Toryglen

Toryglen

Toryglen

Human settlement in Scotland

Toryglen is a district in southern Glasgow, Scotland, falling within the Langside ward under Glasgow City Council. It is approximately two miles (three kilometres) south of the city centre, bounded to the west by Mount Florida, the north-west by Polmadie, to the north-east by the West Coast Main Line railway and the M74 motorway the south by King's Park, and immediately to the east by the town of Rutherglen.

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History and location

The name 'Torryglen' first appeared on maps in the late 18th century and was a small farmhouse in the north of the present day territory.[2]

The area is broadly defined as between the major railway lines to the north, Curtis Avenue to the south and Aikenhead Road to the west. The eastern boundary where Glasgow meets South Lanarkshire (the Rutherglen neighbourhoods of Burnhill and Newfield) is difficult to observe from ground level as it involves houses backing onto one another right up to the border in most places. However, as this is a major administrative divide it is clearly marked on maps, with the street names also changing, e.g. Newfield Place becomes Ardnahoe Avenue.

Toryglen is residential in character, built mainly south of Prospecthill Road between 1947 and 1962 by the Scottish Special Housing Association[3] on land which was previously a farm and a golf course.[2][4] As well as tenements, the area contains some of the city's early experiments in multi-storey housing, built around 1955 at Prospecthill Crescent.[5]

Prospecthill Circus as it is appeared in 2009

In the northern portion of the district, Prospecthill Circus was a colourful collection of two 23-storey tower blocks, a 20-storey slab block and numerous deck access maisonettes (all since demolished) constructed by the city authorities between 1963 and 1968.[6] When the neighbourhood was at its lowest ebb in the mid-2000s awaiting redevelopment, the local street gang reacted with hostile racist graffiti directed towards asylum seekers being housed in empty properties in the area, with a perception that the incomers were being given priority treatment over locals living in deprivation.[7][8]

A derelict multi-storey block awaiting demolition in Prospecthill Circus was used in 2006 by SONY to create an advertisement for their BRAVIA range of televisions. The commercial involved the blasting of paint onto disused buildings.[9][10] The main tower block in the advert was demolished in a controlled explosion on 21 January 2007;[6] the remaining two towers survived for almost a decade before being demolished in stages during late 2016, using a Long reach excavator.[11][12]

'The Circus' underwent comprehensive redevelopment by the Glasgow Housing Association (GHA) in the early 21st century, culminating in a major development by Cruden Homes, with construction taking place between around 2015 and 2018,[13] leaving the area virtually unrecognisable from the way it looked a few years prior.[14][15]

Flats on Prospecthill Crescent with St. Brigid's chapel in the background

The 851 tenement flats and 232 tower block apartments in the south of the district (managed by Thistle Housing Association) were also refurbished externally, including brighter rendering and energy efficiency, in the 2010s.[16] The association's management of the properties came under scrutiny during the course of the project which suffered various delays and serious concerns over quality and safety,[17][18][19][20] resulting in some of the houses being transferred to Sanctuary Scotland in 2020 on instruction of the Scottish Housing Regulator.[21]

Queen's Park Secondary School

Between 1967 and 1994, the buildings of Queen's Park Secondary School (originally based at Grange Road, Battlefield) were located in Toryglen.[22][23] After several years as a derelict plot, the 'Crown Gardens' housing development was built on the site.[24]

The school's football pitches (on the south side of Prospecthill Road) were built into Toryglen Regional Football Centre,[25] as part of Glasgow City Council's plans to boost the city's sporting facilities in the run up to hosting the 2014 Commonwealth Games. On the opposite site of the road there is an Asda superstore, built in 1997.[26][27]

Malls Mire

The Malls Mire burn, which has been almost entirely culverted, runs north-east under Hampden Park, the Football Centre and the supermarket, to the west of the Prospecthill Circus area under the railway line and motorway, joins the West/Cityford Burn from Rutherglen[28][29] which becomes the Polmadie Burn (also known as Jenny's Burn)[30][31] – once heavily polluted by waste from White's Chemicals at nearby Shawfield – and flows into the River Clyde at Richmond Park.[32] While it was visible above ground, the Malls Mire formed part of the boundary between the ancient counties of Renfrewshire and Lanarkshire;[33] an informal search by a group of local historians in 2020 failed to uncover any of the old boundary stones denoted on maps from the time.[34]

The burn gives its name to an adjacent area of ground between Toryglen and Burnhill (meeting football pitches including the home ground of Rutherglen Glencairn F.C.), which lay overgrown for some years but was cleaned and landscaped in the early 21st century to be maintained as a 'community woodland',[35][36] and was granted Local nature reserve status in 2015.[37]

