Glasgow ( ) is the largest
city in Scotland
and third
most populous in the United Kingdom
. The city is situated on the
River Clyde in the country's
west central lowlands. A person from
Glasgow is known as a Glaswegian, which is also the name of the
local dialect.
Glasgow
grew from the medieval Bishopric of Glasgow and the later
establishment of the University of Glasgow
, which became a major centre of the Scottish Enlightenment. From
the 18th century the city grew as one of Europe's main hubs of
transatlantic trade with the
Americas. With
the
Industrial Revolution, the
city and surrounding region shifted to become one of the world's
pre-eminent centres of engineering and
shipbuilding, constructing many innovative and
famous vessels. Glasgow was known as the
"Second City of the British Empire" for much of the
Victorian era and
Edwardian period. Today it is one of Europe's
top twenty financial centres and is home to many of Scotland's
leading businesses.
In the
late 19th and early 20th centuries Glasgow grew to a population of
over one million, and was the fourth-largest city in Europe, after
London
, Paris
and Berlin
.
In the
1960s, large-scale relocation to new towns
and peripheral suburbs, followed by
successive boundary changes, have reduced the current population of
the City of Glasgow unitary authority area to 580,690, with
1,199,629 people living in the Greater Glasgow
urban area. The
entire region surrounding the
conurbation covers approximately 2.3 million
people, 41% of Scotland's population.
History
The present site of Glasgow has been used since prehistoric times
for settlement due to it being the
forded point of the River Clyde furthest
downstream, which also provided a natural area for salmon fishing.
The origins of Glasgow as an established city derive ultimately
from its medieval position as Scotland's second largest bishopric.
Glasgow increased in importance during the 10th and 11th centuries
as the site of this bishopric, reorganised by King
David I of Scotland and
John, Bishop of Glasgow. There had been an
earlier religious site established by
Saint
Mungo in the 6th century. The bishopric became one of the
largest and wealthiest in the
Kingdom of Scotland, bringing wealth and
status to the town. Between 1175 and 1178 this position was
strengthened even further when Bishop
Jocelin obtained for the
episcopal settlement the status of burgh from King
William I of Scotland, allowing the
settlement to expand with the benefits of trading monopolies and
other legal guarantees. Sometime between 1189 and 1195 this status
was supplemented by an annual fair, which survives to this day as
the
Glasgow Fair.
Glasgow
grew over the following centuries, and the founding of the University of
Glasgow in 1451 and elevation of the bishopric to an archbishopric in 1492 increased the town's
religious and educational status.
Daniel Defoe visited the city in the
early 18th century and famously opined in his book
A tour thro' the
Whole Island of Great Britain, that Glasgow was "the
cleanest and beautifullest, and best built city in Britain, London
excepted." At that time, the city's population numbered
approximately 12,000, and was yet to undergo the massive changes to
the city's economy and urban fabric, brought about by the
influences of the
Scottish
Enlightenment and
Industrial
Revolution.
After the
Acts of Union in 1707, Scotland
gained trading access to the vast markets of the British Empire and
Glasgow became prominent in international commerce as a hub of
trade to the Americas, especially in the movement of tobacco,
cotton and sugar into the deep water port that had been created by
city merchants at Port
Glasgow
on the Firth of Clyde
, due to the shallowness of the River within the
city itself at that time. By the late 18th century more than
half of the British tobacco trade was concentrated on Glasgow's
River Clyde, with over 47 million lbs. weight of tobacco being
imported at its peak.
Shipping on the Clyde, Grimshaw
1881
In its subsequent industrial era, Glasgow produced textiles,
engineered goods and steel, which were exported.
The opening of the
Monkland Canal and basin at Port Dundas
in 1795, facilitated access to the iron-ore and
coal mines in Lanarkshire
. After extensive River engineering projects to dredge and
deepen the River Clyde as far as Glasgow, shipbuilding became a
major industry on the upper stretches of the river, building many
famous ships (although many were actually built in Clydebank
). The River Clyde then became an important
source of inspiration for artists, such as
John Atkinson Grimshaw, willing to
depict the new industrial era and the moden world. Glasgow's
population had surpassed that of Edinburgh by 1821. By the end of
the 19th century the city was known as the
"Second City of the Empire" and by
1870 was producing more than half Britain's tonnage of shipping and
a quarter of all locomotives in the world.
During this period,
the construction of many of the city's greatest architectural
masterpieces and most ambitious civil engineering projects, such as
the Loch Katrine aqueduct
, Subway, Tramway system, City
Chambers
, Mitchell
Library
and Kelvingrove Art Gallery and
Museum
were being funded by its wealth.
The city
also held a series of International Exhibitions at Kelvingrove
Park
, in 1888, 1901 and 1911, with the Empire Exhibition
subsequently held in 1938.
The 20th century witnessed both decline and renewal in the city.
After World War I, the city suffered from the impact of the
Post-World War I
recession and from the later
Great Depression,
this also led to a rise of radical socialism and the "
Red Clydeside" movement. The city had
recovered by the outbreak of
World War
II and grew through the post-war boom that lasted through the
1950s. However by the 1960s, a lack of investment and innovation
led to growing overseas competition in countries like Japan and
Germany which weakened the once pre-eminent position of many of the
city's industries. As a result of this, Glasgow entered a lengthy
period of relative economic decline and rapid deindustrialisation,
leading to high unemployment, urban decay, population decline,
welfare dependency and poor health for the city's inhabitants.
There were active attempts at regeneration of the city, when the
Glasgow Corporation published its controversial
Bruce Report, which set out a
comprehensive series of initiatives aimed at turning round the
decline of the city. There are also accusations that the
Scottish Office had deliberately attempted
to undermine Glasgow's economic and political influence in post-war
Scotland by diverting inward investment in new industries to other
regions during the
Silicon Glen boom
and creating the
new towns
of Cumbernauld, Glenrothes, Irvine, Livingston and East Kilbride,
dispersed across the
Scottish
Lowlands, in order to halve the city's population base.
However, by the late 1980s, there had been a significant resurgence
in Glasgow's economic fortunes.
The 'Glasgow's miles better' campaign,
launched in 1983, and opening of the Burrell Collection
in 1983 and Scottish
Exhibition and Conference Centre
in 1985 facilitated Glasgow's new role as a
European centre for business services and finance and promoted an
increase in tourism and inward investment. The latter
continues to be bolstered by the legacy of the city's
Glasgow Garden Festival in 1988, its
status as
European City of
Culture in 1990, and concerted attempts to diversify the city's
economy. This economic revival has persisted and the ongoing
regeneration of inner-city areas,
including the largescale
Clyde Waterfront Regeneration,
has led to more affluent people moving back to live in the centre
of Glasgow, fuelling allegations of
gentrification. The city now resides in the
Mercer index of top 50
safest cities in the world and is considered by
Lonely Planet to be one of the world's top 10
tourist cities. Despite Glasgow's economic renaissance, the East
End of the city remains the focus of severe social deprivation. A
Glasgow Economic Audit report published in 2007 stated that the gap
between prosperous and deprived areas of the city is widening. In
2006, 47% of Glasgow's population lived in the most deprived 15% of
areas in Scotland, while the
Centre for Social Justice reported
29.4% of the city's working-age residents to be "economically
inactive". Although marginally behind the UK average, Glasgow still
has a higher employment rate than Birmingham, Liverpool and
Manchester.
Toponymy
It is common to derive the name
Glasgow from the older
Cumbric glas cau or a
Middle Gaelic cognate, which would have
meant
green hollow. The settlement probably had an earlier
Cumbric name,
Cathures; the modern name appears
for the first time in the Gaelic period (1116), as
Glasgu.
