1982 Landscaping Glasgow Road

Blantyre Glasgow Road
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1982 Glasgow Road wmAfter the opening of the Sports Centre in June 1982, extensive landscaping took place to either side of the widened Glasgow Road. Brick planters with topsoil, intended to make Blantyre come alive with flowers, a far cry from the old boarded up dereliction so prevalent on this street in the previous decade.

Here in 1982 we see the completed Sports Centre, taken from the top of Clydeview Shopping Centre. The original and previous configuration of the hard landscaping caught my eye too. I’d forgotten that it was different originally before the 1990 relandscaoing and of course the current design undertaken in the early 2000’s. No sign of that hideous steel beam monument (more fitting for Motherwell than Blantyre). A lower landscaped area next to the sports centre would certainly have been handier for the Christmas Lights switch on events now a centrepiece for the tree. I’m not quite sure why that was all grassed over as it is today.

For the first time, I thought of students or people leaving Blantyre in 1979 to study or do business elsewhere, only to return 3 years later and see this astonishing renovation! It must have seemed like the future had arrived and one things for sure, it changed Blantyre forever!

The full extensive story, warts n all of Blantyre’s 1970’s demolition and renovation is coming in 2018 within my sequel book, “Blantyre Glasgow Road North – The Real Story.”

I’d love to hear from any former displaced traders to help tell that story…..

Featuring Blantyre Project Social Media with permission. Strictly not for use by others on or offline, our visitors said,:

Alison Walker-Hill I have it in the back of my mind that when Asda and the associated shops were built, originally there were supposed to be flats above the shops………am I just making this up? Maybe it was something on the original plans that got dropped somewhere along the line!
Chris Mcnulty I may be wrong but was there not public toilets across from bottom of victoria street?
Sally Mckean There were toilets there
Blantyre Project sorry, this is an old photo, a little blurry.Alison – in a small booklet as early as 1973, it WAS proposed flats should be in the upper parts of the building, long before the design was settled. However, documentation by 1977 says “office space” and storage above. Perhaps it was felt sufficient homes were built in Blantyre during that decade to rehouse those displaced? Chris – there WAS public toilets across from Victoria Street, but they’d been removed well before this.
Alison Walker-Hill Phew…..good to know I’m not just making things up!!
John Paterson yes and a bus stop
James Sime The current landscape was done in the 2000s . Was all part of the regeneration stuff – new pavements, new consistent shop frontages on the old glasgow road shops, new street lights etc. That area in pic was cleared, including the toilets at bottom of victoria street, the play area next to the traffic lights (where that big metal sculpture is) and all the gardens etc. It was cleared and became just grass areas, as the old landscaping was full of rats etc. Also its cheaper for the council to maintain a bit of grass than all the complicated landscaping that was there before. Each time they redevelop for the better, Blantyre seems to lose things and become emptier and more bare looking. This will happen with the asda proposals to demolish the east shopping centre and we will be left with a big bare space with a few useless bog standard retail units. Progress, eh!

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