Two new books provide fascinating reading for anyone interested in the local history of Glasgow and the West End.
A History of Glasgow’s Byres Road and Old Partick are packed with priceless anecdotes and facts - and bags of old photos.
In the former, Barclay Price tells a compelling story of the road’s origins from a farm track to the present-day thoroughfare.
Having spent the first 20 years of his life growing up in Ruthven Lane, he has gathered many stories about the people and buildings that have shaped this famous Glasgow street and its associated lanes.
The well-sourced book is divided into 21 chapters, beginning naturally with its origins as a dirt track and how it grew from there.
Themes
The other chapters deal with various themes, enabling the author to talk about all the aspects of Byres Road in turn - including its shops and businesses, people and events, entertainment and notable happenings.
What we know today largely began to take share in the middle of the 19th century.
The road as we know it was set out in 1838, connecting the village of Partick in the south to the Great Western Road the newly-purchased Glasgow Botanic Gardens in the north.
The first building on this new section of road was The Curlers Tavern in the mid-1840s - scotching the notion that the building dates back to the 17th century when the area was open fields.
Advertised
Although the new road was in place by 1840, no other buildings were erected in the new section of Byres Road until the 1860s.
The first was Kelvinside Free Church (now Òran Mór) on the corner of Great Western Road and Byres Road, which opened in 1862.
Five years later the first block of tenements in Byres Road (Nos. 174- 190) was completed.
Originally named Ashton Place, the block was built for John Swan, an iron merchant as an investment.
In November 1867, the first Byres Road shops were advertised: ‘To let, at Ashton Place, three very superior shops suitable for be a grocer and wine merchant, a baker and butcher.’
And so began the road’s association with retail and service that continue to this day.
Elsewhere, the book explores the history of the lanes and streets the give Byres Road its bohemian character.
Having spent the first 20 years of his life growing up in Ruthven Lane, Barclay Price has gathered many stories about the people and buildings that have shaped this famous Glasgow street and its associated lanes.
Ashton Lane was built around 1878 and a number of local shopkeepers housed horses and delivery carts there.
The coachmen of a number of local wealthy local residents resided in the upstairs flat, with their employer’s carriage and horse stabled below.
A number of properties later became workshops and the location for some pioneering industries of the time, including Barr & Stroud who made range-finders for the Royal Navy and employed upwards of 65 people before moving to larger premises in Anniesland in 1904.
In Old Partick, author Lewis Hutton maps out the changes to the village as it was in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The cover bears a wonderful image of ramshackle old cottages abutting smoky tenements, none of which exist today.
The photo was taken at a point on old Castlebank Street, now the junction of Beith Street with Keith Court, and harks back to a day when Partick was a mill town.
To avoid duplication with other books by the same publisher, this one includes the old village of Partick and the area surrounding it, plus Overnewton which is adjacent to but not part of Partick.
The area is bounded by the railway bridge over Dumbarton Road in the west, and Highburgh Road.
Familiar areas are Dumbarton Road, Peel Street, Merkland Street, Gardner Street, Hyndland Street.
Sites and location that are no more are the old Kelvin Hall, Scotstoun Mill, the Regent’s Mill, Yorkhill House and Partick Central Station.
The book takes a broad sweep at Partick’s changing fortunes, bringing the reader up to the present day.
With the loss of heavy industries along the river, Partick saw a long decline into the 1990s, and a millennium of milling ended in 2013.
“More recently, through the efforts of community groups and organisations like Partick Housing Association, it is looking brighter and busier.
“The new Riverside Museum has reclaimed the derelict land at Pointhouse, and a new bridge remakes an ancient river crossing to Govan,” says the author.
- Both books are published and distributed by Stenlake Publishing Limited, 54-58 Mill Square, Catrine, KA5 6RD. Tel: 01290 551122 email sales@stenlake.co.uk. A History of Glasgow’s Byres Road, 192 pages. 360 illustrations, is priced £29.95. Old Partick, 48 pages 55 illustrations is priced £11.95
