard; but so great was the crush of people on the street, that a halt was made, and refreshments served out to the prisoners at the "Bell of the Brae," and a whole hour was spent in reaching the Castle Yard. Both prisoners were duly executed, along with a man named Gentles, who suffered death for robbing a bleachfield.
Jones Directory

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The reader may be a little surprised to hear that the Tolbooth was also a public-house in the good old times, and that the jailer was in the daily habit of leaning over his half-door, on the outlook for drouthy customers!
Jones Directory

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The Tolbooth was rebuilt in 1814 by David Hamilton.
The steeple was very near disappearing too. Its destruction was formally considered by the Town Council, and it was only by 15 to 9 that they did finally, on 4th May, 1814, "resolve that the old steeple at the Cross be preserved, supported, and repaired." This was after the Tolbooth itself had been taken down. It had been sold in 1812 to James Cleland, LL.D., for £8,000. The town's sale of the Tolbooth to Dr. Cleland reserved the right of an entry through his new tenement to the Town Hall, which had been reserved in the town's sale of the Piazza building to the Tontine Society.

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Also surviving the 1814 rebuilding, and subsequently relocated, was the building's most important sculpture: the Royal Arms of King Charles I. These were carved on a panel above the main door and were rescued and placed on the back of a tenement at 7 High Street. The arms were rescued again in the early 1900s when the tenement was demolished, and are now on display in St Nicholas' Garden at Provand's Lordship, Castle Street.
Sculpture database

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The ancient royal arms of Scotland, from carved stone that was built into the wall above the exterior staircase of the old Tolbooth on Trongate. The stone was removed when the building was demolished, and transferred to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.

By the end of the 15th century, two unicorns had become established as the supporters of the Scottish Royal Arms. In 1603 the crown of England passed to James VI of Scotland, who became James I of England. He took as supporters of his Royal Arms a crowned lion of England and one of his Scottish unicorns.

A lithograph depicting the visit of Queen Victoria to Glasgow in 1849.

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Queen Victoria is shown in an open carriage passing the equestrian statue of King William III and the Tontine Hotel in the Trongate. In the background stands the Tolbooth, a Union Jack flying from its Steeple.
This was the first visit to Glasgow by a reigning monarch since the 1600s, and an estimated 400,000 Glaswegians lined the streets to see the Queen pass by.
Glasgow Story

William Simpson, 1871

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This view looks west at the city of Glasgow from the top of the Tolbooth Steeple. The Trongate is very busy with people and carriages. The large pot-shaped object is a steamboat boiler and is drawn by a number of horses.

Men consulting electoral rolls posted on the Tolbooth Steeple, 1904.

The Tolbooth was demolished in 1921

The Steeple was restored & refaced in 1923 -25 By the firm of Keppie & Henderson.

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Andrew Graham Henderson, Architect A 1923 1925 Restoration and part refacement following demolition of Tolbooth Building

John Keppie, Architect A 1923 1925 Restoration and part refacement following demolition of Tolbooth Building

‘The Tollbooth, Glasgow’ by L.S. Lowry
Oil on Board, 1947

A workman removing the hands of the Tolbooth Steeple.1966

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James Ritchie & Son (Clockmakers) Ltd
56 Broughton Street
Edinburgh
EH1 3SA

The seventh floor of the steeple still houses a late 19th-century carillon for playing the sixteen bells hanging in the belfry.

This probably replaced an older carillon as the list of carillon players goes back to 1738.

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There are 16 small chimes and a large one in the
Tolbooth chimes. They were cast in 1881 by Messrs. John C. Wilson and
Co. Gorbals Foundry, Glasgow.
Rootsweb

Restoration & Repair

Glasgows historic Tolbooth Steeple is to undergo repair work after cracks were discovered in the structure.

The 126ft-high steeple - which in medieval times witnessed hangings of witches, thieves and murderers - stands in Glasgow Cross and was built in 1636. A recent survey showed cracked lintels on the building's south face, as well as the need for masonry, guttering and lead repairs.It is hoped the work - estimated to cost around £200,000 - will be completed by the end of the summer.

