Kelvingrove Park - Times Past

In partnership with the Glasgow Times, our archivists are exploring Glasgow's fascinating history. This week, Nerys Tunnicliffe writes about Glasgow's Kelvingrove Park.

Kelvingrove Park is well loved as a green haven within the busy city’s west end with wildlife such as herons, squirrels, ducks, foxes, and even otters. One thing that struck me when I first came to Glasgow was how well used the parks were, particularly the Kelvingrove. Whether its students and office workers having a quick coffee and sandwich seated by the 190 plus metre herbaceous border, or concert go-ers at the 1904 B Listed Bandstand (restored and reopened in 2013), or families taking a walk after visiting the fantastic Art Gallery and Museum, the park’s an ever-popular attraction.

Formed around the River Kelvin that runs through it, and overlooked by the grand Park Terrace and Park Circus on one side, and the imposing Glasgow University buildings on the other, it offers a place to relax or exercise whilst escaping the urban landscape.

Part of the park’s lands were originally owned by Lord Provost Patrick Colquhoun, who named them Kelvingrove and built a mansion with gardens, Kelvingrove House on the site of what is now Kelvingrove Museum in 1782-83. A John Pattison then purchased the estate in 1792 and extended it to the north. Pattison sold the house and lands three years later to the Dennistouns, a merchant family. In 1841 Colin McNaughton, another merchant, acquired the estate.

Eventually in 1852, Glasgow Town Council purchased the Kelvingrove lands, along with neighbouring lands from the Woodlands estate, with the aim of forming a public parkland space, spending over £77,000. In 1884 more lands, Clayslaps, Overnewton and Kelvinbank, were purchased to increase the size of the park. The large costs would be recovered by the council by feuing prime land up on the hill, the now prestigious Park Circus complex. Indeed, part of the reason for creating the park was to increase the value of local property in the vicinity by adding an appealing and fashionable green space. The West End Park, as it was then named, was mostly aimed at the middle classes who were settling in Glasgow’s west end.

Commerce wasn’t the only reason for Glasgow Town Council to create the park. The growth of the industrial revolution and huge surge in population in Glasgow, as in many cities, had severely limited outdoor space. Rises of outbreaks of cholera, along with general ill health and overcrowding were driving factors to break up the urban sprawl by establishing places to walk, take the air and rest from city life.

Sir Joseph Paxton, head gardener at Chatsworth House, famous for his plans of Crystal Park, London, was employed to landscape the park. Later he would be responsible for the design of Glasgow’s Queens’ Park. Landscaping began in 1853 following a typical Victorian design. Park Circus architect Charles Wilson, and park surveyor Thomas Kyle also had a large input into the park’s design.

In 1888 the park was seen as the fitting location for the International Exhibition of Industry, Science and Art, a showcase of Glasgow’s achievements as the ‘Second City of the Empire’. Opened by Queen Victoria, and attended by over 5 million, the event raised enough money for a new municipal museum, today’s Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. Such was the exhibition’s success that it led to two other similar events at the park, Glasgow’s International Exhibition in 1901, and the smaller scale Scottish National Exhibition in 1911. Although most of these exhibition’s structures, such as a ‘switchback’ railway, water chute, and reproduction of Glasgow’s Bishop Castle, were only temporary, there are still some reminders within the park such as James Miller’s 1901 Port Sunlight Cottages and the ‘An Clachan’ boulder (from the 1911 display recreating a highland village).

Glasgow is often referred to as a ‘Dear Green Place’, and the lovely Kelvingrove Park is testament to that notion.