This photo was kindly shared by Peter Leggate and is from 1981. Pictured is Glasgow Road, as police stop traffic to allow the Gala Day floats to go by. The photo looks eastwards towards Grants and Gilmour’s Buildings at the back, (near the junction of Forrest Street). Those buildings were amongst the last of the old tenements to be demolished on Glasgow Road and would not survive that year.
To the left, you can just about see the float coming into view with the Gala Queen and her attendants on board, with a magnificent castle built on the float as a backdrop.
The road had been realigned by then and the Sports Centre construction was underway out the picture to the left. No Devlin Grove yet.
On the right you can just about see the old Post Office protruding out from the newly constructed Clydeview Shopping Centre is.
The shopping centre was brand new, looking clean and likely offered hope of the future to many businesses at that time. Indeed, at the time of this photo, it had only opened a few months earlier.
Jumping back to the present, Asda representatives are now discussing with local community groups, plans to address the empty units within this shopping centre, following an excellent petition instigated by local lady, Amanda Dawson. Following meetings in January 2017, Asda now recognise the problem of unoccupied units and plan to address this in the coming months, although at this juncture it’s not clear yet what that fully means. My personal preference would be for these units to be knocked down and smaller, individual and numerous units built, ideally with Glasgow Road Parking built (similar to Cambuslang). With the exception of a few long standing businesses, on the whole these units have failed to be any sort of meaningful long standing retail development and if things are left as they are, will only keep driving people towards outwardly retail parks.