Free (including refreshments) but registration required > BOOK NOW

Our guest speaker, historian Peter Mortimer, spent his working career supplying scaffolding to the construction and offshore sectors. He has been researching the history of Glasgow for 35 years and has written five books for Stenlake Publishing.

Peter was was President of the Old Glasgow Club in its centenary year in 2000. He gives talks and leads guided walks, has been secretary of Bridgeton Library Local History Group, a Trustee at both Provan Hall House and the Mediaeval Glasgow Trust, and active in Friends of Glasgow Green.

On the cusp of the Glasgow 850 celebrations, we’re delighted to have Peter join us to present this unique and timely South Glasgow Heritage Nights talk.

SGHET AGM 2025

South Glasgow Heritage & Environment Trust’s annual general meeting – open to all!

Refreshments will be served.

Join us for a quickfire round-up of SGHET’s current state-of-play in our ‘Review of the Year’, discover what’s on the horizon, hear about different ways to get involved, and have your say… Plus, members can vote in our Board elections.

TICKETS

FREE but places are limited – BOOK HERE

VENUE: Queen’s Park Govanhill Parish Church hall, 170 Queen’s Drive, Glasgow, G42 8QZ

EVENT TIMINGS:

6.45pm – Doors Open / Registration: tea & coffee served

7pm – Welcome & Main Presentation: A History of the Gorbals (followed by Q&A)

8.05 – Refreshments: drinks & snacks

8.10 – SGHET AGM

8.30pm – Ends

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Header image: Main St, Gorbals, 1911. Children’s playground, swings and maypole, children playing. Tenement wall covered with advertisements ~ courtesy of Glasgow City Archives at The Mitchell Library

Second image: Cumberland St, Hutchesontown, Gorbals, 1955 ~ courtesy of Glasgow City Archives at The Mitchell Library

The post #HeritageNights talk: A History of the Gorbals with Peter Mortimer + SGHET AGM 2025 appeared first on SGHET.

Schools from across South Glasgow (P6-S3 classes) have fashioned their own models of local Art Deco buildings. Come to our Community Exhibition & Celebration Day where the pupils will showcase their creations and get feedback from our Community Panel!

BOOK HERE (free but registration required):

VENUE: 170 Queen’s Drive, Glasgow G42 8QZ

12.25 – Doors open

12.35 – Introductions of the Challenge exhibition themes, school teams, and Community Panel members.

Then tour the models before the big finale of the shared Feedback Session!

Event ends 2.20pm

On the cusp of Art Deco’s Centenary in 2025, Glasgow Southside is out in front, taking creative inspiration from the architectural icons of our Art Deco landscape where it really matters… at the community level.

With a new generation discovering this era and unleashing their creative design skills in parallel with the incorporation of recycled materials… new perspectives will emerge about the sustainability of these gems, their potential for adaptive re-use, and their place in shaping the city’s identity and Glasgow’s future.

Photos of the models will be added to an Online Gallery launching later in 2025 during the Centenary year.

Join us to see our Art Deco landmarks through the next generation’s eyes.

Meet our Community Panel

Many thanks to our project funders Historic Environment Scotland and The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

For more regular updates on the Art Deco Southside Alive! project and our other activities, follow us:

Facebook | X/Twitter | Instagram

The post Schools Model Building Challenge: Art Deco Southside Alive! appeared first on SGHET.

Classes will be held 1-3pm on: Sun 9th June, Sat 15th June, Sat 22nd June, Sun 30th June.

Suited to residents (aged 17+) of Gorbals, Tradeston, Pollokshields East & Govanhill – but also open to people living elsewhere in Glasgow on Sat 22nd & Sun 30th June.

BOOK HERE (10 places per class, 1 class per person):

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/urban-sketching-art-deco-southside-alive-tickets-907081935487

Get creative with Glasgow Art Deco in & near your neighbourhood – no prior experience required.

Materials will be provided. Classes facilitated by Govan-based artist Fiona Fleming.