However, it is also recorded that the
King of Strathclyde,
Rhydderch Hael, welcomed Saint Kentigern
(also known as
Saint Mungo), and
procured his consecration as bishop about 540. For some thirteen
years Kentigern laboured in the region, building his church at the
Molendinar Burn, and making many
converts. A large community developed around him and became known
as
Glasgu (often glossed as "the dear Green" or "dear
green place").
Heraldry
The coat of arms of the City of
Glasgow as granted in 1866.
The coat of arms of the City of Glasgow was granted to the royal
burgh by the
Lord Lyon on 25
October 1866. It incorporates a number of symbols and emblems
associated with the life of Glasgow's patron saint, Mungo, which
had been used on official seals prior to that date. The emblems
represent
miracles supposed to
have been performed by Mungo and are listed in the traditional
rhyme:
- :::Here's the bird that never flew
- :::Here's the tree that never grew
- :::Here's the bell that never rang
- :::Here's the fish that never swam
St Mungo's Bell
St Mungo is also said to have preached a sermon containing the
words
Lord, Let Glasgow flourish by the preaching of the word
and the praising of thy name. This was abbreviated to "Let
Glasgow Flourish" and adopted as the city's motto. The motto was
more recently commemorated in a song called "Mother Glasgow", which
was written by Dundonian singer/songwriter
Michael Marra, but popularised by
Hue and Cry.
In
1450,
John
Stewart, the first
Lord Provost of
Glasgow, left an endowment so that a "St Mungo's Bell" could be
made and tolled throughout the city so that the citizens would pray
for his soul.
A new bell was purchased by the magistrates
in 1641 and that bell is still on display in the People's
Palace
Museum, near Glasgow Green
.
The supporters are two salmon bearing rings, and the crest is a
half length figure of Saint Mungo. He wears a bishop's mitre and
liturgical vestments and has his hand raised in "the act of
benediction". The original 1866 grant
placed the crest atop a helm, but this was removed in subsequent
grants. The current version (1996) has a gold
mural crown between the shield and the crest.
This form of coronet, resembling an embattled city wall, was
allowed to the four area councils with city status.
The arms were rematriculated by the City of
Glasgow District Council on 6
February 1975, and by the present area council on 25 March 1996.
The only change made on each occasion was in the type of coronet
over the arms.
Governance
Since the
Representation of the
People Act 1918, Glasgow has increasingly supported
Left-wing ideas and politics. The
city council has been controlled
by the
Labour Party for 30 years,
since the decline of the
Progressives. The left-wing support
emanates from the city's legacy as an industrial powerhouse, and
the relative poverty of many Glaswegian
constituencies and
wards. In the aftermath of the
Russian Revolution of
1917 and
German
Revolution, the city's frequent strikes and
Militant organisations caused serious alarm at
Westminster, with one
uprising in January 1919
prompting the
Prime Minister,
David Lloyd George to deploy
10,000 troops and tanks onto the city's streets.
A huge demonstration
in the city's George
Square
on 31 January ended in violence after the Riot Act was read.
Industrial action at the shipyards
gave rise to the "
Red Clydeside"
epithet. During the 1930s, Glasgow was the main base of the
Independent Labour Party.
Towards the end of the 20th century it became a centre of the
struggle against the
poll tax, and
then the main base of the
Scottish Socialist Party, a left
unity party in Scotland. The city has not had a
Conservative MP since the
1982 Hillhead
by-election, when the SDP took the seat, in Glasgow's
wealthiest area: admittedly, the constituency boundaries make it
difficult to elect one as the West End is split between two
constituencies where its votes are cancelled out by large council
estates.
Scottish Parliament region
The
Glasgow
electoral region of the Scottish Parliament covers the Glasgow
City council area, the Rutherglen
area of the South
Lanarkshire and a small eastern portion of Renfrewshire. It elects ten of the
parliament's 73
first past the
post constituency members and seven of the 56
additional members.
Both kinds of member are known as
Members of the Scottish
Parliament . The system of election is designed to produce a
form of
proportional
representation.
The first
past the post seats were created in 1999 with the names and
boundaries of then existing Westminster
(House of Commons
) constituencies. In 2005, however, the
number of Westminster
Members of
Parliament representing Scotland was cut to 59, with new
constituencies being formed, while the existing number of
MSPs was retained at
Holyrood.
The ten Scottish Parliament constituencies in the Glasgow electoral
region are:-
United Kingdom Parliament constituencies
Following
reform of constituencies of the House of
Commons of the Parliament of the United
Kingdom
(Westminster) in 2005, which reduced the number of Scottish
Members of Parliament , the
current Westminster constituencies representing Glasgow
are:-
Crime
Despite the city's reputation for violence, the situation has
improved since the 1980s, and it is generally no more dangerous
than most other Western European cities; there are areas of Britain
with higher murder rates. In the 2002 census Glasgow’s homicide
rate of 58.7 people per million was the highest in any city in
Western Europe, only some baltic cities had higher murder rates.
Problems with crime still persist in areas (Possilpark, Drumchapel,
Govan, Easterhouse, Pollok). Street gangs are prevalent in the
problem areas of Glasgow. In a 2008/09 report from the Crime &
Disorder Reduction Partnerships, Glasgow’s rate of crime compared
to the Scottish average was higher on all counts, the only
exceptions being speeding and vehicle defect offences.
The Calton area of the east end (East of the "Barras") especially
around the Tennents brewery, the eastern end of Glasgow Green from
the Peoples Palace to Bridgeton Cross area is a
red-light district. There is also such a
district in the financial area of the city (Anderston: West of
Central Station).
Shipbank Lane area around the southern end of Saltmarket has become
a hot spot for muggings and other violent crime in recent
years.
Geography
Glasgow is located on the banks of the
River
Clyde, in
West Central Scotland.
Its
second most important river is the Kelvin
whose name
was used for creating the title of Baron Kelvin and thereby
ended up as the scientific unit of
temperature.
Climate
In spite of its northerly latitude, Glasgow's climate is classified
as
Oceanic (
Köppen climate
classification Cfb). Owing to its westerly position,
Glasgow is one of Scotland's milder areas. Temperatures are usually
higher than most places of equal latitude away from the UK, due to
the warming influence of the Gulf Stream Drift.
The spring months (March to May) are generally mild. Many of
Glasgow's trees and plants begin to flower at this time of the year
and parks and gardens are filled with spring colours. The summer
months (May to September) can vary considerably between mild and
wet weather or warm and sunny. The winds are generally westerly,
due to the warm
Gulf Stream. The warmest
month is usually July, the daily high averaging . (Highest recorded
temperature 4 August 1975.) Despite some infrequent clear or dry
days, winters in Glasgow are normally damp and cold. Snow is common
but rarely lies in the city centre. (Lowest recorded temperature
).
Demography
The population of the Glasgow City Council area peaked in the 1950s
at 1,200,000 people and before that for 80 years was over 1
million. During this period, Glasgow was one of the most densely
populated cities in the world.
After the 1960s, clearings of
poverty-stricken inner city areas like the Gorbals
and relocation to 'new towns' such as East Kilbride
and Cumbernauld
led to population decline. In addition, the
boundaries of the city were changed twice during the late 20th
century, making direct comparisons difficult. The city continues to
expand beyond the official city council boundaries into surrounding
suburban areas, encompassing around of all adjoining suburbs, if
commuter towns and villages are included.
There are
two distinct definitions for the population of Glasgow: the
Glasgow City Council Area (which lost the
districts of Rutherglen and Cambuslang
to South
Lanarkshire in 1996) and the Greater Glasgow Urban
Area (which includes the conurbation around the
city).
