The Hidden Glasgow Forums

Does anyone know anything about the origins of the wee 'corner park' at the West side corner of Tobago Street and London Road?

I can just about remember when I was little and going through the area when it was full of clatty and manky old tenements, workshops etc. The wee corner park stood out as a gorgeous bit of greenery. It was always walled in, with daily locked and unlocked gates and well-maintained; sadly unlike now.

A a wee boy I was told it wa a 'private' garden that was built and maintained by some local philanthropist businessman. I understand that later, in the heyday of GEAR, it was donated/accepted by the Council.

It also got me thinking as to what other small green spots or amenities were donated throughout the city.

I was looking at that wee park the other day, I was wondering if it was a war memorial, been contributing to that thread a wee bit. Unfortunately it was rush hour when I passed, must go down and take a few pics soon.

I think your idea of getting together a list of such donated spaces would be a great idea, it could perhaps allow us to put pressure on the council to maintain them, although I must admit I do dispair of the Councils ability to maintain anything these days.

Look at the discraceful state of our big public spaces, as a young child I remember enjoying many of Glasgow's Parks and delighting in their beauty, now most are almost barn wastelands that you would fear to enter, other than wee bits at the enterances.

It would be ineresting though to seek out the legal deeds that went along with such donations to see if the council has a legal duty. But when you look at things like Pollok Park, building the Burrell Collection etc. I think they can wriggle out of just about anything interms of responsibility.

They need to bite the bullet of commitment and determine that we will have adequate green spaces and maintain them. I understand that the money issue is always the problem,but sometime we just have to pay if we want such facilities.

John

passed by later today and took these:

Sorry about this one must have moved, there werea lot of cars about:



Internal views:





And the dedication stone:



John

I am happy to look into the issue of maintenance of this park. I will try and post back if i uncover anything that may be of interest.

On the wider issue raised by John. The Council is spending money on maintenance of parks within the City. The point is we need to get people out using them again so that they are safe places to go. Unfortunately, we don't use parks as often as we use to. And before you jump in with the agrument about it being the Council's fault. More activities now take place to try and encourage people to use the parks. During the Easter Holiday activities are arranged for this purpose.

I also remember going to my local park when I was younger. We didn't need the council to put on activities, we went because we wanted to.

Hi alex,

I know the council spends loadsa cash on the parks but in relative terms they dont. unfortunately most of our open spaces are vandalised now. When I was young, kid didn't do these things? I don't think so. The fact that even in a small park like houshillwood, there was a park keeper on from 6am till 10pm along side a whole range of gardeners and other staff made the difference.

The basis fact is the council do not employ enough people. you now get a visit maybe one twice a day by park rangers in a wee van who wiz through the place with hardly enough time to see where they are going let alone dael with issues.

I remember the play park in priesthill, used to take kids there, broken swings, shoots roundabouts, no inspections or maintainance. when you reported these things they would come out and either remove the dangerous bit or remove the entire item.

We could do much better, after all other councils do! Glasgow has a much large parks dept than most of the surounding councils, but all of our cash seemss to be thrown into "World class events" not at the basics for the people who live in the city.

John

job78989 wrote:passed by later today and took these:

Sorry about this one must have moved, there werea lot of cars about:



Internal views:





And the dedication stone:



John

That is beautiful. Very doleful, but beautiful. Who wrote it, what's it about?

I worked on a feasibility study for a site near here last year, i remember hearing that the garden was gifted by Templeton, of Templeton's Carpets fame, couldn't tell you when though!

Date on the memorial is 1954

John

Regretfully, these type of small grassy areas are magnets for buckie drinking neds. Yes, it's a stereotype but one they live up to time and time again.

What to people on Community Service do? Can't they be utilised by cleaning up these types of areas?

People don't use parks anymore because of dog fouling, drug taking, drinking and general ned-ness. Alexandra Park is just such an example, loads of money spent on the entrance, they build a lovely new school within the grounds and in the play park behind the school there are still drunk junkies taking their junk in broad daylight. Who wants to be around that?

Fat Cat wrote:Regretfully, these type of small grassy areas are magnets for buckie drinking neds. Yes, it's a stereotype but one they live up to time and time again.

What to people on Community Service do? Can't they be utilised by cleaning up these types of areas?

People don't use parks anymore because of dog fouling, drug taking, drinking and general ned-ness. Alexandra Park is just such an example, loads of money spent on the entrance, they build a lovely new school within the grounds and in the play park behind the school there are still drunk junkies taking their junk in broad daylight. Who wants to be around that?

Totally agree. The antisocial aspects should be dealt with
first before any more money is spent.

job78989 wrote: there was a park keeper on from 6am till 10pm along side a whole range of gardeners and other staff made the difference.

The basis fact is the council do not employ enough people. you now get a visit maybe one twice a day by park rangers in a wee van who wiz through the place with hardly enough time to see where they are going let alone dael with issues.

I think this is the key to the problem - removal of small authority figures. Kids would (according to stories from my folks anyway!) learn a bit of respect too, know their boundaries.

When you let folk just run wild and do what they like, you end up with druggies and neds vandalising parks.

To be honest I didn't start the thread to set off another run of complaints about the Cooncil not doing enough. We have covered that elsewhere (East End Proper Regeneration thread I think). Some of the complaints seem to be that the Council shouldn't spend money on these things, then some seem to be that the Council don't spend enough. As so often, it's easier just to blame the Council for many ills, whilst in reality the great British public just seem no longer willing to pay the price (i.e. taxes) in the first place for decent public infrastructure.

Returning to the topic I would still be interested in any other examples folks could give of similar small scale philanthropy elsewhere in the city.

You got it right there AD, the old am gonna tell yir faither, used to work quite well, they probably didn't have a clue who your father was but it worked.

Or the good old Billy Connelly one of see you, hingings too good fur you its a good kick in the arse you need.

Yes the problems are caused by human behaviour, that may have many diverse social and political reason behind it, however these type of problems have always been part of human society. The Greeks, Roman and Egyptians all complained about the behaviour of young people, drunken debaucher everywhere, graffiti has also been with use a long time.

Its moderate systems of influence and control that are require to engineer the ideas of community and respect.

John

Isn't there one around Park Circus somewhere? Just up from Suckyhall Street. I think I remember locked gates and keep out signs.

Here's a well hidden garden a little way off Baillieston Road. It joins the dead ends of Duncryne Gardens and Rylands Gardens and is entered via a simple wrought iron arch with the name over - haven't seen it for ages, and can't recall it, but it is some sort of memorial.

On the other subject, it's a shame that some of the best documentaries are getting shunted to the wee small hours. There was a recent one that featured the subject of kids lack of respect for adults/authority, and the presenter laid the blame clearly on the parents, who were largely the product of the 'Swingin' 60s" and ideas promoted at the time, together with the teachings of Dr. Benjamin Spock's 'enlightenment'.

She featured the case of the mother fined for not getting her truanting son to school, who the media portrayed as a victim of the new law at the time. During the interview however, a different picture appeared, as this woman had no respect for the school/teachers, and her son simply followed her example. Then there were the parents who let their teen daughters (14 yo) smoke, drink, take drugs at home and have sex, even driving them to nightclubs to see if they could pass for 18 to get in. "We'd rather know what they were doing - and we've checked their dealer to make sure he doesn't give them hard drugs".