Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Gallowgate
The Gallowgate, the principal
street running east from the Trongate and
Glasgow Cross, and its surrounding district
is best known for the Barras weekend flea
markets; Barrowland, a one-time ballroom
that now is a popular live-music venue for
rock groups; and Glasgow Green public
park. The street was once one where pros-
perous city businessmen strolled. The Sara-
cen's Head Inn stood here and received
such distinguished guests as Dr. Samuel
Johnson and James Boswell in 1774 after
the duo's famous tour of the Hebrides.
Saltmarket
While the first settlements in
Glasgow were on the hill by the Cathedral,
almost as early were dwellings in this area
at the opposite end of High Street along the
banks of the Clyde. It served as the trading
post where the river could be forded. The
Bridgegate (the road to the bridge) leads to
Victoria Bridge—constructed in the 1850s
and the oldest Clyde crossing in Glasgow.
Commercial Center
The biggest of the
central districts of Glasgow, it includes
areas of 19th-century development such as
Blythswood
and
Charing Cross
(although
the latter was severed by the M8 freeway).
This area offers Victorian architecture at its
finest, although the city once had a mind
to tear it down before realizing that the
buildings had international importance.
Broomielaw
It has been said: “The Clyde
made Glasgow.” From the docks that once
existed here, Glasgow imported tobacco,
cotton, and rum, and shipped its manufac-
tured goods around the world. Today the
Broomielaw, after becoming a rather lost
and neglected part of the city center, is
targeted for renewal.
Garnethill
Up the steep slopes north of
Sauchiehall Street, this neighborhood is best
known for the Charles Rennie Mackintosh-
designed Glasgow School of Art. Developed
in the late 1800s, Garnethill offers good
views of the city and is also home to the first
proper synagogue built in Scotland. A pros-
perous late 19th-century suburb, Garnethill is
now one of the few concentrations of resi-
dential properties in Glasgow city center.
WEST END
Woodlands
Centering on Park Circus at
the crown of Woodlands Hill, this neigh-
borhood is a mix of residential tenements
and retail stretches, particularly on Wood-
lands and Great Western roads. South of
the river lies the district of
Finnieston.
Its
most visible landmark is the old shipbuild-
ing crane, standing like some giant dino-
saur. Along the Clyde is the Scottish
Exhibition Centre. West of Woodlands is
Kelvingrove,
with the Art Gallery and
Museum and the impressive park. Glasgow
allegedly has more green spaces per resi-
dent than any other European city.
Hillhead
With the Gilmorehill campus of
the University of Glasgow, Hillhead is
rather dominated by academia. Its main
boulevard is Byres Road, which is the Main
Street of the West End.
Partick
The railway station at Partick is
one of the few in the city to translate the
stop's name into Gaelic: Partaig. Indeed
there is a bit of Highland pride to the
neighborhood, although no particular evi-
dence that Highland people have settled
here in great masses. Partick is one of the
less pretentious districts of the central
West End. To the north are leafy and afflu-
ent
Hyndland
and
Dowanhill.
SOUTHSIDE
Gorbals
This neighborhood, just across
the Clyde from the city center, developed a
reputation for mean streets and unsanitary
tenements; so, the city demolished it in the
early 1960s, erecting sets of modern high-
rise apartment towers, which, in turn,
developed a reputation for unsavory and
unpleasant conditions. Today they are
gradually coming down and a New Gorbals
has been developed on a more human
scale, although the fabric of the place still
seems torn and frayed. It is home to the
Citizens Theatre (p. 237), one of the most
innovative and democratic in the U.K.
Govan
Until 1912, Govan (
guv
-an) was an
independent burgh and one of the key
shipbuilding districts on the south banks of
the Clyde. It was settled as early as the
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