Since the 1840s to present day, massive numbers of
Irish immigrants have settled and contributed
immensely in the city.
At one point only New York City
had a bigger Irish population than Glasgow.
Numerous Scottish
Highlanders
also migrated to the city as a result of the
Highland Clearances. The Irish, and to a
lesser extent Highlanders, contributed to the explosive growth of
Roman Catholicism in the
city.
In the
early 20th century, many Lithuanian
refugees began to settle in Glasgow and at its
height in the 1950s there were around 10,000 in the Glasgow
area. Many Italian
Scots also settled in Glasgow, originating from provinces like
Frosinone
between Rome and Naples and Lucca
in
north-west Tuscany at this time, many originally working as
"Hokey Pokey" men.
In the
1960s and '70s, many Asian-Scots also
settled in Glasgow, mainly in the Pollokshields
area. These number 30,000 Pakistanis, 15,000
Indians and 3,000 Bangladeshis as well as Chinese immigrants, many of whom settled in
the Garnethill
area of the city. Since 2000, the UK
government has pursued a policy of dispersal of asylum seekers
to ease pressure on social housing in the London
area.
| Location |
Population |
Area |
Density |
| Glasgow City Council |
620,000 |
|
|
| Greater Glasgow Urban Area |
1,750,270 |
|
|
|
Source: Scotland's Census Results
Online |
Since the
2001 census the
population decline has stabilised. The 2004 population of the city
council area was 685,090 and the population of both the City of
Glasgow Council area and Greater Glasgow are forecast to grow in
the near future. Around 2,300,000 people live in the Glasgow travel
to work area. This area is defined as having 10% and over of
residents travelling into Glasgow to work, and has no fixed
boundaries.
Compared to
Inner London, which has .,
Scotland's largest city has less than half the current population
density of the English capital— However, in 1931 the population
density was , highlighting the subsequent 'clearances' to the
suburbs and new towns that were built to empty one of Europe's most
densely populated cities.
Glasgow has the lowest
life
expectancy of any UK city at 72.9 years. Much was made of this
during the
2008 Glasgow
East by-election.
In 2008, a World Health Organization report
about health inequalities, revealing that male life expectancy
varied from 54 in Calton
to 82 in
nearby Lenzie
, East Dunbartonshire.
Districts and suburbs
Glasgow
was historically based around Glasgow Cathedral
, the old High Street
and down to the River
Clyde via Glasgow
Cross
. The boundaries of Glasgow have changed on
several occasions for political purposes, with many places that
view themselves as part of Glasgow falling outwith the Glasgow City
local authority created in 1996. For further information on what
places are within the city council area and those that lie outwith
but are included in other definitions of Glasgow, see the
List of places in Glasgow
page.
City centre
The
city centre is bounded by
the High Street to the east, the River
Clyde to the south and the M8
motorway to the west and north which was built through the
Townhead
, Charing Cross
, Cowcaddens
and Anderston
areas in the 1960s.
Retail and theatre district
The city
centre is based on a grid system of
streets, similar to that of Barcelona
or American cities, on the north bank of the River
Clyde. The heart of the city is George Square, site of many of Glasgow's public statues and the
elaborate Victorian Glasgow City Chambers, headquarters of Glasgow City Council.
To the
south and west are the shopping precincts of Argyle
Street
, Sauchiehall Street
and Buchanan Street
, the latter featuring more upmarket retailers and
winner of the Academy of Urbanism 'Great Street Award' 2008.
The main shopping centres are
Buchanan Galleries and the
St. Enoch Centre, with the up-market
Princes Square and the Italian Centre specialising in designer
labels.
The London-based department store Selfridges has purchased a potential development
site in the city and another upmarket retail chain Harvey Nichols is also thought to be planning
a store in the city, further strengthening Glasgow's retail
portfolio, which forms the UK's second largest and most
economically important retail sector after Central London.
The city
centre is home to most of Glasgow's main cultural venues: The Theatre
Royal
(home of Scottish
Opera and formerly Scottish
Ballet (which now resides in the Tramway theatre), The
Pavilion
, The King's Theatre
, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
, Glasgow Film
Theatre, Gallery of Modern
Art (GoMA), Mitchell
Library, the Centre for Contemporary Arts, McLellan Galleries and The
Lighthouse Museum of Architecture, Design and the City
. The world's tallest cinema, the
eighteen-screen
Cineworld is situated on
Renfrew Street.
The city centre is also home to four of
Glasgow's higher education institutions: The University of Strathclyde, The
Royal Scottish
Academy of Music and Drama, Glasgow School of Art
and Glasgow Caledonian University
.
Merchant City
To the east is the commercial and residential district of
Merchant City. The Merchant City was formerly
the residential district of the wealthy city merchants in the 18th
and early 19th centuries, particularly the
Tobacco Lords from whom many of the streets
take their name. As the
Industrial
Revolution and the wealth it brought to the city resulted in
the expansion of Glasgow's central area westward, the original
medieval centre was left behind.
Glasgow Cross, situated at the junction
of High
Street, Gallowgate, Trongate
and Saltmarket was the original centre of the city,
symbolised by its Mercat cross.
Glasgow Cross encompasses the
Tolbooth
Clock Tower; all that remains of the original City Chambers, which
was destroyed by fire in 1926.
Moving northward up High Street towards
Rottenrow and Townhead lies the 15th century Glasgow Cathedral and the Provand's
Lordship. Due to growing industrial pollution levels in
the mid to late 19th century, the area fell out of favour with
residents.
From the late 1980s onwards, the Merchant City has been rejuvenated
with luxury city centre apartments and
warehouse conversions. This regeneration
has supported an increasing number of cafés and restaurants. The
area is also home to a number of high end boutique style shops and
some of Glasgow's most upmarket stores.
The
Merchant City is the centre of Glasgow's growing 'cultural
quarter', based around King Street, the Saltmarket and Trongate, and at the heart of the annual Merchant City Festival. The
area has supported a huge growth in art galleries, the origins of
which can be found in the late 80s when it attracted artist-led
organisations that could afford the cheap rents required to operate
in vacant manufacturing or retail spaces. The artistic and cultural
potential of the Merchant City as a 'cultural quarter' was
harnessed by independent arts organisations and
Glasgow City Council, and the recent
development of Trongate 103, which houses galleries, workshops,
artist studios and production spaces, is considered a major outcome
of the continued partnership between both.
The area also
contains a number of theatres and concert venues, including the
Tron
Theatre
, the Old Fruitmarket, the Trades Hall, St. Andrews
in the Square, Merchant Square, and the City Halls.
A large part of Glasgow's
LGBT scene is located
within the Merchant City. This includes many clubs, and the UK gay
chain store Clone Zone, along with a couple of saunas.
Recently the city
council defined (and perhaps expanded) the area known as Merchant
City as far west as Buchanan Street, marking these boundaries with new, highly stylised
metal signage.
Financial district
To the
western edge of the city centre, occupying the areas of Blythswood
Hill
and Anderston, lies Glasgow's financial district, known
officially as the International
Financial Services District (IFSD), although often irreverently
nicknamed by the contemporary press as the "square kilometre" or
"Wall Street on Clyde". Since the late 1980s the construction of
many modern office blocks, a trend which continues into the 21st
century with a new wave of high rise developments currently on the
drawing board, has enabled the IFSD to become the third largest
financial quarter in the UK after the City of London
and Edinburgh
. With a reputation as an established
financial services centre, coupled with comprehensive support
services, Glasgow continues to attract and grow new business. Of
the 10 largest general insurance companies in the UK, 8 have a base
or head office in Glasgow - including
Direct
Line,
Esure,
AXA and
Norwich Union. Key banking sector
companies have also relocated some of their services to commercial
property in Glasgow -
Resolution,
JPMorgan Chase,
Abbey,
HBOS,
Barclays Wealth,
Morgan
Stanley,
Lloyds TSB,
Clydesdale Bank,
BNP
Paribas and the
Royal Bank of
Scotland. The
Ministry of Defence
have several departments and
Clydeport,
the
Glasgow Stock Exchange,
Student Loans Company,
Scottish Executive Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning
Department,
Scottish Qualifications
Authority and
Scottish
Enterprise also have their headquarters based in the
district.
West End
Glasgow's
West End refers to the bohemian district
of cafés, tea rooms, bars, boutiques, upmarket hotels, clubs and
restaurants in the hinterland of Kelvingrove Park, the University of Glasgow, Glasgow Botanic Gardens
and the Scottish
Exhibition and Conference Centre, especially on the area's main thoroughfare,
Byres Road, and on Ashton Lane
. The area is popular with tourists, and
contains many hotels, including the prestigious One
Devonshire Gardens
, which has accommodated a number of celebrity
guests on visits to the city.
The West
End includes residential areas of Hillhead
, Dowanhill, Kelvingrove, Kelvinside, Hyndland
, and, to an increasing extent, Partick
. However, the name is increasingly being used
to refer to any area to the west of Charing
Cross. This includes areas such as Scotstoun
, Jordanhill, Kelvindale and Anniesland
.
The West
End is bisected by the River Kelvin which flows from the Kilsyth Hills in the North and
empties into the River Clyde at Yorkhill Basin.
The spire
of Sir George Gilbert Scott's
Glasgow
University main building (the second largest Gothic Revival building in Britain) is a
major local landmark, and can be seen from miles around, sitting
atop Gilmorehill. The university itself is the fourth oldest
in the English-speaking world. Much of the city's student
population is based in the West End, adding to its cultural
vibrancy.
The area
is also home to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and
Museum, Hunterian Museum and Art
Gallery
, Kelvin Hall International Sports
Arena
, Henry Wood Hall (home of the Royal Scottish National
Orchestra) and the Museum of Transport, which is to
be rebuilt on a former dockland site at Glasgow Harbour to a design by Zaha Hadid. The
West End Festival, one of Glasgow's
largest festivals, is held annually in June.
Glasgow
is the home of the SECC, the United Kingdom's largest exhibition and
conference centre. A major expansion of the SECC facilities
at the former Queen's Dock by
Foster
and Partners is currently planned, including a 12,000 seat
arena, and a 5 star hotel and entertainments complex.
East End
The East End extends from Glasgow Cross in the City Centre to the
boundary with
North and
South Lanarkshire.
It is home to the
famous Glasgow Barrowland
Market, popularly known as 'The Barras', Barrowland
Ballroom
, Glasgow
Green, and Celtic
Park
, home of Celtic
F.C.. Many of the original sandstone tenements remain in
this district. The East End in contrast to the West End, includes
some of the most deprived areas in the UK, although it was once a
major industrial centre, home to
Sir William Arrol & Co. and
William Beardmore and
Company. A notable local employer continues to be the
Wellpark Brewery, home of Tennent's
Lager.
The
Glasgow Necropolis Cemetery was
created on a hill above the Cathedral of Saint Mungo in
1831. Routes curve through the landscape uphill to the high
statue of
John Knox at the summit. There
are two late 18th century tenements in Gallowgate. Dating from 1771
and 1780, both have been well restored. The construction of
Charlotte Street was financed by
David
Dale, whose former pretensions can be gauged by the one
remaining house, now run by the
National Trust for Scotland.
Further along Charlotte Street there stands a modern
Gillespie, Kidd & Coia
building of some note. Once a school, it has been converted into
offices. Surrounding these buildings are a series of innovative
housing developments conceived as 'Homes for the Future', part of a
project during the city's year as UK City of Architecture and
Design in 1999.
East of Glasgow Cross is the
Saint Andrew's Church, the oldest
post-Reformation church in Scotland, built in 1739-1757 and
displaying a Presbyterian grandeur befitting the church of the
city's wealthy
tobacco merchants. Also
close by is the more modest
Episcopalian St. Andrew's-by-the-Green, the
oldest Episcopal church in Scotland. The Episcopalian St Andrew's
was also known as the "Whistlin' Kirk" due to it being the first
church after the reformation to own an organ.
Overlooking Glasgow Green is the façade of Templeton On The Green
, featuring vibrant polychromatic brickwork intended to evoke the
Doge's
Palace
in Venice
.
The extensive
Tollcross Park was
originally developed from the estate of James Dunlop, the owner of
a local steelworks. His large
baronial mansion was built
in 1848 by
David Bryce, which later
housed the city's Children's Museum until the 1980s. Today, the
mansion is a sheltered housing complex.
The new
Scottish National Indoor Sports Arena, a modern replacement for the
Kelvin
Hall
, is planned for Dalmarnock
. The area will also be the site of the
Athletes' Village for the
2014
Commonwealth Games, located adjacent to the new indoor sports
arena.
To the
north of the East End lie the two massive gasometers of Provan Gas Works
, which stand overlooking Alexandra
Park
and a major interchange between the M8 and M80 motorways. Often used for displaying
large city advertising slogans, the towers have become an
unofficial portal into the city for road users arriving from the
north and east.
The East End Healthy Living Centre (EEHLC) was established in
mid-2005 at Crownpoint Road with Lottery Funding and City grants to
serve community needs in the area. The centre provides service such
as sports facilities, health advice, stress management, leisure and
vocational classes.
South Side
Glasgow's
South Side sprawls out south of the Clyde, covering areas including
Gorbals, Govan
, Ibrox, Shawlands,
Simshill, Strathbungo
, Cardonald
, Mount Florida,
Pollokshaws
, Nitshill
, Pollokshields, Battlefield
, Langside
, Govanhill
, Crosshill
, Cessnock
, Mosspark
, Kinning
Park
, Mansewood
, Arden
, Darnley
, Newlands
, Deaconsbank
, Pollok
, Croftfoot
, Castlemilk
, King's
Park, Cathcart
, Muirend
and Barrhead
, Busby
, Clarkston
, Giffnock
, Thornliebank
, Netherlee
, and Newton Mearns
in the East Renfrewshire council area, as well as
Cambuslang, East
Kilbride, and
Rutherglen in theSouth Lanarkshire council area.
Although
predominantly residential, the area does have several notable
public buildings including, Charles Rennie Mackintosh's
Scotland
Street School Museum
and House for an
Art Lover; the world famous Burrell Collection in Pollok Country
Park; Alexander 'Greek'
Thomson's Holmwood
House
villa; the National Football Stadium Hampden Park
in Mount Florida,
(home of Queen's Park F.C.) and
Ibrox
Stadium
, (home of Rangers
F.C.).
The
former docklands site at Pacific Quay
on the south bank of the River Clyde, opposite the SECC, is the
site of the Glasgow Science Centre
and the new headquarters for BBC Scotland and STV
Group plc (owner of STV) which have
relocated there to a new purpose built digital media
campus.
In
addition, several new bridges spanning the River Clyde have been
built or are currently planned, including the Clyde Arc
at Pacific Quay and
others at Tradeston
and Springfield Quay.
The South
Side also includes many great parks, including Linn
Park
, Queen's Park
, Bellahouston Park
and Rouken
Glen Park
, and
several golf clubs, including the championship course at Haggs Castle
. The South Side is also home to
Pollok Country Park, which was awarded
the accolade of Europe's Best Park 2008. Pollok Park is Glasgow’s
largest park and the only country park within the city boundaries.
