Глазго Грин: История и современность парка

Park in Glasgow, Scotland, UK

In 1450, King James II granted the parkland to Bishop William Turnbull and the people of Glasgow. The Green then looked quite different from the Green today. It was an uneven, swampy area made up of several distinct "greens" (separated by the Camlachie and Molendinar Burns): the High Green; the Low Green; the Calton Green; and the Gallowgate Green. In the centuries that followed, the parkland was used for grazing, washing and bleaching linen, drying fishing nets, and recreational activities like swimming. In 1732, Glasgow's first steamie, called the Washhouse, opened on the banks of the Camlachie Burn. From 25 December 1745 to 3 January 1746, Bonnie Prince Charlie's army camped in Flesher's Haugh (privately owned at the time, but would become part of Glasgow Green in 1792); Charlie demanded that the town supply his army with fresh clothing and footwear.

In the 19th century, two projects were proposed that would have intruded upon the Green. The steamship owner Henry Bell wanted a canal built from the Broomielaw to Glasgow Green with a quay terminal at the Green. This proposal was unpopular and was never implemented. Then, in 1821 and 1822, exploratory boring underneath the Green uncovered large coal deposits, after which the city's Superintendent of Work recommended a mining operation to extract to coal. At the time, the Glasgow town council voted against the plan. It was re introduced in 1858, and this time the town council approved it, because they were looking for ways to offset the cost of purchasing land to create parks in other areas of the town. But their decision was met with such large scale public opposition that the plan was dropped. The proposal was reintroduced twice more, in 1869 and 1888, but was rejected both times. Since 2017, the Green has served as the venue for the music festival TRNSMT. The Green is also currently the home of the World Pipe Band Championships. The Green continues to host sporting events in addition to music events. The annual Great Scottish Run, which is generally held in early October, finishes up on the Green, with runners entering it through the historic McLennan Arch.

A tall monument to Admiral Horatio Nelson was erected in the Green in 1806, the year after his death. A Nelson monument had been erected in Taynuilt the previous year, privately funded by employees of the Bonawe Iron Foundry, which had made most of the cannonballs for the navy while it was under Nelson's command. But the Nelson monument in Glasgow Green was the first civic monument in Britain commemorating Nelson's military victories. It predated Nelson's Pillar in Dublin by two years and Nelson's column in London by three decades. Four years after its construction it was struck by lightning, causing the top 6 metres to collapse, but the damage was promptly repaired. Over the course of two centuries since the monument was erected, it accumulated some damage. In 2002, it was repaired and restored to its original condition, and floodlights were installed for nighttime viewing. The cost of the restoration programme was £900,000.

The St. Andrew's Suspension Bridge opened in 1855. It connects the park to the north with Hutchesontown to the south. It was meant to "replace [the] busy ferry, [by] conveying workers from Bridgeton & Calton to Hutchesontown". The bridge was repaired in 1871 and 1905. As it neared its 150th birthday, a programme to completely refurbish it was undertaken, partially funded by the European Union, and executed between 1996 and 1998. It is a category A listed structure.

The Glasgow Humane Society (the oldest practical lifeboat and lifesaving organisation in the world) is based in the Green. The society's Officer's house and its boatyard are located next to the St. Andrew's Suspension Bridge.

The Templeton Carpet Factory was completed in 1889. After repeated design proposals had been rejected by the city council, James Templeton & Co employed the architect William Leiper, who designed a facade inspired by the Doge's Palace in Venice. On 1 November 1889, the factory facade collapsed due to insecure fixings; 29 women were killed in adjacent weaving sheds. (The story was carved into a section of stone beneath the base of Templeton Gate, installed during refurbishment work to the area in 2005.) In 1900, a fire in the factory resulted in more deaths. The building was extended in the 1930s. In 1984 it became the Templeton Business Centre. In 2005, the 1930s extension was demolished to make way for 143 new flats as part of a £22 million regeneration project, and Scottish Enterprise, the center's owners sold it for £6.7 million.

In 1881 a fountain was erected in the park to commemorate Sir William Collins, a figure in the temperance movement who had served as Glasgow's Lord Provost between 1877 and 1880. In 1991, it was moved again to its present position in the Green — facing the Old High Court in the Saltmarket. It is known as "The McLennan Arch".

In 1901, the Glasgow Corporation built a tidal weir over the River Clyde, in an effort to maintain the river's water level as it runs through the Green. The water is saltwater on the western side of the weir and fresh water on the eastern side, where it runs past the park. This has resulted in an unusual phenomenon: the development of two distinct ecosystems right next to each other. Because of its distinctive design, the weir has been made a listed building. A short distance downstream from the weir is the Albert Bridge, which connects the area to the Gorbals district south of the river.

The Glasgow Green Football Centre, featuring 18 different football pitches of various sizes and qualities, opened in November 2000 on Fleshers' Haugh, the site where Scottish football club Rangers played their first ever match against Callander over a hundred years earlier. This area is also the location of the Glasgow National Hockey Centre, built for the 2014 Commonwealth Games. At the west side of this part of the Green is the King's Bridge providing a road link to Hutchesontown. There was a pedestrian link to the Oatlands district on the south side of the river, namely Polmadie Bridge, but in 2015 this was declared unsafe and dismantled. Further upstream at the south east edge of the Green is Rutherglen Bridge. Glasgow Green also has within it part of National Cycle Route 75, which runs from Argyll to Edinburgh, as well as the Clyde walkway, which runs from the City Centre to New Lanark.