The steeple is one of the oldest buildings in Glasgow and towered over the former Tolbooth which once served as a prison and town hall. Liz Davidson, of Merchant City Townscape Heritage Initiative, described it as "one of the most iconic buildings in the area". She said every building in the Merchant City was surveyed a few years ago.

She added: "Through time and because of where it stands, it has suffered a bit of wear and tear.It was attached to another building, the Tontine, and there is a lot of traffic going past it on a daily basis."

"We have a railway underground at the base of the steeple and heavy traffic thundering past every day. The survey revealed cracks at the steeple base which we would rather deal with now.The work is not urgent but the damage will only get worse."

"We are putting together a programme for the repairs. It may be that, rather than having scaffolding, it can be done by someone abseiling down the side." She said the work was not complicated but was difficult because the steeple stands in the middle of a busy road.

The work - which is expected to last between four to five weeks - will also have to be carried out by the end of the summer as the cracks will be filled in using a mixture which can not be exposed to frost. It is an A Listed Ancient Monument and part of the funding for the repair project will be provided by Glasgow City Council.
Evening Times

Buildings

1AlanM — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 14:14:22 CDT

Glasgow City Chambers

Glasgow Tower

Provands Lordship

The Barrowlands

Tolbooth

The Barrowlands

james73 — Wed, 14 May 2008 12:13:28 CDT

The Barrowlands (more properly The Barrowland Ballroom) is a major dance hall and concert venue in Glasgow.

The original building opened in 1934 in a mercantile area east of Glasgow's city centre. The "Barras" street market (more properly Glasgow Barrowland market), after which the area and the ballroom are named, continues until the present day. The Barrowland building includes large street-level halls used for the weekend markets, with a sizeable weatherproof hall above. The front of the building is decorated with a distinctive animated neon sign.

The Ballroom was the leading dancehall in Scotland from its inception. The serial killer Bible John is believed to have met his victims at dances in the Barrowlands. The building was largely destroyed by fire in 1958, leading to a complete rebuild.

The rebuilt ballroom opened on Christmas Eve 1960.

Latterly, with the decline of dancehall and the rise of rock/pop performance, the Ballroom has become a major concert venue. Known for its excellent acoustics (a design imperative for the unamplified orchestras which formerly graced its stage), as well as its sprung dance floor, the Barrowlands has become a particular favourite of many noted rock/pop acts. Although its modest capacity (around 1,900 people) is small compared with several other Scottish venues (the SECC, Ingliston, and various stadia) the Barrowlands punches above its weight in attracting top-name performers, and was recently voted the best music venue in the UK in a poll of British bands, and in another survey amongst bands, was voted second best venue in the world.

Noted acts that have played at The Barrowlands include R.E.M., Alice in Chains, Oasis, The Cure, The Smiths, Iron Maiden, Green Day, U2, Blur, Bob Dylan, Björk, David Bowie, Counting Crows, Iggy Pop, Stiff Little Fingers, Metallica, Blondie, Marillion, INXS, Bloc Party, Justin Timberlake, Garbage, Sheryl Crow, Britney Spears, Marilyn Manson, Nine Inch Nails, Elvis Costello, Megadeth, Arctic Monkeys, Babyshambles and The Zutons.

The Barrowlands has also proven to be a popular venue with successful homegrown talent, including Primal Scream, Travis, Mogwai, Biffy Clyro, Franz Ferdinand, Runrig, Orange Juice, Aztec Camera, Horse McDonald, Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, Love And Money, Deacon Blue, Del Amitri, Teenage Fanclub, Simple Minds, Big Country, The View , Idlewild, and The Jesus and Mary Chain.

Barrowlands has also been listed by many major artists as one of the best small gig venues in the world. Metallica said that the venue, because of its size and nature made it the best gig they had ever played after their performance there in 1996. In her song Barrowland Ballroom, Amy Macdonald sings that “nothing beats the feeling of the high Barrowland ceiling.”