It is also home to Poloc Cricket Club. The name was taken from one
of the early spellings of the area, to differentiate it from Pollok
Juniors Football Club.
Govan is a
district and former burgh in the south-western part of the
city. It is situated on the south bank of the
River Clyde, opposite Partick. It was an administratively independent
Police Burgh from 1864 until it was incorporated into the expanding
city of Glasgow in 1912. Govan has a legacy as an
engineering and
shipbuilding centre of international repute and
is home to one of two
BVT
Surface Fleet shipyards on the
River
Clyde and the
precision
engineering firm,
Thales
Optronics. It is also home to the Southern General Hospital,
one of the largest
teaching
hospitals in the country, and the maintenance depot for the
Glasgow Subway system.
North Glasgow
North
Glasgow extends out from the north of the city centre towards the
affluent suburbs of Bearsden
, Milngavie
and Bishopbriggs
in East
Dunbartonshire and Clydebank in West
Dunbartonshire. However, the area also contains some of
the city's poorest residential areas.
Possilpark
is one such area, where levels of unemployment and
drug abuse continue to be above the national average.
Much of
the housing in areas such as Possilpark and Hamiltonhill had
fallen into a state of disrepair in recent years.
This has
led to large scale redevelopment of much of the poorer housing
stock in north Glasgow, and the wider regeneration of many areas,
such as Ruchill
, which have been transformed; many run-down
tenements have now been refurbished or replaced by modern housing estates. Much of the housing
stock in north Glasgow is
rented social
housing, with a high proportion of high-rise tower blocks,
managed by the
Glasgow
Housing Association.
Not all areas of north Glasgow are of this nature however.
Maryhill
for example, consists of well maintained
traditional sandstone tenements. Although historically a
working class area, its borders with
the upmarket West End of the city mean that it is relatively
wealthy compared to the rest of the north of the city, containing
affluent areas such as
Maryhill Park
and
North Kelvinside.
Maryhill is also home
to Firhill
Stadium
, home of Partick
Thistle F.C. since 1909, and briefly the professional Rugby Union team, Glasgow Warriors. The
junior team,
Maryhill F.C. are also located in this part of
north Glasgow.
The
Forth and
Clyde Canal
passes through this part of the city, and at one
stage formed a vital part of the local economy. It was for
many years polluted and largely unused after the decline of heavy
industry, but recent efforts to regenerate and re-open the canal to
navigation have seen it rejuvenated.
Sighthill is home to Scotland’s
largest
asylum seeker community.
A huge
part of the economic life of Glasgow was once located in Springburn
, where the Saracen
Foundry, engineering works of firms like Charles Tennant and locomotive workshops
employed many Glaswegians. Indeed, Glasgow dominated this
type of manufacturing, with 25% of all the world’s locomotives
being built in the area at one stage. It was home to the
headquarters of the
North British Locomotive
Company. Today part of the
St. Rollox railway works continues
in use as a railway maintenance facility, all that is left of the
industry in Springburn.
Culture
The city has many amenities for a wide range of cultural
activities, from
curling to
opera,
ballet and from
football to
art
appreciation; it also has a large selection of museums that include
those devoted to
transport,
religion, and
modern art.
Many of the city's cultural sites were celebrated in 1990 when
Glasgow was designated
European
City of Culture.
The
city's principal library, the Mitchell Library, has grown into one of the largest public reference
libraries in Europe, currently housing some
1.3 million books, a extensive collection of newspapers and thousands of photographs and maps.
Most of Scotland's national arts organisations are based in
Glasgow, including
Scottish Opera,
Scottish Ballet, The
National Theatre of Scotland,
Royal Scottish
National Orchestra,
BBC Scottish Symphony
Orchestra and
Scottish Youth
Theatre.
Glasgow has its own "
Poet Laureate", a
post created in 1999 for
Edwin
Morgan and as of 2007 occupied by
Liz
Lochhead.
Recreation
Glasgow
is home to a variety of theatres including The King's
Theatre, Theatre Royal and the Citizens Theatre
and is home to many municipal museums and art
galleries, the most famous being the Kelvingrove
Art Gallery and Museum, the Gallery of
Modern Art (GoMA) and the Burrell Collection. Most of the museums in Glasgow are publicly
owned and free to enter.
The city has hosted many exhibitions over the years, including
being the UK City of Architecture 1999,
European Capital of Culture
1990, National City of Sport 1995–1999 and European Capital of
Sport 2003.
In addition, unlike the older and larger
Edinburgh Festival (where all Edinburgh's
main festivals occur in the last three weeks of August), Glasgow's
festivals fill the calendar. Festivals include the
Glasgow International
Comedy Festival,
Glasgow International Jazz
Festival,
Celtic Connections,
Glasgow Film Festival,
West End Festival,
Merchant City Festival,
Glasgay, and the
World Pipe Band
Championships.
Music scene
Glasgow has many live music pubs, clubs and venues.
Some of the city's
main venues include the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, the SECC, King Tut's Wah
Wah Hut (where Oasis were spotted
and signed by Glaswegian record mogul Alan
McGee), the Queen Margaret
Union (who have Kurt Cobain's
footprint locked in a safe) and the Barrowland, a ballroom converted into a live music
venue. More recent mid-sized venues include
ABC and the
O2 Academy, which play host to
a similar range of acts.
In recent
years, the success of bands such as Belle & Sebastian, Camera Obscura, Biffy Clyro, Franz Ferdinand, Mogwai, Snow Patrol and
Travis has significantly boosted the
profile of the Glasgow music scene, prompting Time Magazine to liken Glasgow to Detroit
during its 1960s Motown
heyday. More recent successes include
The Fratellis and
Glasvegas.
The city of Glasgow was appointed a UNESCO
City of Music on 20 August 2008 as part of the
Creative Cities
Network.
Glasgow also has a thriving dance music scene spearheaded by
Slam, and their record label
Soma Quality Recordings.
They're
also the people behind the very successful Pressure club nights at
The
Arches
which have attracted DJ's and clubbers from
around the world.
The
prestigious MOBO Awards were held at the
SECC, on 30 September 2009, making Glasgow the first
out-of-London city to host
the event since its launch in 1995.
Media
Glasgow is home to the Scottish national media. It is home to
BBC Scotland and
STV.
The Scottish press publishes various newspapers in the city such as
the
Evening Times,
The Herald,
The Sunday Herald, the
Sunday Mail and the
Daily Record.
Scottish editions of
Trinity Mirror
and
News International titles are
printed in the city.
STV Group plc is
a Glasgow-based media conglomerate with interests in television,
and publishing advertising. STV Group owns and operates both
Scottish ITV franchises (Central Scotland and Grampian), both
branded
STV, and cinema advertiser
Pearl & Dean.
Various radio stations are also located in Glasgow.
EMAP (formerly Scottish Radio Holdings) owns the
principal commercial radio stations in Glasgow;
Clyde 1 and
Clyde
2, which can reach over 2.3 million listeners. In 2004, STV
Group plc (then known as SMG plc) sold its 27.8% stake in
Scottish Radio Holdings to the
broadcasting group
EMAP for £90.5 m. Other
stations broadcasting from Glasgow include
105.2 Smooth Radio,
Real Radio and
96.3
Rock Radio, which are all owned by
GMG
Radio. Central Scotland radio station
Galaxy Scotland also broadcast from studios
in Glasgow. The city has a strong
community radio sector, including
Celtic Music Radio, Sunny Govan Radio,
AWAZ FM and Insight Radio.
