After 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,: