The St. Andrew’s Quoiting Club on Butterbiggins Road

From the late 1890s until about 1928, a small patch of ground just off Butterbiggins Road, near what we now call Eglinton Toll, was used to play one of the oldest games in the world – quoits – and was home to one of Glasgow’s most successful teams at the time, the St. Andrew’s Quoiting Club.

Quoits, pronounced ‘kites’ in many parts of Scotland, was a hugely popular game at this time, not just in Glasgow but across the country. There were around 40 clubs in Glasgow and about 200 clubs in Scotland affiliated to the Scottish Quoiting Association, with an average of 80 members each.

In those days, when heavy industry was prevalent in Glasgow, the game was very popular with working-class men, many of whom had moved to Glasgow from small towns and rural areas and had brought their enthusiasm for the game with them.

It was inexpensive to participate, could be played almost anywhere, and there was often a chance to win money. For instance, the winner of the 1913 Scottish Championship took home £100, a prize worth several thousand pounds now.

Games drew large crowds, eager to see their favourite player succeed, and to socialise, drink and gamble on the result. Due to its popularity, quoiting also attracted considerable press attention, often as much, if not more than other sports.

Away from the spotlight at the very top of the game, the sport was enjoyed by thousands of ordinary players. In 1901, the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News reported that – “Possibly the game may lead occasionally to the consumption of a great deal of beer, but he who is an enthusiast at quoits must surely be moderate if he is to play his best game.”

The St. Andrew’s Club took their name from an earlier name for Eglinton Toll, St Andrew’s Cross, so-called because of the saltire shaped intersection which was created there when Victoria Road was constructed in 1862 to connect Queen’s Park with Eglinton Street and the city.

The name Eglinton Toll was also in use in this period, possibly to distinguish other buildings from the triangular shaped gushet-building that stands between Eglinton Street and Pollokshaws Road, which to this day still has the name St. Andrew’s Cross engraved prominently on the outside wall.

In 1946 a barrier was erected between Pollokshaws Road and Victoria Road to ease the flow of traffic and the possibility of being able to travel in multiple directions was lost. The name St. Andrew’s Cross persisted for a few years and was still used on maps in the 1950s. Gradually however, the alternative name Eglinton Toll became more prominent and more commonly used.

One school of thought suggests that quoits originated in ancient Greece and was closely related to discus throwing. Arguably, a version of the sport that became known as quoits could have been played at the first Olympic Games, around 1453 BC, when the athlete who threw the disc or ring furthest was declared champion. Another theory is that the quoits developed from the game of horseshoe throwing, where the object was to pitch a horseshoe around a ring.

Henry V of England was known to have disliked quoits, probably because it distracted men from the business of sword fighting or archery. It was said ‘he as cordially hated the game as the devil did holy water’.

Mary I of England, Mary Tudor, was known to be a keen quoiter but her tutor Roger Ascham, author of ‘Toxophilus: The Art of Archery’ discouraged her, believing the sport to be ‘too vulgar for scholars’.

By the mid-nineteenth century the game had evolved into throwing the quoit – a heavy steel ring weighing at least 11 pounds, often much more – at a pin, often called a ‘hob’ or a ‘mott’ which was is in the middle of a clay or sand pit 18 yards away, sometimes 21 yards away.

According to J. M Walker, in ‘Rounders, Quoits, Bowls, Skittles and Curling’ (1892), there was considerable strength and skill involved in throwing a quoit – ‘In pitching it, the player should endeavour to put on a slight spin with his wrist, so that the missile may pass smoothly and at an angle of about 30 degrees horizontally through the air, the great aim being to make the quoit pitch, so as to ring or encircle the hob pin, or failing that to get as near as possible. Strength in the arms and shoulders, and quickness of sight, with a capacity for measuring distance, and dexterity of wrist are indispensable requisites for this game.’

While it is impossible to say exactly where or when people started to play quoits in Glasgow, there is evidence that it was already a popular and well-established sport in some quarters of the city, as far back as the 1840s. It was almost certainly a popular sport in small towns and rural areas for many decades prior to this time. No doubt the advent of the railways in the 1840s enabled players from far flung places like Paisley and Ayrshire to travel more easily to Glasgow and for Glaswegian players to compete outside the city.

There are newspaper reports in the Glasgow Herald and other newspapers in 1844 of a match played at Weir’s Curling and Quoiting Green in Tradeston near present-day Kinning Street for the princely sum of 100 sovereigns, more than £10,000 in today’s money, between David Weir of Glasgow and a Mr Smith from Mauchine in Ayrshire. David Weir, the proprietor of the Green, was a farmer from Mauchline originally, but his talent for quoits earned him a quoiting green in Glasgow and some degree of fame.

The game took place over five days in the middle of winter and attracted national attention. Eddowes’s Shrewsbury Journal reported that –

‘On no match at quoits ever played in Glasgow was there so much betting, or half the amount of excitement as to the result. In Liverpool, where heavy bets were pending, the result was anxiously looked for’.

‘This game, in the month of December – usually devoted to the sport of curling – was somewhat out of season; but the weather was highly favourable, and the spectators were numerous. The betting at first was even, but after the first day’s play Smith was the favourite, and slight odds were offered and freely taken. Latterly however, three to one was offered on Smith with no takes. The games were frequently so prolonged that, although the players commended each day at eleven o’clock, it was quite dark before they finished, and an artificial light was not allowed. In the dark, Smith, although alleged by his supporters to be short-sighted, had always the best of the play; and on Wednesday night displayed more skill, and played far more successfully, than he had done during the day.’

Weir’s Green also played host to a benefit match later that year, featuring ‘the most celebrated players from around Scotland’ to raise funds for the widow of a player killed by a quoit in Port Dundas, so it is reasonable to assume there was also a quoiting ground located there.

That same year, elsewhere in Tradeston, on Centre Street, a Mr John Norris became proprietor of Tradeston New Washing Green and Quoit Ground. Watchmen patrolled the ground day and night, to protect property left by clients and quoit playing was permitted within the grounds at ‘a very low charge’. The price for season tickets was described as ‘moderate’.

There was a ground in Shettleston belonging to Mr Paton, another on Garscube Road, sometimes referred to as the Springfield Grounds, belonging to a Mr Melaugh and other clubs in Pollokshields and Pollokshaws.

Pub landlords were often more than happy to allow the game to be played on vacant ground outside their premises. There was known to be a quoiting ground outside the Black Bull Inn on Argyle Street.

