Джорданхилл: История и современность района Глазго

Jordanhill (, Cnoc Iòrdain) is an affluent area of the West End of the city of Glasgow, Scotland. The area consists largely of terraced housing dating from the early to mid 20th century, with some detached and semi detached homes and some modern apartments. Jordanhill College of Education and then the University of Strathclyde faculty of education were formerly in the area and the associated school has a high reputation.

The area was previously part of the Jordanhill Estate within the parish of Renfrew centred on Jordanhill House.

In 1546 Lawrence Crawford of Kilbirnie founded a chaplainry at Drumry, and to sustain it endowed it with the freehold ownership of land at Jordanhill, which then accumulated rent at a rate of £5 per annum. His sixth son Thomas Crawford was a soldier who led the 1571 capture of Dumbarton Castle, who had previously acquired the lands at Jordanhill from the chaplain of Drumry in 1562. There he built a house, possibly on or close to the foundations of an original hunting lodge. In the 18th century, one of his descendants also called Lawrence Crawford extended and refurbished the old house, and laid out the original garden scheme and associated orchards.

In 1750 the Crawford family sold the estate to Tobacco Lords Alexander Houston, whose family was also forced to sell the estate in 1800 after his business got into trouble, to James Smith of merchants Smith & Leitch. An 1872 government award of £2,000 for his compass research allowed him to replace the worst houses on the estate with new homes, today known as Compass Cottages in Anniesland Road. On his early death in 1872, to pay off death duties and the accrued debts of the estate, his wife sold of much of the estate's former farmlands for housing development north of the Glasgow, Yoker and Clydebank Railway. After losing his seat in 1906, like his mother he began selling off more pieces of land four housing development, including the former Gartnavel farm to the Royal Lunatic Asylum. Approached by the university which was looking for a site on which to establish a unified teacher training college, in 1913 Parker Smith agreed sale of the residual estate. Following the death of Archibald Colin Hamilton Smith in Australia on 5 June 1971, the sixth generation of the family who died without issue, the Smith family papers dealing with the Jordanhill Estate were donated to the Glasgow City Archives at the Mitchell Library. Many of the Smith family are buried in the graveyard surrounding Renfrew Parish Church.

There are a number of parks in Jordanhill and the immediate vicinity, as well as large playing fields on the Jordanhill Campus. Jordanhill is directly adjacent to Victoria Park, one of the largest green spaces in Glasgow and home to the Fossil Grove, an area of fossilized prehistoric tree stumps. The area has excellent transport links. Jordanhill railway station has regular local train services to central Glasgow on the North Clyde and Argyle lines, and regular bus services are provided by First Glasgow. The Clyde Tunnel is located nearby, giving road access to the south of the city. There are two pubs in the area, both are situated on Crow Road, near the railway station. This area used to be home to a branch of The Jolly Giant Toy Superstores, based on Crow Road.

Jordanhill School is located on Chamberlain Road at the foot of the hill on which Jordanhill College sits, and was formerly the College's training school. It is now a state comprehensive school. The school is unique in the Scottish state sector in that it contains both Primary and Secondary departments, providing education for children from 4 to 18, and in that it has Grant Maintained status and is independent from local government control. It had previously been an independent demonstration school for Jordanhill College. Private school the High School of Glasgow is also located in the Jordanhill vicinity. Saint Thomas Aquinas Secondary School is a Catholic secondary school located on Mitre Road in the newer part of Jordanhill. It has several feeder primary schools, including Corpus Christi (Knightswood), Notre Dame (Dowanhill), St Pauls (Whiteinch), St. Peter's (Partick), St. Brendan's (Yoker), St. Patrick's in (Anderston), St. Clare's (Drumchapel) and St. Ninian's (Blairdardie).

There are two churches in Jordanhill, both located on Woodend Drive, off Crow Road: Jordanhill Parish Church (Church of Scotland) and All Saints Church (Episcopalian). Both churches are used for a variety of community and social events, in addition to regular worship, and All Saints is also home to Westbourne Gardens Nursery School. The 72nd and 178th Glasgow Scouts are based in the area, as well as 130th and the 272nd Glasgow Boys' Brigades.