From Park to Sandyford, and Charing Cross

Originally initiated and produced for Glasgow’s West End Festival, this walk has been expanded to cover the city’s Park, Sandyford and Charing Cross districts.

It commences at the Park Terrace entrance to Kelvingrove Park, and covers the history of the fashionable Park residential area, which sits on Woodlands Hill.

View of Woodlands House.

Some of Glasgow’s most successful families lived in this area, and the city’s Directories, along with other records, are a veritable ‘Who was Who’ of the city’s industrial, commercial and cultural history. These range from the accountant, James Wyllie Guild, who was renowned for his famous private library, to John Houldsworth, who owned 1 Park Terrace, which had a specially-designed interior and furnishings, destined to display the owner’s outstanding collection of modern art, in the 1850s.

John Lavery’s oil sketch of James Wyllie Guild, for the artist’s large painting State Visit of Her Majesty, Queen Victoria to the Glasgow International Exhibition, 1888.

The walk continues to Claremont Terrace, and the former home of Isabella Elder, one of the most important women in Glasgow’s history.

Portrait of Mrs. Isabella Elder (1828-1905), by John Everett Millais. Reproduced courtesy of Glasgow Museums.

Heading towards Sandyford and Sauchiehall Street, the walk passes Charles Wilson’s Queen’s Rooms, designed as a concert hall, primarily for the benefit of the West-end residents. It is now the Hindu Mandir, and access to this historic building is available depending on the opening hours.

Moving into the Sandyford district, we visit the site of Glasgow’s Botanical Gardens, which opened in 1817.

The residential terraces of Sandyford lead towards Charing Cross, an area radically altered in the 1960s by the construction of the inner ring road.

For further information about this walk, please contact:  glasgow_walking_tours@btinternet.com

This walk will be available from April 2020.