One particular quoiting ground came to prominence in the 1860s, on Greendyke Street next to Glasgow Green, which was already the focus of most sporting activity within the city. Open, public space within the city boundaries was limited and increasingly difficult to find, so the Green attracted players from many different sports, many would-be sportsmen, and occasionally women, eager to test themselves and try something new…

James Banks McNeil, a boatbuilder, swimming instructor and one of the proprietors of the St Andrew’s Baths on Greendyke Street, saw an opportunity and provided space for a dedicated quoiting ground outside the baths, which became known as the St Andrew’s Baths Quoiting Ground.

In June of 1865, the inaugural competition at the new ground attracted Robert Walkinshaw, from Carlops in the Borders, who was then British Champion. He defeated all the best players from Glasgow and then afterwards graciously declared that the new ground ‘…is not surpassed by any other in Scotland, either for practice or match playing’.

The St. Andrew’s Baths closed in the early 1870s and was converted to a clothing warehouse. The closure likely came about because more and more people were moving westwards, and southwards, out of the city, to escape overcrowding and pollution and newer, more modern bathing facilities were being built or would soon be built. Byelaws and regulations also began to restrict what was able to happen on or near the Green, so the quoiters on Greendyke Street would have had to find another place to play.

A connection between those players and the club that would later emerge in Govanhill, called St Andrew’s, is tempting to imagine but unlikely; the shared name is probably just coincidence. Many clubs and organisations were keen to use the name St. Andrew’s to reinforce their Scottish credentials.

The opening of Queen’s Park Recreation Grounds in 1862 began to ease the pressure on Glasgow Green. This new public park would provide the opportunity for popular and emerging sports to be played and enjoyed. One of the earliest known organised events on the grounds was a pony race in 1864. By the end of the decade, many other sports including golf, cricket, bowling, rounders and of course football would gravitate towards this new space which was at the time outside the city boundaries, almost in the country.

Modern association football was in its infancy and Queen’s Park, the oldest football club in Scotland, played all their early matches on the Recreation Grounds before sectioning off part of the estate and building their own stadium, the first Hampden Park.

It soon became impossible to accommodate every fledgling sports club, would-be-athlete, or group of lads just looking for a kick-about on the new Recreation Grounds. Many vacant patches of ground in the rapidly developing southside were transformed into places to play, some temporarily, just for a few hours on a particular day, some permanently, for several years, into proper sports fields.

Prior to building the first Cathkin Park, Queen’s Park’s great rivals, the Third Lanark Rifle Volunteers, played on Victoria Park, on Victoria Road, located somewhere between Calder Street and Allison Street. A long-forgotten team called Crosshill Athletic played their matches on Coplawhill Park, just north of Calder Street. Another team called Glasgow Wanderers played on Eglinton Park, where Inglefield Street and Govanhill Park is today.

Whether quoiters found space in or near Queen’s Park Recreation Grounds at this time is unknown. The area on the north side of Butterbiggins Road was still private land but given the popularity of quoits at the time, especially amongst working men, it’s not unreasonable to suppose that it was being played in the area slightly to the north and east of the park known as Fireworks Village in the Lands of Govanhill, which lay outside the municipality of Glasgow and was home to a significant population of mineworkers, ironworkers and agricultural workers.

Those workers were known to have enjoyed their recreation. There was a reservoir at the junction of Cathcart Road and Aikenhead Road which was designed to provide water to Govan Iron Works, better known as Dixon’s Blazes, just to the north. That reservoir or Dixon’s Pond as it became known, was a favourite swimming, fishing and skating spot for the denizens of Fireworks Village. If they were enjoying those loosely organised pastimes, they were no doubt playing other unregulated games as well.

In 1877, the population of Fireworks Village and the surrounding area had increased sufficiently, earning the district the status of a ‘populous place’, which allowed the Burgh of Govanhill to be formed. Around the same time, the western portion of the Larkfield estate on the north side of Butterbiggins Road was sold. The area was not instantly transformed but a new railway junction was constructed that year, linking the Glasgow, Barrhead and Neilson line, with the Polloc and Govan Railway line, which became known as the Larkfield Junction.

The Scottish Quoiting Association was formed in 1880, with over 60 member clubs from across the country, including 10 clubs from in and around Glasgow, the Gardner Street Club, the Camlachie Club, the Clydesdale Club, based in Kinning Park. Two clubs from Barrhead, the Caledonian Club, the Arthurlie Club and other clubs from Whiteinch, Pollokshields, Pollokshaws and the Govan Manse Club.

There was not yet a registered club near St. Andrew’s Cross but the Larkfield Junction was greatly expanded in the late 1890s, and other manufacturing businesses had set up in the area, including a ropeworks, a cooperage and even an organ builder, so the number of working men in the vicinity of Butterbiggins Road would have increased and inevitably they would look to play sports in their free time, including quoits.

The St. Andrew’s Quoiting Club and the ground on Butterbiggins Road, is first mentioned in the press in 1898, in a match against Springside Kilmarnock. The Kilmarnock Club won convincingly on that occasion by 100 shots to 44.

Despite that early defeat, the St. Andrew’s Club would go on to become one of the most successful clubs in Scotland in the early twentieth century, regularly competing in the Glasgow League and regional and national competitions, and notably in the most prestigious individual tournament open to Glasgow, Renfrewshire and Dunbartonshire players, the Wylie Cup, dubbed ‘Glasgow’s Premier Competition’ and the winner was considered the Champion of Glasgow.

The Wylie Cup competition was organised and hosted by Stanley Club, based on Scotland Street in Kinning Park, from 1901. This prestigious trophy was the gift of Baillie Wylie, an enthusiastic player, who donated this valuable prize in order to promote has favourite sport.

Unfortunately, the Stanley Club disbanded in 1909 and so care of the trophy and the honour of hosting the competition transferred to the St Andrew’s Club at Butterbiggins Road. One of the members of St Andrew’s, whose name only appears in results as J. Dalrymple, won the Wylie Cup at least 5 times between 1903 and 1914.

Many of the members of St. Andrew’s could have been iron workers employed at the nearby Dixon’s Blazes or locomotive builders, working for the North British Railway Company at the Queen’s Park Yard, tram workers employed at the recently opened Coplawhill depot, workers from the nearby St Andrew’s Cross Electricity Station or even miners working in one of several local collieries.

Quoits were available commercially but amongst the ranks of enthusiastic players, there would have been skilled metal workers, capable of crafting a metal ring, suitable for playing quoits and well-matched to the hand of the individual. Also, many former footballers, keen to continue competing, and to supplement their wages, took up quoits after retiring from football.

In 1912, the Scottish Referee reported that:

‘…the game is the oldest of our sports and has undoubtedly the most skilful. Not only that, but it requires stamina to last a match playing sometimes for six hours at a stretch with quoits weighing anything up to twenty-four pounds. This is perhaps the reason why some of our well-known professional footballers have taken so well to the game.