Safety note: Demolition works are underway in this area so sturdy footwear is advisable. There’ll be plenty of literal grit alongside the mix of faded and restored Art Deco glamour…

Travel: Attendees can easily walk from surrounding neighbourhoods, but for those travelling by bus alight at Bridge St by the subway. Paid parking is also available in Bridge St subway car park.

This event series is part of SGHET’s new project ‘Art Deco Southside Alive!’ which has been made possible with the kind support of Historic Environment Scotland and The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

For news of future activities, events and outputs in this project: sign up for our email Newsletter and follow us on Eventbrite, Facebook, X/Twitter and Instagram.

The post Urban Sketching: Art Deco Southside Alive! appeared first on SGHET.

This special #SouthGlasgowHeritageNights talk on Thursday 19th October focuses on Dr Ailsa Boyd’s research related to her own house in the Southside of Glasgow by tracing the histories of architect Robert Duncan (c.1840-1928) and the Battersby family.

Free but places are limited – BOOK HERE.

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When researching my own home in the Southside of Glasgow, I discovered that one of the first people to live in it had been the perpetrator of a fatal incident in 1897. After looking further into the family’s story, I discovered a fascinating tale of social mobility, from poverty in the industrial Gorbals to middle-class comfort in Pollokshields and a doctor’s surgery in the turreted tenements of Parkhead Cross.

The Battersby family exemplify the social, economic and educational developments of the late nineteenth century, with six of the children, including girls, benefitting from a university education. But my semi-detached house is just one location in a network of built heritage across Glasgow.

The architect was Robert Duncan (c.1840-1928), little known today, but he designed some of Glasgow’s most distinctive buildings. Not only did he build streets of terraces and tenements around Crosshill, but villas, churches, warehouses, a hospital, Cooper’s grocers and the building best known as the Locarno ballroom. People like the Battersbys and Duncan created the Victorian and Edwardian Glasgow still evident in the built heritage which we walk past every day.

– Dr Ailsa Boyd

The talk will be followed by a short Q&A

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Dr Ailsa Boyd is an independent writer and lecturer in 19^th century art, design and literature, with a particular interest in the decoration of the homes we live in and imagined spaces.

Website: https://ailsaboyd.wordpress.com

Threads: @ailsaboyd@threads.net

TICKETS

Book your tickets on Eventbrite

VENUE: The Deepend Govanhill Baths Community Trust, 21 Nithsdale St, Glasgow, G41 2PZ

EVENT TIMINGS:

6.50pm – Doors Open / Registration

7pm – Welcome & Main Presentation:  Southside House Histories – ‘Strange Affray at Crosshill’

8.15 – Ends

[Header image: 96-100 Dixon Avenue Glasgow. Photograph: Ailsa Boyd 2021]

The post #HeritageNights talk: Southside House Histories – Strange Affray at Crosshill appeared first on SGHET.

The #SouthsideChronicles show from SGHET will explore different stories in each eposide, including audio versions of some of our blogs read by their authors so you can tune into our bloggers’ Southside journeys directly through the spoken word.

We’ll also host interviews and other audio formats. Dive into the Glad Radio experience and browse the #SouthsideChronicles here.

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Episode 5: Gorbals Public Art

Curator and SGHET board member Francesca Zappia interviews Matt Baker, lead artist for the art programme that accompanied the regeneration of Crown Street in the Gorbals in the 2000s. The artist speaks about the importance of public art in communities and recalls some of the various art projects he commissioned for the Gorbals, their backstories and their resonances.

This podcast follows on from Francesca’s earlier related blog post about one of the artworks: Decoding the Gorbals’ Girl With Rucksack statue.

