Glasgow Fire stations past and present

[Celyn]

...

Still wonder what it must have been like living in an active fire station!

I bet it was quite fun and your schoolfriends (too young? - well play-friends then) would have been envious of your exotic life. Except being wakened up by bells and sirens might not have been so much fun. Hey, mibbe you should try some of that recovered memory hypnosis thing to take you back to your early days as a fire station wean. Imagine the embarrassment, though, if anyone ever burnt the toast or caused one of the infamous chip pans fires.

I used to get to go to kids' christmas parties at my uncle's fire station (in Cambuslang or somewhere, so not a Glasgow one for this thread) and I think we got an exciting tour round the station and possibly even sliding down poles, but I don't remember) as well as the sausage rolls and cake and stuff. Can't be at all sure about the pole bit, but I think we might have been allowed to sit in a fire engine and say "vroom, vroom", before being quickly shepherded away to where a troop of excited wee weans couldn't do any damage or get in the road of busy firemen.

On preview, I should confess that Uncle didn't live in the fire station and I don't think anyone did, so this was just a thing done by their social club or something, not because anyone really lived in the station.

[Jockissimo]

Was the fire HQ at the high st end of Ingram St or was that an ordinary station there?

Seem to remember it being a carpet sales outlet and then a desing studio before becoming a resturaunty.

See there is the " the brooklyn bar and grill " advertising on google while it is an eaterie called Ad Lib on the wee man aboot toon images.

[Dexter St. Clair]

Was the fire HQ at the high st end of Ingram St or was that an ordinary station there?

Seem to remember it being a carpet sales outlet and then a desing studio before becoming a resturaunty.

See there is the " the brooklyn bar and grill " advertising on google while it is an eaterie called Ad Lib on the wee man aboot toon images.

and Prior to that The Fire Station. Tough spot for a restaurant of that size.

[Fireman]

Finally, the Lothian Bigrade have a museum in Lauriston Place that they maintain, is there a Strathclyde equivalent?

Strathclyde Fire & Rescue Preservation Group in conjunction with Strathclyde Fire & Rescue and Inverclyde have been working towards opening a small fire brigade related museum in the old fire station underneath the Greenock Town Council building.

Their web site says they anticipate the museum opening in the New Year - SRFPG Fire Museum

Fireman.

[Fireman]

Was the fire HQ at the high st end of Ingram St or was that an ordinary station there?

It was originally built to be the HQ for Glasgow Fire Brigade in 1900, becoming Glasgow Fire Service's HQ following the Second World War in 1948.

It remained the HQ for GFS until 1975, when the brigade was swallowed up into Strathclyde Fire Brigade, becoming the Divisional HQ for the City of Glasgow. It was subsequently replaced as the principal Div. HQ by the new Cowcaddens (A Division HQ) and Calton (B Division HQ) Fire Stations, whereupon Ingram St. was sold for private development.

[Jockissimo]

Thanks fireman. I wonder how much floor space there was inside or was it mor admin upstairs and 4 'appliances' under?

I seem to recall Mary Marquiss doing a rare outside broadcast from the newly opened cowcaddens set up. Not that see was after a wee knee trembler or the like

[Fireman]

If you're meaning Ingram St Jock it went through a number of phases in its life, but this is how I remember it in the 1970's -

Ingram St fire station was a very large complex of buildings beyond the frontage - on the ground floor if you were in Ingram St facing the appliance room you had the Watchroom and the *4 appliance bays, which always had appliances in them. Roughly in the middle of this frontage was the pend entrance which took you into the inner yard where all the other buildings could be accessed from ie. workshops, gym, tool rooms, single-mens quarters & firemen's housing, stores, breathing apparatus servicing, garages, Fire Prevention offices and the rear entrance up to the firemen's tenement housing which fronted onto the High St., boiler house and the fire station's offices, To the left of the pend entrance were the Firemaster's and Chief Clerk's offices.