Many of them play regularly, one notable personality being A. Brown, late of Tottenham Hotspur and Middlesbrough, who, while playing football, was capped for Scotland against England in seasons 1902 and 1904. He plays second to Matthew Park in the Glenbuck Club and had much to do with the defeat of East Calder in the Scottish Cup a week ago. The Glenbuck team also includes Tom Bone, the champion of Britain, and pitching enthusiasts have a treat in store list have a treat in store when Glenbuck visit Glasgow on 6 July to oppose St Andrew’s in the semi-final round of the Scottish Association Cup.’

The St. Andrew’s Quoiting Club was known to still be active in 1927, but within a year the club would probably have had to disband or relocate when the Larkfield estate was taken over by Glasgow Corporation, the chosen site for a new bus depot which was, when it opened two years later, the largest of its type in Glasgow.

What became of the club after this time is unclear; the exploits of other clubs continued to be reported on in the press throughout the 1930s but no reliable reports or even results for the St Andrew’s Club have yet been discovered.

There was, unexpectedly, a brief mention of a club called St. Andrew’s in the press in 1937 playing a match against the Parkhead Forge team but whether this club had any connection to the one based in Govanhill is impossible to know for certain.

Traditional quoiting is very much a minority sport now, but there are accessible, safer variations of the game still played around the country and abroad. The old game, sometimes called the long game, enjoyed its greatest moments in the industrial era, in the days of large workforces, when many men were engaged together in manual labour, and strength and skills like dexterity, and hand-eye coordination, were highly valued.

Social and cultural changes since those days have seen the sport suffer a near-terminal decline. The Scottish Quoiting Association has been disbanded for many years, but a handful of clubs survived until the 1990s, including the Tarbothie Club from Shotts, near Glasgow.

Now there is just one solitary club left in Scotland, the Dunnotar Quoiting Club from Stonehaven in the northeast of the country, still competing with clubs from England and Wales, and who are valiantly striving to keep the old game alive.

Published: 7th February 2023

About the author: Bruce Downie
Bruce has been a board member of South Glasgow Heritage and Environment Trust since 2019, and chair since 2021. He is the author of ‘Loved and Lost: Govanhill’s Built Heritage’ first published by Govanhill Baths in 2019. Then in 2021, he wrote ‘99 Calder Street: A History of Govanhill Baths and Washhouse‘. A second, revised and expanded edition of ‘Loved and Lost: Govanhill’s Built Heritage’ was published in 2022. Bruce also runs a walking tour company called Historic Walking Tours of Glasgow.

Setptember 2023 update: you can now listen to an audio version of the blog read by Bruce Downie here on our new podcast show Southside Chronicles on Glad Radio!

Sources:

British Newspaper Archive
National Library of Scotland, Maps
‘Rounders, Quoits, Bowls, Skittles and Curling’ by J. M. Walker (G. Bell, 1892)

The post Quoiting in Govanhill appeared first on SGHET.

This is not dissimilar SGHET’s own mission ‘to recognise the importance of heritage, history, and environment issues in South Glasgow and to implement a strategy towards greater knowledge for all.’ [2]

But while historic and heritage trusts are founded on the belief that historic places matter, the work to preserve and protect South Glasgow’s built environment is not solely the purview of heritage organisations.

Kinning Park Complex

For example, on 3 May 1996, residents of South Glasgow began a 55-day sit-in to save the Kinning Park Complex, built in 1911 as an addition to the Lambhill Street School.  In 1976, it was converted to a neighbourhood centre that offered a significant benefit to local residents.

However, when the Council scheduled it for closure in 1996, the community rallied and was eventually given stewardship of the building.  Though it has seen challenges with funding and maintenance since then, due to community involvement and heritage funding, a newly refurbished centre is scheduled to reopen this year. [3]

Govanhill Baths

Likewise, the Govanhill Baths, built in 1914, were threatened with closure in 2001.  On 21 March 2001, several residents occupied the building , some even chaining themselves to the cubicles.  On 7 August 2001, the Battle of Calder Street ensued when the Council and police tried to forcibly remove the Save Our Pool protestors. (N.B. The original protest website has been preserved online and can be viewed here.)

The successful occupation lasted a total of 140 days, the longest ever of a British public building, and in 2004, the Govanhill Baths Community Trust was formed to refurbish the building and return it to public use. [4]

The campaign to reopen the baths has gone on for over 20 years with adaptive restoration now finally commenced, and in the meantime, Govanhill Baths, a grass-roots activist organisation, used the space – and uses other places locally –  to provide ‘wide-ranging health, wellbeing, arts, environmental and heritage projects’ in an effort to regenerate the neighbourhood and meet the needs of the community. [5]

Govanhill Baths’ current website includes an archive of the building’s importance to Govanhill over the past 100+ years, which includes oral histories of residents describing their experiences at the Baths. [6]

It is clear that historic places matter, not only as heritage from the past but as part of our present and future well-being.  They are places where people come together and where a sense of community thrives, especially when they are championed by neighbourhood-based groups.

While we may come from vastly different backgrounds, the built heritage of South Glasgow is something we all share.  Part of the purpose of the South Glasgow Heritage and Environment Trust is to foster this sense of community among the people who live south of the Clyde, whether we have lived here for generations or are new arrivals.

Our built heritage has an impact on us, whether we are fully aware of it or not.  But why is this?  Why do historic places matter? And why should city planners and urban developers care?

These very questions were posed in a study led by Dr Rebecca Madgin of the University of Glasgow.  In their recent report Why Do Historic Places Matter? Emotional Attachments to Urban Heritage, Dr Madgin and her team sought to answer two questions:

1. How and why do people develop emotional attachments to historic urban places?
2. How do these attachments influence decision making within the urban environment?

Using evidence from Scotland and England primarily focused on the time period from 1975 to 2019, the findings of the report were supported by analyses of documents, as well as oral histories and ‘workshops which captured the thoughts and feelings of people involved with and/or impacted by urban change, including built environment professionals and local residents.’ [7]

Emotional connections are magnified in times of change

Dr Madgin’s project recognised the fact that emotional attachments are often not worn on our sleeves and rise to the surface most often during times of change.  This is clearly demonstrated by the efforts to save community buildings in Kinning Park and Govanhill and the continued work of groups like SGHET and the National Trust for Scotland. [8]

The report noted that previous research had tended to focus on economic or sustainability outcomes, but it argued for the need of ‘more engagement with the emotional dimensions of heritage by demonstrating just some of the ways in which emotion…shapes the reasons why and extent to which historic urban places can continue to matter.’ [9]

It is of note that this is exactly how the Kinning Park Complex addressed its own refurbishment, by hiring New Practice, an architectural group that aims ‘to connect people with the decision making processes that underpin the urban experience.’ [10]

Unfortunately, though, urban developers have often not given much regard to the emotional impact of change on communities, whether it be positive, negative, or neutral.  This was one of the major issues during the housing development boom in mid-century Glasgow, when residents were moved from homes in communities where they had lived, sometimes for generations, and alienated in high-rise flats that were likened to ‘an architectural representation of a filing cabinet’ by Jimmy Reid in 1972. [11]

Instead, Dr Madgin’s team, among others working in heritage, notes that more value can be given to people-centred approaches, rather than solely relying on top-down, expert-based decision-making processes.  Doing so would offer ‘a rebalance between what is valued and who ascribes value [in order to increase] focus on pluralising heritage values in ways that can include different voices and places.’ [12]  In other words, the communities where historic places exist would have some say in determining the landscape of their built heritage.

