October 1900: Springburn Public Hall and Winter Garden – Laying of the Hall’s Foundation Stone, and the Opening of the Reid Winter Garden, on Saturday the 6th

An article on page eleven of The Glasgow Herald, on Monday the 8th of October, 1900, reads:

 

“SPRINGBURN PUBLIC HALL AND WINTER GARDEN.

 

The memorial-stone of the Springburn Public Hall was laid on Saturday afternoon by Lord Provost Chisholm. Associated

with the ceremony was the formal opening by Mrs Hugh Reid of the Reid Winter Garden, gifted to the city by the Messrs Reid.

The double event was looked forward to with great interest by the people of Springburn, and both functions were very largely

attended. Unfortunately the weather was extremely inclement, rain falling heavily throughout the afternoon, and the ceremonies,

or at all events the open-air one, were somewhat shorn of the eclat which in more favourable conditions would have attended them.

The new Public Hall, which is in course of erection by the Corporation as the outcome of long and persistent agitation on the part

of the inhabitants of the locality and advocacy by their representatives in the Town Council, is situated in Keppochhill Road at the

corner of Millerbank Street, and almost directly opposite another handsome range of public buildings occupied by the Fire Brigade

and Tramway Departments. The estimated cost is about £12,000, and the edifice, which is chaste in design and commodious internally,

is being erected in accordance with plans by Mr W. B. Whittie, formerly assistant in the office of Mr A. B. McDonald, the city engineer.

The main hall is 77 feet in length by 50 feet in width, and is seated for the accommodation of fully 1200 persons. The Winter Garden

occupies an appropriate site on the southern portion of Springburn Park, a short distance to the north of Broomfield Road. It has been

erected at a cost of £10,000, through the generosity of the family the late Lord Dean of Guild Reid, whose gifts to the city, it will be

recalled, include a numerous and valuable collection of paintings. The structure, which has an internal area of 150 feet by 60 feet, is

about 40 feet in height, and was designed by Messrs Simpson & Farmer, hot-house builders, along with Mr William Baird, of the Temple

Ironworks. On each side of the main building is a range of plant houses, 50 feet long by 32 feet in width.

 

The members of the Corporation, with the guests invited for the occasion, assembled at the Municipal Buildings, George Square, and at

two o’clock the company, which included a large number of ladies, drove in carriages to Springburn. Among others present were Lord

Provost Chisholm, Mr and Mrs Hugh Reid, Mr and Mrs John Reid, Mr Andrew T. Reid, Mr Hugh Brown, Rev. Dr McAdam Muir, and a

large representation of the Town Council. At the memorial-stone ceremony Bailie John King (convener of the Sub-Committee on

Springburn Halls) presided. After a brief religious service, conducted by Rev. John G. Duncan and Rev. J. H. Dickie, the Chairman made

a statement, in which he traced the origin and described the purposes of the building. Lord Provost Chisholm then laid the memorial-stone,

after which Mr Whittie, on behalf of the contractor for the joiner work, handed to the Lord Provost a trowel, and Mr Hugh Macpherson,

contractor for the mason work, handed to Bailie King a mallet, as souvenirs of the occasion. The Lord Provost congratulated the residents

of the district on the near approach of the completion of their public hall, and the proceedings were closed by the band playing the

National Anthem.

 

At the opening of the Reid Winter Garden the Lord Provost presided, and called on the Rev. Hugh Mair and the Rev. Alexander Gilchrist

to conduct a brief religious service. The Lord Provost next addressed the company, and expressed the Corporation’s and citizens’ gratitude

to the Messrs Reid for their gift of this amenity to the residents of the district. His Lordship invited Mrs Hugh Reid to do the Corporation

the honour of performing the opening ceremony; and Mr Simpson, the contractor, having presented Mrs Reid with a gold key, she declared

the Winter Garden open for the perpetual use of the citizens, the ceremony being followed, on the call of the Lord Provost, by ‘Three

cheers for Mrs Reid.’ Ex-Bailie Wm. Bilsland (convener of the Committee on Parks and Gardens), on behalf of the Corporation, presented

Mrs Reid with a silver flower vase as a memento of the occasion. Mr Hugh Reid, on behalf of his wife, acknowledged the compliment and

gifts, and in the course of an address mentioned that it was 37 years since his family came to reside at Springburn. For many years after

that the district retained much of its sylvan beauty and rural charm. As a family they sometimes felt that their commercial and

manufacturing relations with it had of necessity done not a little to destroy its former beauty, and that they owed it a debt they could not

hope to repay. The objects they had at heart in suggesting a winter garden were to afford some protection from the extremes of climatic

conditions with which we were familiar, and that the garden might make band performances possible in the park independently of the

state of the weather, and that association therein with plants and flowers at all seasons of the year in a comfortable temperature might

afford pleasure and an opportunity of instruction to the people of the district. (Applause.)

 

A concert of instrumental and vocal music followed.”

 

 

The British Newspaper Archive.

 

 

George Fairfull-Smith, September 2021.