Originally part of the Lands of Blythswood, and named after Brumelaw Croft, because broom grew along the waterfront, the riverside street runs from Jamaica Bridge towards Anderston Quay, under the Kingston Bridge towards Finnieston Quay.
Glasgow had the freedom of navigation of the River Clyde to the sea some twenty-seven miles westwards, confirmed later by Royal Charter signed by King James VI in 1611. The city's first quay was built at Brumelaw in 1688.[1] From the early 1800s and increasingly after the invention of sea-going steamships in 1812 in Glasgow, the Broomielaw was a major part of Glasgow's harbour with shipping lines to all parts of the world, and an inventive and growing shipbuilding industry, becoming the wealthiest and largest in the world.
In the 19th and first half of the 20th Centuries Paddle steamers, followed by turbine steamers, ran from here to the coast for day trips to the seaside and for some business people to commute.[2]
The Broomielaw is renowned in the pipe band tune 'Wha' saw the 42nd'. And in Kenneth McKellar's famed song 'The Song of the Clyde'. The area is also mentioned in some versions of the sea shanty "Donkey Riding":
Was you ever on the Broomielaw
Where the Yanks are all the go
And the boys dance heel-and-toe
Riding on a donkey [citation needed]
The Broomielaw also features in the "Freedom Come-All-Ye" a popular anti-Imperialist song of the 1960s by Hamish Henderson in the Scots language. The song refers to the role the quay played as a point of departure for the depopulation of Scotland through emigration.
Nae mair will our bonnie callants
Merch tae war whan our braggarts crousely craw
Nor wee weans frae pitheid an clachan
Murn the ships sailin doun the Broomielaw