Old Victoria Infirmary incident in February 2022

It is clear, however, that developers and the Council are still hit-and-miss in the ways they engage communities in meaningful ways before selling, repurposing, closing down, or demolishing the South Glasgow built heritage.

Most recently, there was public outcry when Sanctuary tore down the iconic 133-year-old cupolas of the Old Victoria Infirmary after failing to adequately engage with community groups who proactively sought to give input and were largely ignored.

In 2018, a community-led group called the Victoria Forum made several public attempts to address Sanctuary’s masterplan with regard to development of the formerly public-owned building, noting specifically the insufficient attention paid to a ‘lack of social or economic analysis’ and ‘public realm and place-making outside the site boundary.’ [13]

While the group made recommendations that were generally more focused on best use and outcomes, they also acknowledged the impact redevelopment of the Old Victoria Infirmary would have on social bonds and identity.

Sanctuary, rather than meeting with the Victoria Forum or attending any of the many community sessions they hosted, responded that their ‘wide-ranging consultation process saw more than 600 people attend a series of open sessions to express their views on the design and redevelopment of the site’ and that the ‘vast majority of local residents [were] happy with the outcome and cannot wait to see our plans come to life.’ [14]

However, 600 people is arguably not an adequate representation of the community, and there is no indication as to what was discussed at these sessions or what the local residents were specifically ‘happy with’. [15]  One can convincingly argue, though, that based on the sustained response from the Victoria Forum and the shock exhibited by locals when the cupolas were destroyed, neither Sanctuary nor the Council adequately addressed public needs and emotional attachments to the old building.

On Twitter, Past Glasgow wrote, ‘I was standing near the gate and nearly every person who walked past was looking at and talking about the destruction.  The sense that something has been lost was palpable.’1⁶  Luckily, the B-listed administrative block, the Gatehouse building, and the Nightingale Pavilions will escape the same fate.

Langside Hall

In contrast, a larger segment of the community has already been engaged to provide input regarding changes in use at Langside Hall, which is owned by the Council and managed by Glasgow Life.  In 1902, the building was painstakingly moved from Queen Street to its current location in Queen’s Park to fulfil the Council’s commitment to provide the Southside with a public building.

There was little investment in the upkeep of the building from about the 1970s on, and once the upper floor had deteriorated to unsafe conditions and the boiler failed in 2017, the building was closed.  Langside Halls Trust has taken on the responsibility of conducting a feasibility study, securing funding, and ensuring community engagement to reopen the building as ‘a fully accessible, larger (40%) and more flexible venue, with more social space and one that is environmentally sustainable for a building that is Grade A listed.’ [17]

As the Trust began to gather feedback from the community, they found that of the respondents to a questionnaire regarding use, over 80% would like to see films and live music, 79% would like a theatre, 74% wanted space for art exhibitions, and over 60% were interested in comedy shows and classes for exercise, arts, and crafts. [18]

While full funding has yet to be fully secured, both Architectural Heritage Fund Scotland and Glasgow City Heritage Trust are currently on board, and there is hope that some funding might be forthcoming from the Council’s People Make Glasgow Communities initiative. [19]

So while the preservation of historic sites is difficult to guarantee, it seems clear that such places are important to the heritage and well-being of local communities.  The desire of so many local residents to maintain the use and their everyday experience of places such as the Kinning Park Complex, Govanhill Baths, and Langside Hall, as well as the dismay at the loss of the everyday sight of the Old Victoria Infirmary cupolas on the Southside’s landscape demonstrate that historic places do matter.

The people of the Southside do have emotional attachments to their built heritage, and developers and government entities should, as Dr Madgin urges, take a greater interest in this reality as they plan for inevitable change.

By Erin Burrows

Published 16th March 2022

References

[1] National Trust for Scotland, ‘What We Do’, National Trust for Scotland (National Trust for Scotland, 2022), https://www.nts.org.uk/ <https://www.nts.org.uk/what-we-do> [accessed 14 February 2022].

[2] ‘About Us’, SGHET <https://sghet.com/about-us/> [accessed 14 February 2022].

[3] ‘About’, Kinning Park Complex <https://www.kinningparkcomplex.org/about> [accessed 14 February 2022].

[4] ‘Occupy: 20th Anniversary Celebrations’, Govanhill Baths, 2021 <https://www.govanhillbaths.com/archive/occupy-2/> [accessed 14 February 2022].

[5] ‘Govanhill Baths’, Govanhill Baths <https://www.govanhillbaths.com/> [accessed 14 February 2022].

[6] ‘Before Closure’, Govanhill Baths, 2020 <https://www.govanhillbaths.com/archive/before-closure/> [accessed 14 February 2022].

[7] Rebecca Madgin, Why Do Historic Places Matter? Emotional Attachments to Urban Heritage <https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/socialpolitical/research/urbanstudies/projects/whydohistoricplacesmatter/> [accessed 16 March 2022], (Glasgow: University of Glasgow, 2021), p. 1.

[8] Madgin, p. 8.

[9] Madgin, p. 8.

[10] ‘New Practice’, New Practice <https://new-practice.co.uk> [accessed 14 February 2022].

[11] James Reid, Alienation (Glasgow: University of Glasgow, 1972), p. 10.

[12] Madgin, p. 1.

[13] Victoria Forum, ‘Victoria Forum Responds to Developer Masterplan’, Victoria Forum, 2018 <https://newoldvickydotorg.wordpress.com/2018/01/21/victoria-forum-responds-to-developer-masterplan/> [accessed 4 March 2022].

[14] ‘Council Criticised for Failure to Support Community during Victoria Infirmary Development’, Glasgow Times <https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/16832820.council-criticised-failure-support-community-victoria-infirmary-development/> [accessed 4 March 2022].

[15] ‘Council Criticised’.

[16] Past Glasgow (@PastGlasgow, 21 February 2022), ‘I was standing near the gate and nearly every person who walked past was looking at and talking about the destruction.  The sense that something has been lost was palpable.’ (tweet) <https://twitter.com/PastGlasgow/status/1495844779363549190> [accessed 4 March 2022].

