Glasgow, Drumchapel

DRUMCHAPEL

The undulating lands of Garscadden were obtained from the Erskines by Patrick Galbraith in 1444. They passed to Wallace of Dundonald in 1611, then to the Colquhouns in 1655. Garscadden House was built sometime after 1664 and enlarged about 1747. Coal mining was begun around 1870 near the village of Drumchapel, on the south-east of the estate. The railway station was opened in 1891 and a sprinkling of middle-class villas followed. In 1938 the City built 40 flatted dwellings at Drumchapel to rehouse overcrowded families. They purchased the whole estate in 1939 and the 1951 post-war plan included 7,500 mainly three- and four-storey tenement dwellings, housing 35,000 people at the peak in 1961, when it was nicknamed 'The Drum'. The estate meanders around a cluster of small drumlins on the lower slopes of the Kilpatrick Hills, merging with those of the Campsies. The Arndale Shopping Centre, 1962, Gerald M Baxter, was followed by an industrial estate. The shops were extended in 1971, not long before the population declined through overspill and other migration looking for work. Drumchapel today is becoming a much more interesting place to live, with fresh refurbishment of some of the bland mid-1950s housing and considerable variety in the private sector replacements, all enhanced by the hilly setting.

The hilltop Garscadden was a symmetrical Georgian Mansion, with a fine classical portico at first-floor level, reached by twin quadrant stairs. Long demolished, the site is occupied by Garscadden Policies, three multistorey blocks of flats, 1965, A Buchanan Campbell. Nearby are the family memorial at Linkwood Crescent, while part of the estate wall survives on Maryhill Road, with massive 19th-century cast-iron gates, at the West of Scotland Science Park.

Taken from "Greater Glasgow: An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Sam Small, 2008. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk