Glasgow Green - Landmarks

Landmarks

In 1806, the year after Admiral Horatio Nelson's death, a 43.5 metre tall monument was erected in the Green. The first civic monument in Britain to commemorate Nelson's victories, it predated Nelson's Pillar in Dublin by two years and Nelson's column in London by three decades. Four years after its construction it was hit by a lightning strike which caused the top 6 metres to collapse, but the damage was soon repaired. In 2002 a £900,000 restoration programme restored the monument to its original condition, repaired damage that had accumulated over the last two centuries and installed floodlighting.

In 1855 the St. Andrew's Suspension Bridge was opened, connecting the park to the north and Hutchesontown to the south, to "replace busy ferry, conveying workers from Bridgeton & Calton to Hutchesontown". The bridge was repaired in 1871 and 1905, with a major refurbishment programme undertaken between 1996 and 1998 partially funded by the European Union.

1889 saw the completion of the Templeton Carpet Factory. The building was extended in the 1930s and in 1984 became the Templeton Business Centre. After repeated design proposals had been rejected by the city council, James Templeton & Co. employed the architect William Leiper, who designed a facade inspired by the Doge's Palace in Venice. On 1 November 1889, the factory facade collapsed due to insecure fixings and 29 women were killed in adjacent weaving sheds. The story is carved in a section of stone beneath the base of Templeton Gate, installed during refurbishment work to the area in 2005. A fire in the factory in 1900 resulted in more deaths. The building was extended in the 1930s and in 1984 became the Templeton Business Centre. In 2005, the 1930s extension was demolished to make way for 143 new flats, part of a £22 million regeneration project which saw the owners, Scottish Enterprise, sell the Templeton Carpet Factory for £6.7 million.

In 1881 a fountain was erected in the park to commemorate Sir William Collins, a figure in the temperance movement who served as Glasgow's Lord Provost between 1877 and 1880. In 1992 the fountain was moved to stand behind the McLennan Arch.

The Doulton Fountain, gifted to Glasgow as part of the International Exhibition of 1888, was moved to the Green in 1890. Designed by architect Arthur E. Pearce, the 48 ft tall fountain was built by the Royal Doulton company to commemorate Queen Victoria's reign. It featured a 70 ft wide basin, with a slightly larger than life-size statue of Queen Victoria, surrounded by four life-size statues of water-carriers representing Australasia, Canada, India and South Africa. A lightning strike in 1891 destroyed the statue of Victoria, and rather than let the city replace the statue with an urn, Doulton paid for a second hand-made statue to be produced. In the 1960s the fountain was allowed to fall into a state of disrepair with the water supply being turned off. However in 2002 a £2 million restoration program was started that restored the fountain to its original condition. As of 2004, the fountain has been placed in a new location, in front of the People's Palace.

Opened in 1898 by the Earl of Rosebery, the People's Palace was designed as a cultural centre for the people of the east end. Originally arranged with reading rooms on the ground floor, a museum on the first floor and an art gallery on the second floor, since the 1940s the building has been used as a museum dedicated to the history of Glasgow.

When the Assembly Rooms, designed by James and Robert Adam, were demolished in 1890, the arch that formed the centrepiece of the building was reconstructed and sited at the western end of Monteith Row in 1892 at the expense of James McLennan, it was then moved again in 1922 to the west edge of the Green facing Charlotte Street. In 1991 it was moved again to its present position facing the Old High Court in the Saltmarket. It is now known as "The McLennan Arch".

In 1901, in an effort to maintain the water level of the Clyde as it runs through the Green, Glasgow Corporation built a tidal weir. This also creates the unusual system of two distinct ecosystems existing side by side, with the Clyde on the west side of the weir being saltwater, while it is fresh water on the east side (the park side). Due to its design the weir is now a listed building.

The Glasgow Green Football Centre opened in November 2000 on Flesher's Haugh, the site where Rangers F.C. first played over a hundred years earlier, featuring 18 different football pitches of various sizes and qualities.

Glasgow Green also has within it cycle route 75, otherwise known as the Clyde walkway, which runs from the City Centre to Strathclyde Park.