Listen here: https://glad.radio/sside-chron-5-gorbals-public-art/

[Produced by Erin Burrows and Francesca Zappia]

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Episode 4: Govan Reminiscence Group

Colin Quigley, Chair of the Govan Reminiscence Group, talks to Erin Burrows about the Group’s work, and shares an incredible story of the effort and pure luck involved in restoring Govan’s World War One Honour Roll. The changing perceptions of Govan after a decade of regeneration efforts and the rediscovery of its ancient heritage, the importance of local and community histories, and the lack of emphasis on and funding for Glasgow’s industrial heritage is also explored. For more info on the GRG please visit their website www.govanremgroup.org.uk

Listen here: https://glad.radio/sside-chron-4-govan-reminiscence/

[Produced by Erin Burrows]

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Episode 3: Govan’s Monument to Mary Barbour

Erin Burrows of SGHET explores the history of Govan’s Mary Barbour and the community-led effort to install a monument in her honour at Govan Cross, providing a brief overview of Glasgow’s 1915 Rent Strike, Mary Barbour’s achievements, and the efforts of first the Govan Reminiscence Group, and then the Remember Mary Barbour Association, to establish a permanent memorial to her in Govan’s built environment.

Listen here: Mary Barbour’s Monument on Glad Radio

Read the related blog post here.

[Written and produced by Erin Burrows]

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Episode 2: Doune Castle

Dougie McLellan of SGHET discusses Doune Castle – Shawlands’ forgotten music venue, based on his blog of the same title. This is followed by a brief conversation with the author regarding his place in the community of musicians – including some of Glasgow’s biggest names – that got their start and then flourished there in the 70s and 80s.

Listen here: https://glad.radio/sside-chron-2-doune-castle/

Read the related blog post here.

[Produced by Erin Burrows]

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Episode 1: Quoiting

Bruce Downie of South Glasgow Heritage & Environment Trust discusses the ancient game of quoits and the St. Andrew’s Quoiting Club, one of the most successful quoiting teams in Glasgow from the late 1890s until about 1928, which played near what is now Eglinton Toll just off of Butterbiggins Road in Govanhill…

Listen here: https://glad.radio/sside-chron-1-quoiting/

Read the original blog post here.

[Produced by Erin Burrows]

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Glad Radio is a volunteer-run Scottish charity, partnered with Glad Cafe and Govanhill Baths Community Trust, with support from The National Lottery Community Fund.

The post Southside Chronicles – SGHET podcast show on Glad Radio appeared first on SGHET.

This special #SouthGlasgowHeritageNights talk on Thursday 21st September revisits the writings of Victorian poet and journalist Hugh MacDonald (1817 – 1860).

Free but places are limited – BOOK HERE.

His best-loved work was Rambles Round Glasgow (1854), a collection of walks through areas that were largely on the periphery and beyond of Glasgow but which are now mostly within city limits.

MacDonald’s many trips to the southside took him to the villages of Strathbungo, Old Cathcart and New Cathcart and the thriving town of Pollokshaws; to Govan, Crookston and beyond. On his travels, he visited the famous Crossmyloof Bakery, met up with Robert Burns’ daughter, and saw the location of Mary Queen of Scots’ fateful last battle.

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Our guest speaker Karen Murdarasi spent a year painstakingly annotating MacDonald’s 21 Rambles to make them accessible to the modern reader, and to give an indication of what has survived – and what has been lost – from the scenes that MacDonald describes.

She will take you on a walk through the southside as you’ve never seen it before, filled with country estates and cottage gardens – instead of tenements, highrises and shopping throroughfares – and populated by weavers, poets and even scandalous clergymen.

The talk will be followed by a short Q&A

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Signed copies of the 21st Century Edition of Rambles Round Glasgow (Hephaestion Press; new Introduction & Annotated edition, 2023) will be available for purchase after the talk.

Note: CASH ONLY purchase (no cards) ~ £15 hardback / £10 paperback

TICKETS

Book your tickets on Eventbrite

VENUE: The Deepend Govanhill Baths Community Trust, 21 Nithsdale St, Glasgow, G41 2PZ

EVENT TIMINGS:

6.50pm – Doors Open / Registration

7pm – Welcome & Main Presentation:  Rambles Round the Southside in the 1850s

8.15 – Ends

[Header image: The Shaw Mill (old postcard) The Glasgow Story © National Trust for Scotland. The large goose, bottom left, is a scrap attached to the painting by an unknown person.]

The post #HeritageNights talk: Rambles Round the Southside in the 1850s appeared first on SGHET.