[17] Langside Area Partnership, ‘Update, Langside Halls Trust’ (Glasgow City Council, 2021) <https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/Councillorsandcommittees/viewDoc.asp?c=P62AFQDNZL2U0GT1DN> [accessed 4 March 2022].

[18] Drew Sandelands and Gary Armstrong, ‘Langside Halls Revamp Proposal Released as Glaswegians Asked to Give Their Views’, GlasgowLive, 2021 <https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/langside-halls-revamp-proposal-released-19821827> [accessed 4 March 2022].

[19] Langside Area Partnership, p. 1.

Further reading:

Borysławski, Rafał, and Alicja Bemben, eds., Emotions as Engines of History (Oxon: Routledge, 2022)

Contested Histories in Public Spaces: Principles, Processes, Best Practices (London: International Bar Association, 2021)

Maerker, Anna, Simon Sleight, and Adam Sutcliffe, eds., History, Memory and Public Life: The Past in the Present (London: Routledge, 2018)

Marchant, Alicia, ed., Historicising Heritage and Emotions: The Affective Histories of Blood, Stone and Land (Oxon: Routledge, 2019)

Martin, Claire, and Charles Landry, ‘Charles Landry: Applying Emotional Intelligence’, Landscape Architecture Australia, 151, 2016, 40–43

Scottish Government, Our Place in Time: The Historic Environment Strategy for Scotland (Edinburgh: Scottish Government, 2014)

Sullivan, Gavin Brent, ‘Collective Pride, Happiness, and Celebratory Emotions’, in Collective Emotions, ed. by Christian von Scheve and Mikko Salmela (Oxford University Press, 2014), pp. 266–80

The post New Report: Why Do Historic Places Matter? appeared first on SGHET.

With #LoveYourLibraries month drawing to a close, World Book Day fast approaching on 3rd March and Covid restrictions easing, there’s no better time to visit a local library and find a good book.

The Southside of Glasgow boasts several historic libraries which have provided its communities with fiction, information and welcoming reading space down the decades. This article takes a look at the built heritage of some of these libraries, most of which are still functioning to this day.

(former) Hutchesontown Library

The first building on this list, though not functioning as a library anymore, is of such a striking design that it’s worth a much closer look. The Hutchesontown District Library located on McNeil Street in the Gorbals opened in 1906 and was the last of the libraires designed by James Robert Rhind.

Rhind, an Inverness-born architect, was chosen to design seven of the twelve libraries using the £150,000 gifted to Glasgow by Andrew Carnegie in 1901. The Edwardian Renaissance style, with its exaggerated arches and domed corner rooftops, heavily influenced Rhind’s designs and is beautifully displayed in this grand building.

The library’s stock began at 9,600 books and grew due to several donations from private donors. Above the main entrance, St. Mungo is depicted, accompanied by 6 figures holding the Glasgow Coat of Arms emblems: the bird, the bell, the fish and the tree.

These emblems such as the tree and fish can also be seen further up the building, just below the domed rooftops.

The largest of these rooftops, guarded by four winged lions, is topped with a bronze angel holding an opened book. This sculpture was designed by Glasgow-born William Brown, who worked with Rhind on a number of his libraries.

Though unfortunately we are no longer able to use this building as a library, as it closed in 1964, we may still walk past and admire its impressive design.

Govanhill Library

Govanhill library, located on the corner of Calder St and Langside Rd and opened in 1906, is another of the Carnegie libraries designed by Rhind. This majestic but compact building boasts a large sandstone dome as well as several columns and statues.

Once again Rhind’s particular renaissance style is on display, resulting in an impressive building which is still used as a library and open to the public 5 days a week. This library was initially split into four main parts, these being a general reading room, ladies reading room and separate reading rooms for boys and girls. The library had space for 10,000 books and stocked many newspapers, periodicals, magazines and reference books.

At the top of the dome, we can see another example of William Brown’s sculpture-making, this bronze angel stands on one foot and extends one arm. In 1995 this sculpture was stolen by 4 men posing as workmen, fortunately it was recovered by police and still stands in its rightful place.

The statues on the roof of the building depict a mother reading to her children and so reiterate the buildings intended purpose, as a place of learning.

The entrance of the building is an arched doorway, complete with a decorative keystone and lunette stating the libraries name. Above this, you can see two cherubs welcoming you inside. Why not take them up on this offer and give this historic library a visit?

Pollokshields Library

This library dates back to 1907 when it was opened by Sir John Stirling Maxwell. Located on Leslie Street, the plans for Pollokshields Library were prepared by Thomas Gilmor and Alexander McDonald. Notably, the library stocks books and magazines in Urdu to accommodate for locals of Indian, Pakistan and Sri Lankan origin.

On the outside of the building there are three plaques inscribed with ‘The Arts’, ‘History’ and ‘Literature’, these give an insight into the main categories of books the library originally stocked.

Above these plaques we can admire the large, arched windows and the accompanying decorative features. These include stone laurels and the heads of a lion and a dragon.

Similar to the Hutchesontown Library, St. Mungo can be seen depicted above the doorway, but this time he is seen integrated more typically into the Glasgow Coat of Arms design.

This library is open 5 days a week and so whether you’re wanting to browse for a novel, brush up on your Urdu or simply admire the architecture, it is worth a visit!

We’ll explore more historic Southside Libraries in a future post.

By Harry Sittlington

Photos by Deirdre Molloy

Published 21st February 2022

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Find these and other Glasgow Libraries current opening hours here.

Become a member of Glasgow Libraries – join here.

For #WorldBookDay and every day, remember to also support your local bookshops in the Southside:

Mount Florida Books, 1069 Cathcart Rd, Glasgow G42 9AF (Website / Twitter / Instagram)

Outwith Books, 14 Albert Road, Govanhill, Glasgow G42 8DN (Facebook  / Twitter / Instagram)

Young’s Interesting Books, 18 Skirving St, Shawlands, Glasgow G41 3AB (Facebook)

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Early Life and Education

Hannah Frank (1908-2008) was an artist and sculptor based in the Southside. She was born in Glasgow and lived in the Gorbals in her formative years, first in Abbotsford Road and later in South Portland Street. She then moved further south, living at 72 Dixon Avenue, Crosshill, where she was part of the vibrant local Jewish community around Govanhill.

Her parents were Jewish migrants from Russia. She attended Abbotsford Road Primary School, Strathbungo Public School on Craigie Street, and Albert Road Academy in Pollokshields, before attending the University of Glasgow from 1926–30, and Glasgow School of Art.

