A super clear photo kindly shared by Gordon Cook and Alex Rochead, exclusively seen online here for the first time.
The scene features St Joseph’s Church on Glasgow Road. The full photo coming shortly, but for now from around 1929, I was interested particularly in not just the beautiful church erected 24 years earlier, but the detail on the road, on Glasgow Road itself.
I was surprised to see that parts of Glasgow Road, at a time before tarmacadam was inlaid with cobblestones between the tramlines. This was probably to strengthen certain points of the tramlanes like here for example where they were doubled up at the former tram terminus. The photo would have been taken not far from the Old Original Bar.
I’ve seen cobblestones on other parts of Glasgow Road in old photos, namely at crossing points like Station Road but this section was a surprise to me in how extensive the width of the cobbles were. In the foregound you can see some road construction going on, leading me to believe the photo is 1929 when the road was widened.
(c) Blantyre Project
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