Join us for a special #SouthGlasgowHeritageNights talk on Thursday 31st August and discover how our amazing City Archives reveal south Glasgow’s rich and multi-layered past – followed by our open AGM – BOOK NOW

The presentation will share a short introduction telling the story of Glasgow and its Archives, and will provide examples of some of the main sources for local and family historians – and anyone interested in local histories – using examples from the city’s south side.

Find out how the City Archives illuminate Glasgow’s fascinating past, and how they can help in uncovering the people, places and stories that matter to you.

Our guest speaker, Dr Irene O’Brien, is the City Archivist and Records Manager at the renowned Glasgow City Archives.

Dr O’Brien and her team are the Keepers of the City’s History, providing access to the collections both in person and remotely, connecting citizens to Glasgow’s wonderful history.

The talk will be followed by a short Q&A.

SGHET AGM 2023

South Glasgow Heritage & Environment Trust’s annual general meeting – open to all!

Refreshments will be served.

Join us for a quickfire round-up of SGHET’s current state-of-play in our ‘Review of the Year’, discover what’s on the horizon, hear about different ways to get involved, and have your say…. Plus, members can vote in our Board elections.

TICKETS

FREE but places are limited – BOOK HERE.

VENUE: The Deepend Govanhill Baths Community Trust, 21 Nithsdale St, Glasgow, G41 2PZ

EVENT TIMINGS:

6.50pm – Doors Open / Registration

7pm – Welcome & Main Presentation: Discovering South Glasgow Histories Through Glasgow City Archives

8.05 – Refreshments served: drinks & snacks

8.10 – SGHET AGM

8.35pm – Ends

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Photos of Vogue Cinema in Govan, Pollok House, Millbrae Bridge & Newlands Church, and the Kinning Park Co-operative Society stores on Bridge St – copyright of Glasgow City Archives.

The post #HeritageNights talk: Discovering south Glasgow histories through Glasgow City Archives + SGHET AGM 2023 appeared first on SGHET.

Dom Hall from Glasgow National Park City shares news of a community celebration at the Hidden Gardens in Pollokshields on Saturday 2nd September and outlines what GNPC is all about in this guest blog…

The idea of a National Park City is simple – to use the familiar idea of a National Park to inspire a shared vision for Glasgow as a greener, healthier and wilder city for everyone where people, places and nature are better connected.

But a National Park City is very different from a traditional National Park which is a formal designation with statutory powers and involves the funding and resourcing of a National Park Authority. Instead, National Park Cities are a movement and network with a shared vision for greener, healthier, wilder cities.

The National Park City group believe that this movement & network can help deliver two crucial elements for a greener, healthier, wilder city:

1: That people see cities differently and recognise the key role that things like nature, greenspaces, heritage, adventure and play can have in cities just as much as they do in traditional rural National Parks. We believe seeing the city differently is key to encouraging people to get out and explore cities more and to collectively see that a positive, greener, healthier, future is possible.

2: There’s a fantastic network of individuals, organisations and communities who are contributing to this greener, healthier, wilder vision. They believe the National Park City designation would provide recognition for their work, and the opportunity for greater collective voice and resources for these organisations in the future.

The first National Park City was declared in London in 2019, followed by Adelaide in 2022. In Glasgow the National Park City group is a community movement led by volunteers who have been working to develop a local vision and a network for the National Park City since 2018.

By the end of 2023 we’ll submit an application to the National Park City Foundation with the aim of Glasgow being recognised as a National Park City. We’ve produced a proposal for a shared vision and charter for Glasgow and since then nearly fifty organisations from across the city have signed up as supporters of that shared vision ranging from community groups and charities through to Glasgow City Council.

Now we’re expanding ways for you to get involved:

1 – Come along to the Event at the Hidden Gardens behind the Tramway in Pollokshields on Saturday 2nd September

2 – Coming soon – share your ideas and opinions on the National Park City – watch the National Park City website and social media (Twitter / Facebook) for an online questionnaire soon to have your say

3 – Get involved – this can be as simple as signing the charter, through to joining the committee or developing your own projects. Find out more here.