Drawings

She is remembered for her distinctive black and white drawings and her graceful bronze sculptures. She produced these drawings, in an Art Nouveau style, from the age of 17, under the pseudonym Al Aaraaf. (This pseudonym was a reference Edgar Allan Poe’s poem of the same name). Her drawings below are reminiscent of Aubrey Beardsley but carry Frank’s unique style.

You can see a 2016 reproduction of one of these images, Girl in a Wood (1928), in the 7 Arches of Cleland Street underpass. The 7 Arches was created by Liz Penden and arts group WAVE Particle. Their artworks also depict local legends Thomas Lipton of Lipton teas and boxer Benny Lynch.

Poetry

Hannah Frank was also a poet, and memorised her early poem ‘Faery,’ which she was always happy to recite. It was published in the Glasgow University magazine, GUM, in February 1927.

Faery

I stayed me there in tall trees’ shade
In Faery. And wild strange music played,
Piercing the air with sweetest strain,
So that I trembled. Dimly lit, a train
Moved from the forest’s depths.

I saw them by the weird moon’s gleam
On horses pass. As the riders of  a dream
They passed – noiseless hoofs and harness swaying.
Fair ladies singing songs, and strange words saying,
As olden stories tell.

In Faery I stood in tall trees’ shade.
Dim were the windings of the glade.
They were gone. I heard music still,
Faintlier, wafted faintlier, till
It died in the forest’s depths’

Sculpture

Her sculptures are mostly figure studies, in plaster, terracotta, or bronze, focussing on female forms. There was an exhibition of her work on what would have been her 110^th birthday at Glasgow University Chapel in 2018-2019, which included her Seated Figure (below) from 1989. Her work has been exhibited on three continents and at the Royal Glasgow Institute, the Royal Academy, and the Royal Scottish Academy.

This artistic legacy and body of work makes her one of Scotland’s most significant artists. She produced sculptures well into her 90s and died aged 100 years old, posthumously receiving Glasgow City Council’s Lord Provost’s award for Art, and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Glasgow. She is buried in Cathcart Cemetery (who also have website and can be found on Twitter).

You can learn more about Hannah at hannahfrank.org.uk, find some of her prints in the Glasgow Women’s Library archive, buy books about Frank from the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre, and explore Southside sites connected with her life on our Govanhill and Gorbals heritage trails in South Glasgow Heritage Trails: A Guide (2019).

By Saskia McCracken

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The Caledonian Railway Company had won the right to build the line but to raise the money required, a new company had to be formed, which came to be known as the Cathcart District Railway Company. The chairman was George Browne, a shipping magnate and the first Provost of the Burgh of Crosshill, who was keen to ensure that the line came through Crosshill and residents could travel quickly to and from Glasgow city centre.

The Split Nursery

Queen’s Park Train Station was built through a nursery called Hutchensontown Gardens. For a year or two, the nursery still operated on either side of the station. There was no Niddrie Road to the west of the station, just a path leading to Pollokshaws Road, past a blacksmith’s forge.

The bridge over Victoria Road, in fact all the bridges on the line were built by James Goodwin & Co. from Motherwell. Their stamp can still be seen on most of the bridges. In 1886, when the line first opened, it only went as far as Mount Florida, then a few weeks later a station was opened at Cathcart. The circle line back to Central Station wasn’t completed until 1894.

The Longest Platform

Queen’s Park was the longest platform of any station on Cathcart line. Originally, the intention was to have separate stations on Pollokshaws Road and Victoria Road, but the availability of land and the extra cost involved, thwarted that idea, a long platform, stretching most of the distance between the two thoroughfares was the compromise solution. A long platform may also have been considered useful if Central Station was ever temporarily unavailable.

By 1887, there were 32 trains running each way, each day, 6 days a week. The influence of Sabbatarians ensured the line remained closed on Sundays. Each train had 9 four-wheel coaches with gas lighting and steam heating. On Saturdays the line would be especially busy, taking football fans to the nearby Cathkin Park and Hampden Park to see Third Lanark and Queen’s Park, titans of the Scottish game.

Snooker Tam

A novel was written in 1919 called ‘Snooker Tam and the Cathcart Railway’ by a retired officer, Captain Robert William Campbell. Tam was a young man, just out of school, called on to serve on the railways while older men were at war. Tam earned his nickname because the tip of his nose was shaped like the tip of a snooker cue. He served at a fictional station on the line called Kirkbride, which was apparently very close to Pollokshields East, just one station to the north of Queen’s Park and in the course of his duties, is caught up in a drama involving a German spy. Both Pollokshields East and Queen’s Park were closed during the war, so it’s tempting to believe Kirkbride was here, at Queen’s Park.

The 20th Century

The Railways Act of 1921 led to the grouping of many railway companies, so in 1923, both the Caledonian Railway Company and the Cathcart District Railway became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway Company. Electrification had been discussed as early as 1909 but the line was finally electrified in 1962. For Queen’s Park, this meant the wall on Torrisdale Street had to be heightened to accommodate new equipment. That same year, the line finally opened on Sundays.

In 1990, the platform was truncated and reduced in length by about 30 metres and replaced with a simple path, surrounded by a fence leading to the Niddrie Road entrance. The most likely explanation for the truncation is that this was to reduce the cost of maintaining such a long platform. The trains of the time were much shorter than the platform. Many other stations were being refurbished around this time.

The station building at Queen’s Park is now a protected, B-listed building. In 2011, the former ticket office and waiting rooms were converted into an arts and exhibition space, now run by a Queen’s Park Railway Club. The new ticket office now occupies the eastern part of the building. In 2018 – 19, there were over 750,000 passenger journeys to or from Queen’s Park Station.

By Bruce Downie, author Loved and Lost: Govanhill’s Built Heritage (2019)

If you want to learn more about local heritage why not buy one of our books on the topic?

We’ve published South Glasgow Heritage Trails: A Guide (2019)

Stories from the Southside (2019)

and City of the Dead: A Guide to the Southern Necropolis (2017)

Platform before and after advertising boards © Canmore.

Maps © National Library of Scotland.

All other images © Glasgow City Archives.

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Queen’s Park and Langside synagogues form a fascinating part of South Glasgow’s heritage.

Scotland’s Jewish Community

Many Jewish people moved to the UK in the twenty years leading up to World War I, fleeing the Russian pogroms, with later generations moving to Glasgow, as a result of Nazi persecution. The Scottish Jewish community was once considerable, with about 15,000 Jewish people living in Glasgow in 1939. While some communities were established in Garnethill, many settled in areas such as the Gorbals, Govanhill, Battlefield, Langside, and Shawlands. The Gorbals was a real hub, with a Zionist Centre (which later moved to Queen Square), the Jewish Institute, the Jewish Board of Guardians, and the majority of the synagogues, kosher butchers, bakers, and Jewish grocery shops. Sophie Geneen also ran Geneen’s Hotel in the Gorbals, where she dispensed charity and food to those in need.

