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.

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]

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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.

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.

Join us at 6.50pm on Thursday 27th April at The Deep End on Nithsdale St for the second of our 2023 #SouthGlasgowHeritageNights events – an illustrated talk from the After The Garden Festival team, followed by Q&A.

Places are limited – BOOK HERE

The 1988 Garden Festival changed how the world saw Glasgow, and how it saw itself. It lives on only in people’s memories as the buildings, objects and artworks from this temporary event are gone forever – or are they?

Join Urban Prehistorian Kenny Brophy, Project Maestro Lex Lamb, and Holder of the Official Garden Festival Umbrella Gordon Barr to learn how they have used crowdsourcing to build an ever growing digital record of the hundreds of pavilions, sculptures and attractions that made up the Festival.

“Items and memories are scattered across the globe with stories to tell: from the large (the Coca-cola Roller Coaster, now in Suffolk), to the small (a Garden Festival tea-towel, now in Papua New Guinea); we’ve identified surviving artefacts, ephemera and even some of the original plants and gardens that delighted visitors over that unforgettable summer, more than thirty years ago.

We’ll outline what we’ve learned so far about how the 1988 Festival was put together, taken apart and spread around the world, with the help of hundreds of individual submissions and leads, with plenty hidden in plain sight closer to home – and we’re learning more every day!

But we still haven’t found the giant tap, sorry.”

To donate directly to support the ATGF project please visit: https://tinyurl.com/AtGF1988

[Header image kindly reporoduced with permission. Photograph © Donald Whannell]

Book your tickets here on Eventbrite

TIMINGS:

6.50pm – Doors Open / Registration
7pm – Illustrated talk from the ATGF team followed by Q&A
8.15pm – Ends

More #SouthGlasgowHeritageNights coming soon

The post #HeritageNights talk: Taps aff? What happened after the 1988 Glasgow Garden Festival appeared first on SGHET.

Join us at 6.50pm on Wed 22nd March at The Deep End on Nithsdale St for the first of our 2023 #SouthGlasgowHeritageNights events – a presentation from guest speaker Dr. Stuart Nisbet, followed by Q&A.

Places are limited – BOOK HERE

Over the past year, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Dundee have revealed buildings, streets and memorials linked to transatlantic slavery. How do we find out more? Come along and find out, through an illustrated talk by Dr. Stuart Nisbet.

Based on a personal journey to uncover the truth about Scotland and Slavery, the event will also include discussion of Dr. Nisbet’s first novel The Book of Here and There, which he will be signing after his presentation.

Dr. Stuart Nisbet is well known in the area for his local history publications. For more than 20 years, he has also been one of the leading researchers on Scotland and slavery. In 2015 Stuart had a chapter in the first detailed book on Scotland and slavery: Tom Devine’s Recovering Scotland’s Slavery Past.

He notes, ‘Black lives not only matter in Scottish history, they had a huge impact in the development of the Scotland that we live in today. Unlike other cities and countries, Glasgow and Scotland have barely begun to come to terms with the human cost of chattel slavery. Indeed, we are still at the stage of counting numbers. Hopefully, in the process, we can begin to hear the voices. For, without them, the numbers are meaningless.’

Signed copies of Stuart Nisbet’s book ‘The Book of Here and There’ will be available to purchase at the event for £10 (cash payment only).

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Book your tickets here on Eventbrite

TIMINGS:

6.50pm – Doors Open / Registration
7pm – Presentation from Dr. Stuart Nisbet followed by Q&A and book signings
8.15pm – Ends

More #SouthGlasgowHeritageNights coming soon

The post #HeritageNights talk: Uncovering Slavery ‘From Glasgow to the Caribbean’ appeared first on SGHET.

Cathcart Cemetery is a picturesque 43 acre late Victorian Garden Cemetery in the Southside of Glasgow with an estimated 15,000 gravestones. Each one tells the story of lives, loves and losses; of stories played out on a global and domestic scale.

It’s the final resting place of early pioneering footballers, clinicians, industrialists and entertainers – but most of the stories uncovered so far are of the prominent men of the time. This talk shifts the focus to cast light on some of the pioneering women buried in the cemetery’s grounds…

Against the backdrop of a brief history of the Cemetery’s unique design and development, discover the stories of these celebrated figures – world-famous singers and musicians, daughters of emigrants, artists who were witnesses to the cruelllest acts of inhumanity and suffragettes who fought and died for the rights of women.

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

Speaker: Jacqui Fernie, Co-Chair, Friends of Cathcart Cemetery

SGHET AGM 2022

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

Join us for a quickfire round-up of SGHET’s current state-of-play, find out what we’ve been doing in our ‘Review of the Year’, discover what’s on the horizon, 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: The Women of Cathcart Cemetery

8.05 – 5 minute break

8.10 – SGHET AGM

8.45pm – Ends

Header image credit: photograph of a statue in Cathcart Cemetery by Michael Paley, from our #SouthsideLockdownLens project archive collection.

The post The Women of Cathcart Cemetery talk + SGHET AGM 2022 appeared first on SGHET.