Directly above the pend was Fire Control for Glasgow where the biggest majority of 999 calls went if a member of the public needed the fire brigade. This is also where the stations were turned out from and the two-way radio communication to fire engines was run. The remainder of that floor was used by the fire station as living quarters, such as lecture room, recreation room, billets, and directly above the workshops was the canteen. Next floor up I think was billets again and the top floor was offices for senior officers, staff office, conference room, etc.

*As Glasgow's incidence of fire increased there was a need to provide additional special appliances to cope with the growing demands of modern materials, so the High Expension Foam Unit (Hi-Ex) appliance was stationed into one of the garages in the yard. The main appliance room had in the 1970's a Water Tender Ladder, a Pump Escape, a Turntable Ladder and the Emergency Tender (later to be converted into a Breathing Apparatus Tender).

I better mention though - its been a while so I may have got something a wee bit back to front, but the majority of the layout I'm describing I'm confident is right.

[Jockissimo]

Good stuff Fireman! This is what hidden glesga's all about. Sounds like it took up the whole block!

one place I will take a wander round to see some bygone details still visible on the facades next time I come o'r the north sea

[the researcher]

what fire stations would have been the nearest for paisley road/shields road(paisley road end) ? i only recall seeing fire engines twice for some strange reason
one was for an old car which was on fire on waste ground in watt street i seem to remember it was a ford prefect the later model not the sit up and beg model as the fireman put the hose in the petrol tank and filled it with water
the second occasion they were on paisley road at tenements opposite seward street the machine was an escape ladder? the ladder on wheels which was on the back of the fire engine dont think there was a fire think it was possibly a hoax call
this would have been in the late 60's early 70's

[Fireman]

There's a good chance it was the South Fire Station that attended from Centre St, however if they were at another call it might have been Govan Fire Station or at a push Queens Park Fire Station.

You mention the 'escape ladder ..... on wheels', this would have been a Pump Escape (PE) very similar to the Leyland Firemaster in the Riverside Museum, its of the same era.

[firebrat]

I was brought up in FireStations.Central (Ingram st.),then South (Centre st.) then North West until 1988. Us firebrats didn't think it was anything special to live in a station because we didn't know anything different...our pals however had a different outlook I'll have to dig out photos of the open days at the North West,and photos of the Xmas parties at the West- Santa (some poor fireman pressganged into the job) would be standing at the top of the hose tower whilst us weans were going nuts shouting for him, then he would be brought down on the T.L into the howling mob happy days..

[Fireman]

Santa (some poor fireman pressganged into the job) would be standing at the top of the hose tower whilst us weans were going nuts shouting for him, then he would be brought down on the T.L into the howling mob happy days..

Happy days indeed - I managed(!) to be Santa at Cowcaddens one year and the 'weans' scared the life out of me! It was safer going to a top flat and roof space well alight!

[firebrat]

Happy days indeed - I managed(!) to be Santa at Cowcaddens one year and the 'weans' scared the life out of me! It was safer going to a top flat and roof space well alight! ::):[/quote]


Funnily enough my da was always 'busy' when it came to volunteering to be santa

[RDR]

Happy days indeed - I managed(!) to be Santa at Cowcaddens one year and the 'weans' scared the life out of me! It was safer going to a top flat and roof space well alight! ::):

Funnily enough my da was always 'busy' when it came to volunteering to be santa ::):[/quote]

Trained with a girl (Andrea) who was married to a fireman and lived above the fire station in Govan, the original one joined to Orkney Street police station.
Went to a few Christmas parties there.
Good days now sadly long gone>

[SomeRandomBint]

Haha! I remember going to the Christmas Parties at Central, where my Dad was based in the 80s (he moved out to Parkhead when it closed). There was also, IIRC, a stuffed dog in a case there. Wallace the fire dog - they had little leather socks made for him, when he used to chase the fire engines to the scenes of fires, and help rescue people from the burning buildings.

Must ask my Dad for more info about Central. He used to go to the site when it was the Fire Station Restaurant, and complain about having to scrub the tiled floors when he worked there!