Garnethill Park, Glasgow

Garnethill Park is located on the north side of Hill Street, between Dalhousie Street to the south-east and Rose Street to the north-west. The OS 1st Edition 25 inch to the mile (Lanarkshire VI.6, 1860) depicts buildings facing Hill Street, Rose Street and Dalhousie Street, including Albert Place and Whitehall Place, where the park now exists.

Recently there have been a series of artistic interventions that have changed the format of the park to form landscape features. These include two painted gables and a well-known and much admired tile mural that was created on the north boundary wall by artists John Kraska, Irene Keenan and Tommy Lydon in 1979. The murals formed part of the wider Garnethill Mural Project. The area was developed into a public park, on two levels in the late 1980s. Initially the upper (north-west) part of the park comprised a football pitch. This was replaced by landscaping in 1990 when environmental artist Dieter Magnus created ‘Waterworks’, in association with the Goethe Institute as part of Glasgow’s European City of Culture. The park opened on 26th October 1991. The newly landscaped park comprises a central, brick-built pyramid, a water feature and steps down the steeper part of the sloping park. The pyramid comprises an internal spiral stair that leads up to a platform that provides views over the park and south-east to the Glasgow School of Art Haldane building. The sloping sides of the pyramid and the flat upper platform reflect the roofline of the Haldane building. Flowing from the south-east face, at the base of the pyramid, is a ‘stream’ of red granite boulders. Originally, this formed part of a water feature that flowed from the pyramid through a sluice gate-controlled upper area, into a series of narrow channels that run down slope. Amongst the other features that were introduced at this time were a children’s play park, light box cubes, a shelter and a range of benches.

In 2005, Ulrike Enslein created a series of cast concrete slabs that were set into paths. Each slab comprises a quote, taken from discussions with local residents who gave her memories of living in the area. The quotes were then cast into the slabs and the slabs positioned with the path network.

In 2017, a community bread oven was built and fired, giving the opportunity to revitalise the park, and focus on communal activities such as pizza-making.

In 2018, as part of a collaborative project, staff from HES and the Glasgow School of Art surveyed the north-west part of the park, using plane table survey and photography. During the survey aspects of the children’s play area were being remodeled by Glasgow City Council.

Visited by HES (AGCH, AMcC, LM) 18 November 2019.

In 2018, as part of a collaborative project, staff from HES and the Glasgow School of Art surveyed the north-west part of the park, using plane table survey and photography.