Area behind Clouston St, Glasgow

[The_Clincher]

I was at Clouston St this week (Maryhill/Kelvinside area) and noticed an area that i used to go for a game of football in. The area in question is at the back of these streets- Clouston Street, Sanda Street & Garrioch Road.

The area was red gravel when i played football there, about 1991. I was amazed at how overgrown it had become and noticed that the goals were now gone. There does however remain about 4 "pylons" that looked like they could have been floodlights at one time. The red gravel is still there, but vegetation is overgrowing this quickly it would seem.

Does anyone know the history of this site ?

[Dexter St. Clair]

It closed when the pitches opened beside NK school.There was I think an attempt to change the use of the Clouston street pace to housing?

[caine]

the local residents were responsible for it getting so over grown. they walked their dogs and scattered a lot of grass seed to make it slightly more interesting from their windows!!

[Seamey]

I had to play football there too when I was at NK. During the summer it'd be changed into a running track. There was a tennis court as well.

When I first saw the Clouston St floodlights I thought it must have been Firhill! I didn't know Glasgow that well then.

[The_Clincher]

If it helps any, i've discovered that Clouston Street used to be called "Montgomerie St". I'll have a nosey and see if there were any businesses etc at this locale.

[The_Clincher]

I reckon that if there was anything else built on that site, any main entrance may well have been on Kelbourne St...i can't help thinking that their may have been a building of some sort of building on it before they made it into red blaes for tennis/football etc.

ps....does anyone have a link to the 1920's (i think) business directory that i seen on here a while back? i tried a search for the link without success. I think on that directory, you can search businesses by street. Cheers!

[crusty_bint]

Some maps might help at this point? Iv left the Botanic Gardens in for reference for those who dont know the area:

1865


1897


1914


1932

[viceroy]

Interesting to note the number of street name changes which have taken place on the map issued in 1932 compared to the map issued in 1914. Montgomerie St. has become Clouston St. [as already mentioned], Albany St. is now Mingarry St., Gower St. has become Sanda St. and Percy St. [above Kelbourne St] has been renamed Hotspur St. These last two intrigue me because they already existed elsewhere and still do: Percy St. is on Paisley Rd West just opposite Cessnock Subway Station and Gower St. is the next one along going west [actually North Gower St. since the M-Way cut Gower St. in two]. Seems too much of a co-incidence to me. Maybe something to do with the fact that both these streets in Ibrox were originally part of the burgh of Govan which was annexed by Glasgow in 1912. Perhaps the identical street names in the Clouston St. area were changed to avoid confusion.

The best vantage point for looking at the old recreation ground is not from Clouston St. but from the other side - at the bottom of Northumberland St where it turns left into Kelbourne St. There is something really poignant about the dereliction. I like overgrown places. If it was up to me I would leave it as it is.

[gap74]

From the BBC

A community group which planted flowers and grew vegetables on derelict land earmarked for building is being taken to court by Glasgow City Council.

North Kelvin Meadow Campaign said its volunteers had acted after the former playing fields in Clouston Street had lain unused for more than 25 years.

The council said a development planned for the area would provide new homes, a park and playing facilities.

It is seeking to evict the group and has been granted an interim interdict.

[onyirtodd]

Sounds like a ploy to stop the council (or anyone else) building on the site. Isn't there's legislation about not disturbing wild flowers, even if they're not 'wild' in the strictest sense(?)

[gap74]

I can kind of see their point, though, even though I don't live out that way anymore - there seems to be a determination to sell-off and develop every wee scrap of spare ground out there at the moment, what with this and the various plans for the lanes.

[onyirtodd]

I can kind of see their point, though, even though I don't live out that way anymore - there seems to be a determination to sell-off and develop every wee scrap of spare ground out there at the moment, what with this and the various plans for the lanes.

It's quite possible you haven't noticed but there's

1) a severe shortage of housing in most parts of Scotland.

2) a severe shortage of dosh in the cooncil coffers at the moment.

[gap74]

It's quite possible you haven't noticed but there's

1) a severe shortage of housing in most parts of Scotland.

2) a severe shortage of dosh in the cooncil coffers at the moment.

Far too complicated an argument to get into really, but I suspect it's the lack of available credit that's the problem at the moment, not housing.

I live next to what South Lanarkshire Council euphemistically call a "community growth" area, so have seen most of the former farmland (again, referred to as "low quality greenbelt", in a rather odious piece of spin) around me taken over in the last 15 years by thousands of little identikit houses with little or no communal space or facilities in between. The last chunk of it is currently full of newly completed houses selling very sluggishly, whilst the unbuilt bits have been abandoned until the economy perks up.

Anyways, just like South Lanarkshire's raping of the greenbelt, so I think Glasgow are making a mistake selling off little corners of the West End. You can't just keep filling in these wee spaces with yet more people without any regard for facilities and open space. What happened to the Victorian sense of municipal responsibility to provide either?

As for the shortage of dosh - not my problem, they were the ones investing it in Icelandic banks and doing little to curtail the excesses of our elected representatives....

/rant

[The_Clincher]

Clean forgot about this thread!

I also managed to glean that there were barrage balloons sited here during WW2

[Dexter St. Clair]

You can't just keep filling in these wee spaces with yet more people without any regard for facilities and open space. What happened to the Victorian sense of municipal responsibility to provide either?

As for the shortage of dosh - not my problem, they were the ones investing it in Icelandic banks and doing little to curtail the excesses of our elected representatives....

The football pitches at Clouston Street were originally replace by the Floodlit pitches in Queen Margaret Drive. Glasgow did not have money in any Icelandic bank at the time of their collapse.

red Ash pitch

They could occupy this