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The Stevens and Bellahouston Park

 

Bellahouston Park is known for its outdoor artworks, sculptures and House for an Art Lover, designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and constructed between 1989 and 1996. Few, however, know of the estate’s connections to the transatlantic slave trade.

 

This park was, for a long time, farmland on the Maxwell Estate (which included Pollok Park and estate). It was then in the hands of the Rowan family for generations. In the 1800s the Steven family, of Polmadie estate in south Glasgow, acquired the Bellahouston estate. Moses Steven senior was a partner of Buchanan Steven & Co. (later Dennistoun, Buchanan & Co.), a West Indies firm, alongside James Buchanan, whom The Loyal Reformers’ Gazette (1831) called a ‘West India Slave Merchant.’ Indeed, the Stevens’ involvement in the slave trade is confirmed in the University of Glasgow’s 2018 report on its profits from slavery: “Slavery, Abolition and the University of Glasgow”:

 

“Moses Steven senior (1749-1831) was originally a linen trader and matriculated with the Merchants House as a ‘Home Trader’ in 1790. With his first cousin, James Buchanan, afterwards of Dowanhill, he went into partnership in two prominent West India merchant firms in Glasgow, Buchanan, Steven & Co., and its successor firm Dennistoun, Buchanan & Co. The latter firm had interests in Grenada, Jamaica and South America, likely based on exporting textiles to the West Indies (i.e. connected to commerce based on chattel slavery).”

Moses Steven junior (1806-1871) inherited the Bellahouston estate in 1824, bought Dumbreck House, and renamed it Bellahouston House. In addition to his inherited estates, he purchased other land. He trained as an advocate and graduated from Glasgow University. On his death, he left moveable property of £36,872.166.

 

 

The Bellahouston Bequest

 

After Steven died in 1871, his sisters Elizabeth, Grace (or Grizel), and Margaret – who each inherited £10,000 – established a trust. They feued part of the estate for houses on Paisley Road West and sold the remainder of the estate in 1892 to Glasgow Corporation for Bellahouston Park. When the sisters died, the Bellahouston Bequest was established. The siblings had an accumulated a fortune of £500,000 in 1875 (worth up to £884 million today according to measuringworth.com), much of which came from their father’s firm. The Bellahouston Bequest was administered for the benefit of ‘charitable, educational and benevolent institutions’ of Glasgow, including the university, and Glasgow Museums, which holds Steven’s portrait.

 

 

The Empire Exhibition

 

The 1938 Empire Exhibition was held in Bellahouston Park, featuring over 100 temporary buildings. The 300-foot Tower of Empire, designed by Thomas Tait, was built on the hill in the park, and the two combined reached 470 feet (140m) high. The exhibition, which attracted over twelve million visitors, was a nostalgic celebration of Britain’s involvement in colonialism and paid little attention to the slave labour on which the empire was built. The first British Empire Exhibition, held in Wembley in 1924, displayed peoples from across the colonies as exhibits, but the second exhibition largely erased the more shameful aspects of empire, including this objectifying display practise. The tower was demolished in July 1939 to avoid it being used by German bomber aircraft for navigation purposes. You can still see the Palace of Art, which was built for the event, but little else remains.

 

 

Southside Slavery Legacies project

 

In 2020 South Glasgow Heritage and Environment Trust began working on the #SouthsideSlaveryLegacies project, including a potential heritage trail, walks and events, as well as blogs on our website and published articles.

If you would like to know more or become involved, please sign-up to the Southside Slavery Legacies mailing list, message us on Facebook or Twitter, or contact info@sghet.com.

 

By Saskia McCracken

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