Saint Mungo

james73 — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:11:03 CST

Saint Mungo is the commonly used name for Saint Kentigern. He was the late 6th century apostle of the Brythonic Kingdom of Strathclyde in modern Scotland, and patron saint and founder of the city of Glasgow. St Mungo was a bishop and evangelist of Strathclyde. His early teacher, Serf, is believed to have been responsible for giving Kentigern his popular moniker of Mungo, which means 'dear one'.

Legends abound about his life. Some believe he was the illegitimate son of royalty, perhaps the grandson of Urien. Ruins of
achapel near outside Culross mark the spot where his mother, Thenew, was supposedly cast ashore and where she gave
birth to Mungo. Alternatively, some think Mungo and his mother had been set adrift in the Forth and landed safely in the Christian community at Fife.

Tradition suggests that Serf at Culross educated Mungo - Irish religious thought and practice grounded his religious training. Indeed, Mungo apparently had contact with the bishop Columba of Iona near the end of that saint's life. An early story about Mungo is that he restored life to Serf's pet robin, who had been maliciously killed by some young hooligans.

He arrived in Glasgow around 540 and was consecrated Bishop of Strathclyde by an Irish bishop. Glasgow's Cathedral along the Molendinar Burn is the fourth to be built on the site of Mungo's seventh century wooden church.

Mungo did not, according to tradition, select the churchs site himself. Rather, he found St Fergus dying by the roadside and placed him gently in an oxcart. Mungo instructed the oxen to take the cart wherever God wanted, and the oxen stopped at a place blessed by St Ninian about 200 years before. Mungo buried Fergus there and consequently built the church at the site.

Visitors may notice that Glasgow's Coat of Arms includes a fish and a ring, as well as the bird described above. The fish and ring refer to a story in which St Mungo helps a queen, Languoureth, distressed by having lost her husband's ring. Perhaps the queen had given the ring to a lover; perhaps the angry king retrieved his jewelry while the errant knight slept. The King tossed it into the river Clyde and taunted his wife to find it in three days (or, variously, to wear it at dinner that evening). Mungo comforted the distraught woman and sent a monk to fish the river. A salmon was caught and, somehow, the salmon had the ring in its mouth. The banqueting room in Glasgow's City Chambers displays a painting by Alexander Roche about the story.

The story's improbability leads some to doubt its historicity. At the very least, its tenacious association with St Mungo hints at his role as trusted advisor and confidant for leaders of the day. Modern monarchs might wish for someone as discreetly effective as Mungo.

Indisputably, a sermon by St Mungo provided Glasgow's motto: Let Glasgow flourish by the preaching of the word. When a lawyer designed the city's coat of arms in 1868, the motto was truncated to its first three words, as perhaps befits the secular aspirations of trade and industry.

Mungo, the 'dear one', carried out his work of preaching the word for a relatively long time; some information suggests that he died in the first decade of the seventh century in his 80s.

Partick Station

tobester — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 12:52:04 CST

Partick Station is a dual railway station and underground station in the Partick area of Glasgow. The station, along with an adjacent bus station, forms one of the main transport hubs in Glasgow with regular services to many locations in Glasgow and to areas outside of the city.

The station has 2 platforms which are accessed via sets of escalators and serves stations to Airdrie, Springburn and Drumgelloch via Queen Street, and Motherwell, Hamilton, Larkhall and Bellshill via Glasgow Central on the Eastbound platform, and stations to Dalmuir, Balloch, Helensburgh and Milngavie on the Westbound Platform.

The station opened in 1979 when it was relocated from the old Partickhill Station, which was on the other side of the bridge spanning Dumbarton Road. The station also incorporated the newly modernised Partick underground station.

However the opening was not as straightforward as it seemed, on its inaugural day they discovered safety issues and could not open, and the train provider had to hastily re-open the old station. This, however, was solved after a few days and services resumed.

The station is currently undergoing a multi-million pound redevelopment by SPT (Strathclyde Passenger Transport) with a completion date due in Spring 2009. At present this project is running about a year behind schedule.