Religion
Glasgow is a city of significant religious diversity.
The Church of
Scotland
and the Roman Catholic Church are the
two largest Christian denominations in the
city. There are 147 congregations in the Church of
Scotland's Presbytery of
Glasgow [10677] (of which 104 are within the city
boundaries, the other 43 being in adjacent areas such as Giffnock). The city boasts four Christian cathedrals: Glasgow Cathedral, of the Church of Scotland; St
Andrew's Cathedral
, of the Catholic
Church; St Mary's Cathedral
, of the Scottish Episcopal Church, and
St Luke's Cathedral
, of the Greek
Orthodox Church.
The presence of large Protestant and Catholic communities has at
times caused the city to experience
sectarian tensions. In the past this was, perhaps,
mostly visible in the rivalry between the supporters of the city's
two major professional
football
clubs,
Celtic F.C. and
Rangers F.C.. In the past, Rangers drew its
support from the city's
Protestant
community, while the
Roman Catholic
population historically supported Celtic.
Glasgow
Central Mosque
in the Gorbals district is the largest mosque in Scotland and, along with twelve other
mosques in the city, caters for the city's estimated 33,000
Muslim population. Glasgow also has a
Hindu
Mandir, and a planning permission for a
new
Sikh Temple was submitted in June
2007.
This new Temple will complement the existing
four Sikh Temples (Gurdwaras) in
Glasgow with two in the West End (Central Gurdwara Singh
Sabha in Finnieston
and Guru Nanak Sikh Temple in Kelvinbridge
) and two in the Southside area of Pollokshields (Guru Granth Sahib Gurdwara and Sri
Guru Tegh Bahadur Gurdwara). There are approximately
6,500 Sikhs in Scotland with the highest proportion, 36%, in
Glasgow.
Glasgow
has seven synagogues with the seventh
largest Jewish population in the United Kingdom
after London, Manchester
, Leeds
, Gateshead
, Brighton
and Bournemouth
, but once had a Jewish population second only
to London, estimated at 20,000 in the Gorbals alone.
In 1993,
the St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and
Art
opened in Glasgow. It is believed to be
the only public museum to examine all the world's major
religious faiths.
Dialect
Glaswegian, otherwise known as the
Glasgow patter, is a local variety of
Scots.
Glaswegian is a dialect, more than an alternative pronunciation;
words also change their meaning as all over in Scotland, e.g.
"away" can mean "leaving" as in
A'm away, an instruction
to stop being a nuisance as in
away wi ye, or "drunk" or
"demented" as in
he's away wi it.
Ginger is a
term for any carbonated soft drink (
A bottle o ginger ).
Then there are words whose meaning has no obvious relationship to
that in standard English:
coupon means "face", via "to
punch a ticket coupon". A
headbutt is known
in many parts of the British Isles as a
"Glasgow kiss",
although this term is rarely used by Glaswegians, who say "Malkie"
e.g. "ah'll Malkie ye" or "stick the heid on ye".
A speaker
of Glaswegian might refer to those originating from the Scottish Highlands and the Western
Isles
as teuchters,
while they would reciprocate by referring to Glaswegians as
keelies and those from the East of Scotland refer to
Glaswegians as Weegies (or Weedgie).
The long-running TV drama
Taggart
and the comedies
Empty,
Chewin' the Fat,
Rab C. Nesbitt,
Still
Game and
Dear Green
Place depict the Glaswegian
patois, while
Craig
Ferguson and
Billy Connolly have
made Glaswegian humour known to the rest of the world.
Architecture
The rear of Provand's Lordship
Very
little of medieval Glasgow remains, the two
main landmarks from this period being the 15th century Provand's Lordship and 13th century
St.
Mungo's Cathedral
. The vast majority of the city as seen
today dates from the 19th century.
As a result, Glasgow has an impressive
heritage of Victorian
architecture: the Glasgow City Chambers; the main building of the University of
Glasgow, designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott; and the Kelvingrove
Art Gallery and Museum, designed by Sir John
W. Simpson are notable
examples.
The city is notable for architecture designed by the
Glasgow School, the most notable exponent of
that style being
Charles
Rennie Mackintosh.
Mackintosh was an architect and designer in
the Arts and Crafts
Movement and the main exponent of Art
Nouveau in the United Kingdom, designing numerous noted Glasgow
buildings such as the Glasgow School of Art, Willow
Tearooms
and the Scotland Street School
Museum. A hidden gem of Glasgow, also designed by
Mackintosh, is the Queen's Cross Church
, the only church by the renowned artist to be
built.
Another
architect who had an enduring impact on the city's appearance was
Alexander Thomson with notable
examples including the Holmwood House villa.
The buildings reflect the wealth and self confidence of the
residents of the
"Second City of the Empire". Glasgow
generated immense wealth from trade and the industries that
developed from the
Industrial
Revolution. The
shipyards,
marine engineering,
steel making, and
heavy
industry all contributed to the growth of the city.
Many of the city's most impressive buildings were built with red or
blond
sandstone, but during the industrial
era those colours disappeared under a pervasive black layer of soot
and pollutants from the
furnaces, until the
Clean Air Act was introduced in 1956.
In recent years many of these buildings have been cleaned and
restored to their original appearance.
Modern
buildings in Glasgow include the Glasgow
Royal Concert Hall, and along the banks of the Clyde are the Glasgow
Science Centre and the Scottish
Exhibition and Conference Centre, whose Clyde Auditorium
was designed by Sir Norman Foster, and is
affectionately known as the "Armadillo". Zaha
Hadid won a competition to design the new
Museum of Transport, which will
move to the waterfront.
Glasgow's
impressive historical and modern architectural traditions were
celebrated in 1999 when the city was designated UK City of
Architecture and Design, winning the accolade over Liverpool
and Edinburgh.
Housing
Glasgow is known for its
tenements. These
were the most popular form of housing in 19th and 20th century
Glasgow and remain the most common form of dwelling in Glasgow
today. Tenements are commonly bought by a wide range of social
types and are favoured for their large rooms, high ceilings and
original period features.
The Hyndland area of Glasgow is the only tenement conservation
area in the UK and includes some tenement houses with as many as
six bedrooms.
Like many cities in the UK, Glasgow witnessed the construction of
high-rise housing in
tower blocks in the
1960s. These were built to replace the decaying tenement buildings
originally built for workers who migrated from the surrounding
countryside, the Highlands, and the rest of the United Kingdom,
particularly Ireland, in order to feed the local demand for labour.
The massive demand outstripped new building and many, originally
fine, tenements often became overcrowded and unsanitary.
Many
degenerated into the infamous Glasgow slums,
such as the Gorbals.
Efforts
to improve this housing situation, most successfully with the
City Improvement Trust in the
late 19th century, cleared the slums of the old town areas such as
the Trongate, High Street and Glasgow
Cross. Subsequent
urban
renewal initiatives, such as those motivated by the
Bruce Report, entailed the comprehensive
demolition of slum tenement areas, the development of
new towns on the periphery
of the city, and the construction of tower blocks.
The policy of tenement demolition is now considered to have been
short-sighted, wasteful and largely unsuccessful. Many of Glasgow's
worst tenements were refurbished into desirable accommodation in
the 1970s and 1980s and the policy of demolition is considered to
have destroyed many fine examples of a "universally admired
architectural" style. The
Glasgow Housing Association took
ownership of the housing stock from the city council on 7 March
2003, and has begun a £96 million clearance and demolition
programme to clear and demolish many of the high-rise flats.