Synagogues in the Southside

Further south, Queen’s Park Synagogue was founded in 1906, and moved to a substantial new building in Falloch Road in 1926. About the same time, Langside Synagogue, originally founded in 1915, moved to Niddrie Road. In later years synagogues were established in Pollokshields (1929), Giffnock and Newlands (1934), Netherlee and Clarkston (1940) and Newton Mearns (1954). A Reform synagogue opened in Pollokshields in 1931, and later moved to Newton Mearns. A short-lived community was also established in Hillington, Mosspark and Cardonald (1937). Queen’s Park eventually closed in 2002; Langside Synagogue remained active for longer but closed in 2014.

Queen’s Park Synagogue

Land in Lochleven Road, donated by Sir John Stirling Maxwell for a nominal sum, was to become the Queen’s Park Synagogue. Plans were put on hold during World War I. A ‘tin Shool’ of concrete with a corrugated metal roof was constructed temporarily. Surviving plans show a simple building with pitched roof covered with asbestos tiles. The official Queen’s Park synagogue opened in the mid-1920s. It was designed by McWhannell & Smellie, with a red-painted and rendered Romanesque artificial stone façade. It was closed in 2003 and was converted into flats. The synagogue’s stained-glass windows by the Scottish glassmaker John K. Clark, made to mark Glasgow City of Culture in 1989, were moved to Giffnock Synagogue, and the Ark was salvaged and re-used in a new-build synagogue in Manchester.

Langside Synagogue

Langside Synagogue was established on Langside Road in 1915. The synagogue moved to 125 Niddrie Road, to a design by architects Jeffrey Waddell & Young with a Romanesque style façade. It re-opened in 1927, and was home to the Langside Hebrew Congregation. The building has a traditional immigrant shul interior. The Ark (two-tiers made of timber and gilding in traditional Eastern European style), bimah and decorative details including the clock on the gallery front were carved by a Lithuanian-born cabinet-maker called Harris Berkovitch (c. 1876–1956), who was a member of the congregation. Woodcarving and wall-painting in folk-art style was a characteristic of synagogue building particularly in Poland, Ukraine, and Romania. The tall upper tier includes large gilded Luhot (Tablets of the Law) with painted glass panels to either side, and the pediment contains a Keter Torah (Crown of the Torah) with gilded sunrays, both motifs found in traditional Jewish art. It is one of the only two (the other being in London) truly Eastern European-style synagogue interiors in Britain!

Contribute to Our Archive of the Southside

If you have memories or any artefacts relating to South Glasgow’s synagogues and Jewish history, please get in touch with us: info@sghet.com. We are seeking memories, local knowledge, donations and photocopies of material relating to the Southside for our archive of South Glasgow!

Sources:

• Canmore
• Kenneth E. Collins, Ephraim Borowski, and Leah Granat. Scotland’s Jews: A Guide to The History and Community of The Jews in Scotland. 2^nd ed. (Scottish Council of Jewish Communities, 2008).
• Sharman Kadish. ‘Jewish Heritage in Scotland’. Jewish Historical Studies 47 (2015): 179-216
• Langside Hebrew Congregation
• Scottish Jewish Archives Centre
• The Glasgow Story

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The Royal Samaritan Hospital for Women (known as Glasgow Samaritan Hospital for Women from 1886 – 1907) was established in 1886. It was based at 67 South Cumberland Street (1886 – 1890), and then Kingston House, St James’ Street (1890 – 1896), before moving to 67-69 Coplaw Street in Govanhill. The Coplaw Street building you see today was designed by the architects Ninian McWhannell and John Rogerson.

The main building is made of white rock-faced sandstone, with red dressings, and some Art Nouveau details on administration block. The design was in a 17th century Scottish Renaissance style, with a dispensary added in 1897, and two new wards built in 1905 and 1924. The building with round towers in the foreground, on the corner of Victoria Road, was the Alice Mary Corbett Memorial Nurses’ Home. It was financed by Mrs Cameron Corbett of Rowallan and was built in 1904 and subsequently extended.

The hospital had 30 beds in 1896 and 83 by 1907. A second new wing increased this to 156 in 1927. A 30 bed annexe for paying patients was added in 1936. The Lancet reported that in 1928, 2,033 patients were treated and 1836 were operated on. When the hospital joined the NHS Service in 1948 it was placed under the Glasgow Maternity and Women’s Hospitals Board of Management. In 1974 it was placed in the South Eastern District of the Greater Glasgow Health Board.

Recollections from the Hospital

You can read one patients recollections ‘On the closure of Glasgow Samaritan Hospital for Women 1890-1991’ (2013) here. She recalls carers wearing daffodil insignias and cardboard hats. She says:

‘Wards like these provided solace and strength where women could heal and recover alongside other women’

Glasgow Royal Samaritan Hospital for Women closed in October 1991. She adds that:

‘Its closure was counter-intuitive as its approach to women’s health remains ahead of its time’.

In 1992 the premises were briefly re-opened as an orthopaedic and general surgery unit managed by the Victoria Infirmary. In 2002, the buildings were all converted into housing association dwellings, where people still live today.

Contribute to Our Archive of the Southside

If you have memories or any artefacts from the building when it was still in use as a hospital, please get in touch with us: info@sghet.com. We are seeking memories, local knowledge, donations and photocopies of material relating to the Southside for our archive of South Glasgow!

Sources:

Anon. (1909) ‘The Alice Mary Corbett Memorial Nurses Home (The Royal Glasgow Samaritan Hospital for Women)’, Acad Architect, 1, 1909. London.

Archives Hub

Canmore

National Archives: Hospital Records

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Archives

‘On the closure of Glasgow Samaritan Hospital for Women 1890-1991’

The Glasgow Story

The Lancet (Dec 7 1929), p. 1238.

Sam Small. Greater Glasgow: An Illustrated Architectural Guide (Rutland Press, 2008).

Williamson et al. Glasgow, The buildings of Scotland series (London, 1990).

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It has been a long campaign, but Govanhill Baths are set to reopen soon thanks to the hard work of local people.

In 1914 the Lord Provost of Glasgow, Sir Daniel Macaulay Stevenson, laid the foundation stone of Govanhill Baths, complete with a time capsule, the contents and location of which remain a mystery. In 1917 the new Provost, Thomas Dunlop Bart, formally opened the Edwardian baroque-style Baths. The biggest in Glasgow at the time, the Baths were a predominantly working-class community hub that provided facilities for cleaning clothes, bathing, and exercise (28). The Baths comprised a men’s pool, a women’s pool, a shallow learners pool, and showers (32). There were footbaths, a Turkish bath, a Russian bath, a cold plunge bath, a sauna and a cooling room, as well as forty ‘slipper baths’ for men, and ten for women, where locals without a bath of their own could have a warm soak (36). Hot water and soap were a real treat back then. The building also had a ‘Steamie’ for washing clothes, with sixty-eight wash stalls and drying spaces, and ten large mangles (32). In 1971 the Steamie was converted into a laundrette.