The station is serviced by various classes of trains, namely the Class 318, Class 320 and Class 334 Electric Multiple Units (EMU's). It was also served by the old Class 303 which are no longer in use, and originally the Class 314 which are now found on the South Suburban lines serving out of Glasgow Central High Level

Railways

james73 — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 20:54:44 CST

Glasgow Mainline Stations

Buchanan Street	Closed 7 November 1966
Glasgow Central	Still open
Queen Street	Still open
Saint Enoch	Closed 27 June 1966

Glasgow Suburban Stations Past And Present

Crow Road Station	Closed 6 November 1960
Maryhill Central Station	Closed 5 October 1964
Partick Station	Still Open
Partick Central Station	Closed 23 October 1978
Partick West Station	Closed 5 October 1964

Glasgow Underground	Still open

Glasgow North Station	Never built

Monkland Canal

james73 — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 11:39:45 CDT

Monkland Canal

The Monkland Canal once ran for 12 miles (19 km) from Woodhall to Glasgow having been developed to serve the coal mines of North Lanarkshire. City magnates and tobacco barons in Glasgow had decided to build a canal to take advantage of the extensive coalfields of Monklands and bring much needed cheap coal to the city. James Watt, the famous engineer and inventor, was commissioned to build the Canal. Work began at Sheepford, Coatbridge, in 1770 but after a couple of years money ran out and the whole project was almost abandoned.

Progress only really came in the late 1780’s when Andrew Stirling, a Monklands landowner and entrepreneur, took control of the Canal. He struck a deal with Forth and Clyde Navigation to join the two canals together in Glasgow and to extend the Monkland Canal eastwards to North Calder Water and Calderbank. The Glasgow terminus was at the Monkland basin, close to Glasgow Cathedral. From there it linked was Port Dundas with the Glasgow branch of the Forth and Clyde Canal.

In the 1790’s the Canal was extended eastwards, a set of locks was built and it was one of only two lock systems on the whole of the Canal. Sheepford Locks were built as part of the extension to Calderbank. The two locks were separated by a basin and raised the canal some 20 feet. At the same time a road bridge was built over the Canal to carry Locks Street.

The Monkland Canal took around 24 years to complete and cost £120,000.

Profit

In the first half of the 19th Century the Monkland Canal was the most profitable in Scotland and had a strategic role in the industrial development of Glasgow. Between 1850 and 1887, barges were raised and lowered along a steam-driven inclined plane at Blackhill. This was later replaced by a series of locks.

The Canal competed successfully with the new railway companies well in to the nineteenth century - the traffic on the Canal reached a peak in 1850’s and 60’s, transporting over 1 million tonnes of coal and iron a year. Passenger boats operated from below Sheepford Locks to Blackhill where passengers were obliged to walk to another boat to complete the journey to Townhead. The Canal merged with the Forth & Clyde in 1867, when the Caledonian Railway Company took over both waterways.

By the 1920’s however traffic on the Canal had reduced to just 30,000 tonnes a year. In the 1940’s the Canal was abandoned and in the 1960’s the Canal was mostly filled in and covered by the M8. The canal was piped as it continues to supply water to the Forth and Clyde canal. The route of canal provided a useful corridor for the M8 motorway to enter the city. Today the canal is best seen in Drumpellier Country Park in Coatbridge.

Route

The canal route (using todays placenames) was from Calderbank, through Faskine, Palacecraig, Coatdyke (Sheepford) near the B&Q, Coatbank Way, South Circular Road, crossing under the road to run parallel with Main Street and King Street, through Drumpelier, Cuilhill to Easterhouse, Ruchazie, Riddrie, Blackhill, Blochairn and on to Townhead. The M8 motorway was built on the canal route from near Easterhouse to Townhead.

Buchanan Street

james73 — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 09:07:17 CDT

Buchanan Street Station was the least known (and least architecturally impressive) of Glasgow's four main terminal railway stations, the other three being Central, Queen St and St Enoch. It was based to the Northwest of Queen St Station and ran services to the North of Scotland.