Academia
Glasgow is also a major centre of education and academic research,
with four universities within 10 miles (16 km) of the city
centre:
There are
also a number of further education
colleges in the city, including Anniesland College
, Glasgow
Metropolitan College, Cardonald
College, Central College
, Stow College and the Glasgow College of Nautical
Studies as well as a number of teacher training colleges, and
teaching hospitals such as the Glasgow Royal Infirmary
. The Royal Scottish Academy
of Music and Drama, Scotland's national conservatoire, and the
Glasgow
School of Art are based in the city.
Glasgow is home to a student population in excess of 168,000, the
largest in Scotland and second largest in the United Kingdom.
The
majority of those who live away from home are found in Shawlands, Dennistoun
and the West End of the city.
The City Council runs twenty-nine secondary schools, a number of
primary schools and three specialist schools - the Dance School of
Scotland,
Glasgow School of
Sport and
Sgoil
Ghàidhlig Ghlaschu (Glasgow Gaelic School, the only secondary
school in Scotland to teach exclusively in
Gaelic).
Shawlands Academy in the South Side of the
city is described as the city's International School, and facilities
for Outdoor Education are available at the Blairvadach Centre, near
Helensburgh
.
Sport
Football
The
world's first international football match was held in 1872 at the
West of Scotland Cricket
Club's Hamilton
Crescent
ground in the Partick area of the city. The match, between
Scotland and
England finished
0–0.
Glasgow
is one of only three cities (along with Liverpool in 1985 and Madrid
in 1986) to have had two football teams in European
finals in the same season: in 1967 Celtic
F.C. competed in the European Cup final defeating
F.C. Internazionale Milano to become
the first Scottish, British and Northern European football club to
win the trophy, with
Rangers F.C.
competing unsuccessfully in the now defunct
Cup Winners' Cup final.
The city
is home to Scotland's only two UEFA 5 star rated stadia which
allows them to host UEFA Champions League or UEFA Cup finals
Ibrox
Stadium (51,082 seats) and Hampden Park (52,670 seats), meaning that they are eligible to
host the final of the UEFA
Champions League. Hampden Park has hosted the final on
three occasions, most recently in 2002 and hosted the
UEFA Cup Final in 2007.
Hampden Park, which is Scotland's national football stadium, holds
the European record for attendance at a football match: 149,547 saw
Scotland beat England 3-1 in 1937, in the days before British
stadia became
all-seated.
Celtic Park (60,832 seats) is also located in the east end
of Glasgow.
Glasgow has three professional football clubs:
Celtic F.C. and
Rangers
F.C., together known as the
Old Firm,
and
Partick Thistle F.C. A
fourth club,
Queen's Park F.C., is
an amateur club that plays in the Scottish professional league
system.
Prior to this, Glasgow had five other
professional clubs: Clyde F.C., which
moved to Cumbernauld, plus Third Lanark
A.C., Cambuslang F.C., Cowlairs F.C. and Clydesdale F.C., who all went
bankrupt. There are a number of
Scottish Junior Football
Association clubs within the city as well, such as
Pollok F.C.,
Maryhill
F.C.,
Ashfield F.C. and
Petershill F.C., as well as countless
numbers of amateur teams.
The history of football in the city, as well as the status of the
Old Firm, attracts many visitors to
football matches in the city throughout the season.
The Scottish Football Association,
the national governing body, and the Scottish
Football Museum
are based in Glasgow, as are the Scottish Football League, Scottish Premier League, Scottish Junior Football
Association and Scottish Amateur Football
Association. The
Glasgow Cup
was a once popular tournament, which was competed for by Celtic,
Rangers, Clyde, Partick Thistle and Queen's Park. The competition
is now played for by the youth sides of the five teams.
Rugby Union
Glasgow
has a professional rugby union club, the
Glasgow Warriors, which plays in
the Magners League alongside teams
from Scotland, Ireland and Wales
.
In the Scottish League,
Glasgow Hawks
was formed in 1997 by the merger of two of Glasgow's oldest clubs:
Glasgow Academicals and Glasgow High Kelvinside (GHK). Despite the
merger, the second division teams of Glasgow Academicals and
Glasgow High Kelvinside re-entered the Scottish rugby league in
1998.
In the South Glasgow suburb of Giffnock is based another of
Glasgow's most prominent clubs
Glasgow Hutchesons Aloysians
RFC (GHA). GHA was formed in 2002 with the merger of two of
Glasgow's leading clubs at the time, Glasgow Southern RFC and
Hutchesons' Aloysians RFC.
Rugby League
Glasgow has hosted many Scotland Rugby League Internationals in
recent years including last year's World Cup Qualifier Versus
Wales in which
Scotland qualified for the
2008 Rugby League World Cup on
aggregate despite going down by 2 points. Glasgow also regularly
hosts Scotland A home games in the Home Nations Cup.
In 2009, a Glasgow based Rugby League team will enter into
National League 2. This club
will be the first ever semi-pro Scottish Rugby League team. The
name and playing venue of the team is yet to be announced. The team
will look to follow in the footsteps of
Celtic Crusaders and be chosen for a Super
League License.
Other sports
Major
international sporting arenas include the Kelvin Hall and Scotstoun Sports Centre. In 2003 the National
Academy for
Badminton was completed in
Scotstoun. In 2003, Glasgow was also given the title of European
Capital of Sport.
Glasgow is also host to many
cricket clubs
including
Clydesdale Cricket
Club who have been title winners for the Scottish Cup many
times. This club also acted as a neutral venue for a
One Day International match between
India and
Pakistan in 2007, but due to
bad weather it was called off.
Smaller sporting facilities include an abundance of outdoor
playing fields, as well as golf clubs
such as Hagg's Castle and artificial ski slopes. Between 1998 and
2004, the
Scottish Claymores
American football team played some
or all of their home games each season at Hampden Park and the
venue also hosted
World Bowl XI.
Motorcycle speedway racing was
first introduced to Glasgow in 1928 and is currently staged at
Saracen Park in the North of the city.
The venues were the Olympic Stadium, also known as Glasgow Nelson
(1928 & 1932), Carntyne Stadium (1928 & 1930), White City
Stadium (1928 - 1931, 1939 - 1940, 1945 - 1954, 1956, 1964 - 1968),
Celtic Park (1928), Hampden Park (1969 - 1972), Sacarcen Park (1949
- 1953 , 1999 to date), Shawfield Stadium (1988 - 1998). Details in
Speedway in Scotland - Tempus Publishing.
Befitting its strong Highland connections as the City of the Gael
Baile Mòr nan Gàidheal, Glasgow is also one of five places
in Scotland which hosts the final of the Scottish Cup of
Shinty, better known as the
Camanachd Cup. This is usually held at Old
Anniesland.
Once home to numerous Shinty clubs, there
is now only one senior club in Glasgow, Glasgow Mid-Argyll, as well
as two university sides from University of Strathclyde and
University
of Glasgow.
2014 Commonwealth Games
On 9 November 2007, Glasgow was selected to be the host city of the
2014
Commonwealth Games.
The
games will be based around a number of existing and newly
constructed sporting venues across the city, including a
refurbished Hampden
Park, Kelvingrove Park, the Kelvin
Hall, and the planned Scottish
National Arena
at the SECC. Plans have already been drawn up for a
Commonwealth Games campus in the east end of the city, which will
include a new indoor arena, velodrome and
accommodation facilities in Dalmarnock and Parkhead, with an
upgraded Aquatics Centre at nearby Tollcross Park. 2014 will be the
third time the Games have been held in Scotland.
Economy
Glasgow has the largest
economy in
Scotland and is at the hub of the metropolitan area of West
Central Scotland.