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Thanks to Dom for this guest blog. South Glasgow Heritage & Environment Trust is a supporter of Glasgow National Park City – discover the city-wide range of supporter groups & organisations and get info on joining the Glasgow National Park City network.

Header image: Hidden Gardens in bloom and Tramway brickwork by Deirdre Molloy

Photos of GNPC outdoor exhibition in June 2022 copyright of Friends of King’s Park

The post Let’s make Glasgow a National Park City appeared first on SGHET.

Join us on Friday 15th or Saturday 16th September as part of Glasgow Doors Open Days Festival 2023!

The sights, sounds and scents of scenic Cathcart are perfectly in tune with this year’s Festival theme: ‘The Sensory City’… and as always, water, whether the White Cart that powered the bygone mills and fuelled the growth of this once remote village, or the rain, which may precipitate on our walk, is an elemental factor in the Glasgow experience.

Booking required – book here on Eventbrite when bookings open at 10am on Friday 1st September.

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Join us on Saturday 1st July at 1.30pm for the first of our #SouthGlasgowHeritageTrails walks of the summer, and our first guided walk in this picturesque Southside locality.

The rich history, bygone industrial heritage, and dramatic natural landscape of the former village of Cathcart make it the unique place it is today…

Come along to learn about castles and churches, royalty and rebellion, bygone industrial mills and workers cottages, artists and architects, drumlins, roads and railways – all of which played their part in the timeline of a humble village that became a stylish Victorian suburb of Scotland’s only metropolis.

Local resident & heritage enthusiast Dougie McLellan will lead the tour, and provide images of paintings, lost mills, and bygone streetscapes which the tour will traverse that cast Cathcart in a new light, joining the dots between its current ambience and remarkable genesis – with the ever-flowing waters of the White Cart river snaking around the area and through the centuries being a key character in its own right.

#CathcartHeritageTrail on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

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NB: Our events book-up quickly – follow us on Eventbrite to be notified instantly when bookings open for this and other events.

Find the full Glasgow Doors Open Days Festival programme here: https://glasgowdoorsopendays.org.uk/

The post Cathcart Heritage Trail walks including Glasgow Doors Open Days Festival 2023 appeared first on SGHET.

Join us at 6.50pm on Thursday 25th May at The Deep End on Nithsdale St for the third of our 2023 #SouthGlasgowHeritageNights events – a talk from Paul Noble about a journey that began by accident beneath the floorboards and is heading in some tantalising directions…

Places are limited – BOOK HERE

Speaker Paul Noble sets the scene for the unexpected and unfolding jouney his house histories odyssey is taking him on…

“In 1996 when my fiancé and I collected the keys to our soon to be marital home, a 1930’s semi detached bungalow that lies in a sleepy tree-lined avenue in Giffnock, we could never have guessed that below its floorboards lay a treasure trove that links the house to people and places from times gone past.

For the next 26 years, while above the floorboards our family grew, from christenings to 21st parties and everything in between, below us in the crawl space dust settled over these long disgarded relics.

Over the years I had occassion to visit this raised underworld, to run cables, fix leaks and generally crawl around in the dirt. However all I ever saw was rubbish & rubble and the odd giant spider.

Then last year on one such sub-floor venture I decided to video my journey into the labyrinth. This was to be for the benefit of my family, so that for once they too could experience the joy of the crawl space!

Stumbling on liminal space in everyday life…

The light from my phone illuminated into the darkest corners of the basement and through my filmographer’s eyes objects previously pushed aside now jostled for my attention… I gathered them up with wonder and amazment.”

“Resurrected from the depths and bathed in daylight for the first time in many, many years, I resolved to establish the provenance of each item, piece together their history and that of their original owners.

So join me as I discuss the first leg of my investigations into these finds and learn what I now know about my house, its previous inhabitants and where I think the ongoing search for answers may take me in the future…”

TIMINGS:

6.50pm – Doors Open / Registration
7pm – Illustrated talk from Paul Noble followed by Q&A
8.15pm – Ends

More #SouthGlasgowHeritageNights coming soon

The post #HeritageNights talk: Southside House Histories – Time travel under Giffnock floorboards appeared first on SGHET.