Notable people

See also

References

  1. [1]
    Neighbourhood Profiles: Toryglen, Understanding Glasgow, 2012
  2. [2]
    A history of Toryglen Golf Club, Rutherglen, Rutherglen Heritage Society, October 2018
  3. [3]
    Toryglen SSHA Housing Scheme, Eleventh Development, Dictionary of Scottish Architects
  4. [4]
    "Toryglen". Forgotten Golfing Greens of Scotland. Retrieved 22 October 2018.
  5. [5]
    Toryglen SSHA Housing Scheme, Sixth Development, Dictionary of Scottish Architects
  6. [6]
    "TV ad's 'paint flats' demolished". BBC News. BBC. 21 January 2007. Retrieved 11 February 2018.
  7. [7]
    Stephen Stewart (5 March 2007). "Asylum seekers targeted by gangs". BBC News. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
  8. [8]
    Paul O'Hare (15 February 2008). "Scotland's Gangs". Daily Record. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
  9. [9]
    "Sony BRAVIA - The Advert". Sony.com. 2006. Archived from the original on 30 April 2007. Retrieved 1 May 2007.
  10. [10]
    "Remembering when a Glasgow tower block got 'paint bombed' for a TV advert". Glasgow Live. 18 December 2020. Retrieved 11 February 2024.
  11. [11]
    Murray Spooner (3 October 2016). "Iconic Toryglen flats to be demolished". Daily Record / Rutherglen Reformer. Retrieved 22 October 2018.
  12. [12]
    99 & 111 Prospecthill Circus, Glasgow, Dem-Master
  13. [13]
    "King's View Toryglen". Cruden Homes.
  14. [14]
    Video: North Toryglen, Glasgow City Council, 2017
  15. [15]
    Video: The demolition and rebuild of Prospecthill Circus, Glasgow, BTJustice, July 2020
  16. [16]
    "Projects: Toryglen Estate, Glasgow". Lawtech Group. Retrieved 22 October 2018.
  17. [17]
    Edel Keaney (8 December 2016). ""It's like Beirut on a bad day" say Toryglen tenants". Daily Record / Rutherglen Reformer. Retrieved 22 October 2018.
  18. [18]
    Energy supplier causes year's worth of problems for Rutherglen neighbourhood, Daily Record, 8 July 2017
  19. [19]
    Toryglen housing scheme residents fear for their safety after building blunders put lives at risk, Daily Record, 19 April 2019
  20. [20]
    The scandal of Thistle Housing Association in Toryglen, Evening Times, 27 August 2019
  21. [21]
    Sanctuary Scotland preferred partner for Thistle Housing Association transfer, Sanctuary Group, 12 February 2020
  22. [22]
    "The End for Stan Laurel's School". heraldscotland.com. 10 May 1994. Retrieved 14 January 2017.
  23. [23]
    "Reunion planned for Glasgow school that closed 23 years ago". Evening Times. 1 August 2017. Retrieved 23 August 2018.
  24. [24]
    "Crown Gardens". Barratt Homes. Archived from the original on 3 July 2012. Retrieved 22 October 2018.
  25. [25]
    "Kenny Dalglish opens first regional football centre in Toryglen Glasgow". sportscotland. 7 August 2009. Retrieved 22 October 2018.
  26. [26]
    Toryglen store set for major expansion, Daily Record, 3 September 2008
  27. [27]
    McDonald’s reveal plan for store at Glasgow's Toryglen Asda, Glasgow Times, 26 March 2019
  28. [28]
    Glasgow, Castlemilk House, Greater Glasgow: An Illustrated Architectural Guide, Sam Small, 2008 (quoted at Canmore)
  29. [29]
    The Cityford Burn, Rutherglen Heritage Society
  30. [30]
    "Richmond Park". Clyde Waterfront. Retrieved 22 October 2018.
  31. [31]
    "Our Pub". Jenny Burn (Marston's). Retrieved 22 October 2018.
  32. [32]
    Whites Chemical Company, Rutherglen Heritage Society
  33. [33]
    "Ordnance Survey 6 inch, 1888-1913". Explore georeferenced maps. National Library of Scotland. Retrieved 22 October 2018.
  34. [34]
    Searching for Boundary Stones in Toryglen, Rutherglen Heritage Society, September 2020
  35. [35]
    "Malls Mire Community Woodland". Urban Roots. Retrieved 22 October 2018.
  36. [36]
    "Malls Mire Community Reserve". Woodland Trust. Retrieved 22 October 2018.
  37. [37]
    Will Henshaw (1 June 2015). "Toryglen's Urban Roots celebrate as Malls Mire gains local nature reserve status". Daily Record. Retrieved 22 October 2018.
  38. [38]
    "Chairman of Scotland's national galleries inspired by his grandfather". Evening Times. 16 May 2017. Retrieved 8 May 2019.
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