A Walk in the Park: Exploring the Treasures of Glasgow's Dear Green Places by John Cairney

Author:John Cairney [Cairney, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: local history, General, memoir, history, glasgow, cultural history, walking, parks
ISBN: 9781910324905
Google: VxCdDgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Luath Press Ltd
Published: 2017-03-09T23:23:32.731971+00:00

PARK 8

Kelvingrove Park

1852 · 85 acres

‘NEVER LET A GOOD thing go to waste’ is an old adage in any context but it applies neatly to Kelvingrove as it is the result of a fusion of two parks, or rather a major addition to one which indeed was in danger of going to waste in the middle 19th-century. Actually, this was the first constructed and purpose-designed green space in Glasgow and the song, ‘Haste to Kelvingrove’ was written to celebrate this event. A new park for Glasgow had been born. Kelvingrove did not evolve but was created as a deliberate one-off parks project by the City Council in 1852.

Sixty-six acres of land became available beside the Kelvin River and adjoining the then existing grounds known as West End Park. For almost £100,000, and assisted by the design genius of no less than Sir Thomas Paxton, this green union was to make what was called un parc de novo, and from the very beginning it was a huge aesthetic, if expensive, success. Despite this, many East Enders and similarly under-privileged Northerners in the city thought too much was being spent on the West Enders. It is an attitude that still prevails with some.

Appropriately, the venerable University of Glasgow looks down on the Kelvingrove twins from its high position to the north on Gilmorehill, and its towers overlook a masterly fusion of the two parks, Kelvingrove and the West End Park, with entrances at east and west. I chose to enter from the Dumbarton Road entrance opposite the Kelvin Hall so that I might come through the south-western gate where it adjoins entrances to Glasgow University and the former Western Infirmary. I did so because, for several reasons, I wanted to see the Snow Bridge at that end of the park.

First of all, it was from this bridge that Glasgow city employees dumped all the unwanted snow gathered from the streets in winter­time into the River Kelvin, which would have given an appropriate arctic look for the season. It was good to think of Glasgow snow going back into the world via the Kelvin and the Clyde. I walked along wishing that the protecting railings had been painted white to acknowledge this connection. The second reason I was interested in the bridge was possibly why the railings remained unpainted.

I read somewhere that a fellow thespian, Mark Sheridan, sadly took his own life at this same bridge in the winter of 1918. A Geordie of Scots descent, Mark was a great success in Edwardian music-hall and famous for his singing of ‘I Do Like to be Beside the Seaside’ early in his career. Unfortunately, in his later years, Mark’s popularity faded somewhat. In a last attempt to regain his status, he wrote and presented his own show, Gay Paree, featuring himself and his two sons amongst a cast of 40, and directed by his wife who also managed the production. Paree toured to Glasgow where its creator had been a great favourite, but reviews for the first night at the Coliseum were uniformly bad and the audience was unruly.

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