Constructed in 1849 by the Caledonian Railway Company as their main terminus station for the city, the original station buildings consisted of supposedly temporary wooden structures, which actually lasted on site until the 1930s. A goods station at the site opened in 1850. Services that ran from the station were primarily northbound, with Aberdeen, Perth and Stirling being common destinations. The platforms later had canopies added to them, but even these were not new - they had been taken from Ardrossan North station. The station lacked any real character - it had no spectacular dome roof like Saint Enoch or Queen Street, nor was it built on a raised viaduct like Saint Enoch or Central.

The station was marked for closure and replacement in the "Bruce Report" - a study into how to redevelop the city of Glasgow in the post-Second World War period. The plans set out a scheme whereby Buchanan Street and Queen Street stations were to be closed and a new Glasgow North railway station was to be built in their place. This station would have been built on land including the site of Buchanan Street although would have been many times larger. There was also a similar scheme to replace Central and St Enoch stations with a new Glasgow South railway station, but neither plan came to fruition.

Despite this reprieve, it proved only to be temporary as the station was closed to operations in 1966 as part of the rationalisation of the railway system of the entire United Kingdom devised by Dr Richard Beeching, with most of its services running to Queen Street instead. The buildings had been completely demolished by 1971, although the 430 yard long Buchanan Street tunnel that ran from just outwith the station coming out at Sighthill still exists, although public access is prohibited.

Buchanan House (named 'ScotRail House' between January 1985 and April 1994) and Glasgow Caledonian University occupy the site of the railway station.

Cart Junction Canal

scallopboy — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 12:11:41 CDT

History

The canal company was incorporated under an Act of Parliament of 1836 to construct a canal extending from the Forth and Clyde Canal at Whitecrook to the River Clyde, opposite the River Cart. The Cart Junction Canal, was opened in 1839. It travelled for a quarter of a mile from the Forth and Clyde at Whitecrook to the River Clyde and was used to carry building materials to J & G Thomson's Clydebank Shipyard. It was superseded by the railways and was closed in 1893. Work on this short stretch of canal was transferred to the Forth and Clyde Canal Company which became vested in the Caledonian Railway in 1867. No passenger services were operated on the stretches of canal in Clydebank, but timber was floated across the river from Langbank in Renfrewshire to Bowling, and delivered to the Clydebank's industries by canal.

The map from the 1970's still shows Canal Street on it which ran on top of the old canal but by the present day, Canal Street has disapeared with redevelopment as can be seen below on Google Earth.

Canal Street in Clydebank during the 1970's

Docks and Quays

james73 — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 04:10:47 CDT

There is no abstract available for this page revision.

Springburn Park

scallopboy — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 15:19:14 CDT

History

The land for the park wasacquired in 1892 being primarily poor agricultural land with the remains of an ironstone pit and an old quarry on it. The Reid family, with connections to the Hyde Park Locomotive Works, contributed to the development of the park and its enlargement in 1900 with help to purchase Cockmuir Farm. A monument to Sir James Reid was built in 1903 by public subscription to acknowledge his contribution to the parks' development.The currently derelict 'A' listed Winter Gardens were built by Glasgow Corporation as a condition for accepting a £12,000 gift from Hugh Reid, of the North British Locomotive Company, to finance the construction of the nearby Springburn Public Halls. Mosefield House in the park was built in 1838 by the architect David Hamilton for a bookseller called James Duncan and takes its name from Old Mosefield, a house that stood nearby. It was purchased by Hugh Reid and gifted to the city in 1904 with the ground floor being used as a museum. In 1952 the ground floor was converted to an old men's club and it remains as such to this day.

Facilities

The park has synthetic and blaes football pitches, bowling greens, cricket pitch, orienteering course and there is also a nature trail. The rockery in the park is on the site of the old quarry. There is the Balgray Fountain by Doulton and the monument to Sir John Reid. Much of the park serves as a resource for wildfowl and animals with woodland & ponds.