Bellahouston Academy - History

History

Bellahouston Academy first opened in 1876 as a private school, run by Alexander Sim. It was taken over by the Govan School Board in 1885, and has been a state school ever since. The school buildings have recently been refurbished to provide for 1100 pupils.

The site of the Academy was donated by the Misses Steven of Bellahouston whose generosity also provided the clocktower, and the building was designed by a Bath Street architect, Robert Balde. The advertisement which announced the opening of the Academy described it as a 'Boy's High Class School and Ladies' College'. For its first nine years the Academy struggled to function privately; with the opening of new schools in the area which were supported by rates and government grants, this became increasingly difficult, despite such economies as dispensing with the office and salary of the rector. In 1885 therefore, the Academy ceased to be a private school, and was sold for £15,000 to Govan Parish School Board who added a swimming pool, one of the first in Scotland.

The school was built to provide education for the children of the area who would otherwise have had to travel to Glasgow to the fashionable schools; not an easy journey as there was little public transport until the introduction of the tram in 1879.

In 1901 the Institute was opened to train pupil-teachers, but when this system was replaced in 1907 by a junior system, the Institute became part of the Academy, which by now had become a Secondary School and Junior Student Centre. In 1905 the main building was renovated and a new gymnasium and baths were built. In 1919 the Academy passed into the care of the new Glasgow Education Authority, which itself was replaced in 1929 by the Education Committee of the Corporation of Glasgow. In the 1930s the Academy lost its title and was renamed Bellahouston Secondary School, but its name never changed locally, and like other schools, it was permitted to revert to its old title.