The city also has the third largest
GDP Per
Capita in the UK, after London and Edinburgh. The city itself sustains more than
410,000 jobs in over 12,000 companies. Over 153,000 jobs have been
created in the city since 2000 - a growth rate of 32%. Glasgow's
annual economic growth rate of 4.4% is now second only to that of
London. In 2005, over 17,000 new jobs were created, and 2006 saw
private-sector investment in the city reaching £4.2 billion pounds,
an increase of 22% in a single year.
55% of the residents
in the Greater
Glasgow area commute to the city every day. Once
dominant manufacturing industries such as shipbuilding and heavy
engineering have been gradually replaced in importance by a
diversified economy.
Glasgow's economy has seen significant growth of
tertiary sector industries
such as financial and business services, communications,
biosciences, creative industries, healthcare,
higher education, retail and tourism. Between 1998 and 2001, the
city's financial services sector grew at a rate of 30%, making
considerable gains on Edinburgh, which has historically been the
centre of the Scottish financial sector. Glasgow is the second most
popular foreign tourist destination in Scotland (fourth in the UK)
and its largest retail centre. Glasgow is also one of Europe's
sixteen largest financial centres.
The city has particular strengths in shipbuilding, engineering,
food and drink, printing, publishing, chemicals and textiles as
well as new growth sectors such as
optoelectronics,
software development and
biotechnology. Glasgow forms the western part
of the
Silicon Glen high tech sector of
Scotland. A growing number of
Blue chip financial sector
companies have significant operations or headquarters in the
city.
The 1990s and first decade of the 21st century saw substantial
growth in the number of
call centres
based in Glasgow. In 2007 roughly 20,000 people, a third of all
call centre employees in Scotland, were employed by Glasgow call
centres. This growth and its high use of recruitment agencies to
hire
graduates as temporary workers has
led to accusations of exploitative practices such as long hours,
poor pay and lack of job security by the
TUC and other union bodies. In recent
years some call centres have taken steps to rectify this
criticism.
Transport
Public transport
Glasgow has a large urban transport system, mostly managed by the
Strathclyde
Partnership for Transport (SPT).
The city has many bus services; since
bus deregulation almost
all are provided by private operators though SPT part-funds some
services.
Glasgow has the most extensive
urban
rail network in the UK outside of London with rail services
travelling to a large part of the
West of
Scotland. All trains running within Scotland, including the
local Glasgow trains, are operated by
First ScotRail, who own the franchise as
determined by the
Scottish
Government.
Central Station
and Queen Street Station
are the two main railway terminals.
Glasgow
Central is the terminus of the long West Coast Main Line
from London Euston
. All services to and from England use this
station. Glasgow Central is also the terminus for suburban services
on the south side of Glasgow, Ayrshire and Inverclyde, as well as
being served by the cross city link from Dalmuir to Motherwell.
Most other services within Scotland - the main line to Edinburgh,
plus services to Aberdeen, Dundee, Inverness and the Western
Highlands - operate from Queen Street station.
The city's suburban network is currently divided by the River
Clyde, and an
initiative has been
proposed to link them; it is currently awaiting funding from the
Scottish Government.
The city is linked to Edinburgh by three
direct railway links; a further one, the Airdrie-Bathgate Rail Link, is
proposed for completion in 2010. In addition to the suburban
rail network, SPT operates the
Glasgow
Subway.
The Subway is the United Kingdom's only
completely underground metro system,
and is generally recognised as the world's third underground
railway after London and Budapest
. Both rail and subway stations have a number
of
park and ride facilities.
As part of the wider regeneration along the banks of the
River Clyde, a Pre-Tram System, using dedicated
bus lanes, called
Clyde Fastlink is
currently under construction.
Shipping
Ferries
used to link opposite sides of the Clyde in Glasgow but they have
been rendered near-obsolete, by bridges and tunnels including the
Erskine
Bridge
, Kingston Bridge
, and the Clyde Tunnel
. The only remaining crossings are the
Renfrew Ferry between Renfrew
and Yoker
, and the Kilcreggan Ferry in Inverclyde
, both run by SPT but outwith the city
boundary. The
PS
Waverley, the world's last operational seagoing
paddle-steamer, provides services from
Glasgow City Centre, mainly catering to the pleasure cruise market.
A
regular waterbus service links the City
Centre with Braehead
in Renfrewshire, some
30 minutes downstream. A service by
Loch Lomond Seaplanes, connecting the
city with destinations in
Argyll and
Bute started in 2007. The only operational dock left in Glasgow
operated by
Clydeport is the
King George V Dock, near
Braehead.
Most other facilities, such as Hunterston Terminal
are located in the deep waters of the Firth of Clyde, which
together handle some 7.5 million tonnes of cargo each
year.
Roads
The city is the focus of Scotland's
trunk
road network and has many road connections to other cities. The
main
M8 motorway passes
through the city centre, and connects to the
M77,
M73, and
M80 motorways.
The A82
connects the city to Argyll and the western Highlands. The M74 runs directly south towards
Carlisle
; the highly controversial M74 completion scheme
will extend the motorway from Tollcross into the Tradeston area to join the M8. A legal challenge to
stop the extension was withdrawn in 2006, and the road is now
scheduled for completion by 2010.
Other road proposals include the
East End Regeneration
Route, which aims to complete the
Glasgow Inner Ring Road around the
city and provide easier access to deprived areas of the East
End.
Airports
The city
is served by two international airports and a seaplane terminal:
Glasgow
International Airport
(GLA) in Paisley
, Renfrewshire ( west of
the city), Glasgow Prestwick Airport
(PIK) ( to the south-west), and Glasgow Seaplane Terminal, by the
Glasgow Science Centre on the River Clyde. There is also a
small airfield at Cumbernauld
( to the north-east) and Glasgow
City Heliport
located at Stobcross Quay on the banks of the
Clyde. Prestwick has a direct rail link to Glasgow Central;
a plan to also provide a direct rail link to Glasgow International
was dropped with the cancelling of the
Glasgow Airport Rail Link in 2009.
In June
2007, Glasgow International
Airport had been subject to an attempted terrorist attack
.
International relations
Twin towns - Sister cities
Glasgow is
twinned with various
cities, including:
Gallery
References
- Letter XII from "A tour thro' the whole island
of Great Britain" by Daniel Defoe.
- Abolition of the Slave Trade. Learning and Teaching
Scotland Online. Retrieved on September 26, 2007
- Urquhart, R.M. (1973) Scottish Burgh and County
Heraldry. London. Heraldry Today. ISBN 978-0900455247.
- Urquhart, R.M. (1979). Scottish Civic Heraldry.
London. Heraldry Today. ISBN 978-0900455261.
-
www.independent.co.uk/.../crime/glasgow-is-britains-murder-capital-as-knife-crime-spirals-737329.html
- The Academy of Urbanism : Awards
http://web.archive.org/web/20080119212642/http://www.academyofurbanism.org.uk/awards.htm
Retrieved 28-05-2008
- Merchant City Glasgow http://www.merchantcityglasgow.com/
- Templeton's Carpet Factory, Glasgow - Princes
Regeneration
- History of The Mitchell
- Church of Scotland Yearbook 2008–09, ISBN 978 0 86153 384
8
- Watch video of the churchand Interview with
Stuart Robertson, Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society Director
- Hyndland Local History
- Drivers for high rise living
- Worksall, Frank The Tenement - a way of life. W &
R Chambers Ltd Edinburgh 1972 ISBN 055020252
- European Capital of Sports Association
- Glasgow
2014, Commonwealth Games Candidate www.glasgow2014.com
- BBC Scotland
- Turin City Hall - International Affairs Retrieved on
26 January 2008.
External links
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