The by-laws scattered around the pool tell us what it might have been like in those days. One, held in the archive, bans anti-social behaviour: ‘No person shall spit, smoke tobacco, or drink spurious or malt liquors in or on any part of the premises’. This ban suggests as historian Rachel Purse points out, that the Baths must have been a bit rowdy back then, aided by the hoops and trapezes that used to hang over the pool (35). Some swimmers even brought their dinner to the baths (39, 75), along with the odd beer (75), and you could find all sorts on the pool floor, even a diamond ring and a glass eye (117)!

The Glasgow Herald published complaints that the baths were built in ‘impossibly slummy districts’ with ‘no discrimination exercised in the admittance of undesirable bathers’ who used the pools ‘for cleaning purposes’ (36-7). These complaints missed the point. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, working-class people in Glasgow did not have baths, their own toilets, or even hot water in their tenement flats (46), and were often forced to clean their clothes and bathe naked in the city’s rivers and ponds (43). This nudity distressed Glasgow’s political classes (49), but the health consequences were the real problem. At the time, the Clyde was ‘a general sewer for the factories of the rapidly expanding city’ (44), and carried diseases (46). Worse, the ‘dismal deaths-by-drowning statistics of the day’ (13) show that trying to keep clean could be lethal. One advert for the Baths, held in Glasgow City Archives, reads: ‘WHY DROWN? When swimming provides a pleasant and health-giving exercise?’. The Baths not only provided a sanitary environment for the community to bathe, clean their clothes, and exercise but gave life-saving swimming lessons.

In January 2001, the Queen’s Park club for older swimmers found a letter on the pool reception desk informing them that pool was going to be closed (79). There had been no community consultation, health audit, or social audit (80). Pool users were told that the cost of refurbishing the B-listed building (estimated at £250,000) was not worth it, and were encouraged to start using the new pool in the Gorbals district (79). On the 17^th of January, Southside Against Closure (SAC) was established, and on March 17^th, 600 locals and MSPs marched from Queen’s Park to Govanhill Park to protest the closure. On the evening of March the 21^st, the community began a 147-day occupation of the building. People chained themselves to cubicles, demanding assurance that SAC could participate in a conservation feasibility study was carried out, during which time they demanded that the pools remained open (82). Local people and businesses donated food and support. Police inspecting the occupation said that said they would not intervene unless the property was damaged. A week into the occupation however, police and council staff smashed their way in through a side door with hammers, cut off the water and electricity supply, and drained the pool (82).

Fearing an eviction raid, and learning from the 1915 Rent Strike anti-eviction tactics, the occupation had locals and the media a phone call away. If a raid was attempted, locals would crowd with whistles and bells, making a scene worthy of media attention (86). Meanwhile, protesters held a gala day outside the building on the 31^st of March. Six hundred people came to hear speeches, music, and entertainment, while children enjoyed face painting, and chalk drawing on the pavement (97).

Why all the fuss, with the new Gorbals pool down the road? There are plenty of reasons. The Gorbals only had a mixed pool, removing swimming as an option for local minority and religious groups. Govanhill Baths had Muslim women’s swim sessions, orthodox Jewish men’s nights, gay nights (67), parent-toddler swim groups, sessions for older people, and for people with disabilities (69). There are health reasons, too, for re-opening the pool. In 2001, there were still (and probably are still) 100 homes in Govanhill without a bath. Research from the Department of Child Health at the University of Glasgow revealed that Govanhill was one of the six ‘worst health constituencies’ (16) in Britain, with chances of dying at ‘2.3 times the national average’ (11). Govanhill, one of the most densely populated areas in Glasgow, is known for ‘high rates of poverty, unemployment, [and] poor housing’ (16). Many locals have neither the time nor means (such as a car) to access the Gorbals, and others cannot swim in mixed pools for cultural reasons (52). After the Baths closed, an estimated 100 children gave up swimming altogether (87).

On the 10^th of July 2001, the occupation was served a 48hr notice to quit the building, and on the 7^th of August, the Battle of Calder Street began with a dawn eviction raid. Some 250 police officers, many of them mounted, with helicopters flying overhead, descended on the building and met resistance from a crowd that swelled to 600 people (14, 88). The eviction made national headlines. The raid lasted from 4.30am-9.30pm, when police smashed the building windows, put up shutters, and drove away the crowds with batons. Although a dossier of complaints against police racism and assault was prepared, no officers were charged.

In 2005 the Save Our Pool campaign gained charitable status as Govanhill Baths Community Trust (GBCT), with backing from Historic Scotland, to reclaim and develop Govanhill Baths as a Wellbeing facility for the community. The Trust held a Doors Open Day in 2008, with a turnout of 2,192 people (98). In 2010 the Trust drew up a three-phase, five-year redevelopment plan: 1) refurbish and reopen the front suite, including the ladies and toddlers’ pools, as well as an arts space, gardening space, Turkish suite and sauna, gym, and healthy eating café. 2) redevelopment of the Steamie as an events and community space. 3) Reopen the main pool.

So far, so good. The Trust has raised £6.5 million (including £500,000 from Historic Environment Scotland, £1,000,000 from the Big Lottery, £1.8 million from Heritage Lottery, and £2.1 million from Scottish Government’s RCGF). The Prince’s Regeneration Trust is managing the delivery phase. The front suite of the building was formally reopened in 2012, with over 200 attendees, and speeches by actor Peter Mullan, Nicola Sturgeon, and Glasgow councillor Archie Graham. In 2014 the learners and toddlers pool reopened, and in 2019, Phase 1B (that is, the rest of phase 1) begins!

There are numerous arts groups based at the Baths today, including Govanhill Baths Art, Rags to Riches upcycling project, Govanhill children’s choir, a Roma choir, a gypsy band, Govanhill Theatre Group, and Cast Offs knitting group. The venue hosts a Hindu prayer meeting, cooking classes, yoga, and more, and Castlemilk Law Centre provides welfare and financial advice. Govanhill Baths Archive, established in 2015, features artefacts, photos, and an oral history archive, where you can learn about the Baths, and the people who make it what it is today. The community fought hard to save the building, and a few years from now, the Baths will be revitalised as a Wellbeing centre for that community.

By Saskia McCracken

Sources:

United We Will Swim: 100 Years of Govanhill Baths. Ed. Helen de Main. Edinburgh: Luath Press, 2015.

https://www.govanhillbaths.com/

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