A Brief History

by Andrew Greg

Since the 17th century there had been an accumulation of cottages on the crossroads where the ancient road from Glasgow to Pollokshaws is crossed by the road from Paisley to Hamilton (of which Nithsdale Road is part). Hugh MacDonald’s Rambles round Glasgow of 1853 evokes the character of old Strathbungo before the suburbanisation of the later 19th century:

“Crossing the Clyde by the elegant and spacious Broomielaw bridge, and passing along Bridge Street, Eglinton Street, and past the front of the Cavalry Barracks, now deserted by its gay cavaliers, we soon arrive outside theboundaries of the city. A walk of a mile or so farther - during which we pass on the right, Muirhouses, a row of one-storeyed and thatched edifices, and at a short distance to the left, the hamlet of Butterbiggins - brings us to a little village which rejoices in the somewhat unmusical appellation of Strathbungo. There is nothing particularly attractive or worthy of attention about this tiny little congregation of houses. With the exception of the church, a small and neat but plain specimen of ecclesiastical architecture, the houses are for the most part humble one or two-storeyed buildings, inhabited principally by weavers, miners, and other descriptions of operatives. There are, of course, several public-houses in the village and those who have an eye to the fine arts, as manifested on sign-boards, will be amused, if not delighted, with a unique head of Burns, which is suspended over the entrance to one of them, with a barefaced quotation in praise of whisky attached to it by way of pendant…. Leaving Strathbungo, a pleasant walk of about half-a-mile brings us to another village not less ridiculously provided with a name. This is Crossmyloof, a finely situated little hamlet, composed principally of plain and unpretending houses, ranged on both sides of the highway, and occupied chiefly by families of the operative class. A considerable number of the humble edifices, however, have garden-plots attached to them for the cultivation of kitchen vegetables; and it is well known that both here and at Strathbungo many of the handloom weavers are celebrated growers of tulips, pansies, dahlias, and other floricultural favourites. Florist clubs, also, exist among them, which meet regularly for the examination of choice flowers, and for discussing the best means of rearing them to perfection.”

What’s in a name?

The name Strathbungo has been a source of humour within and outwith Glasgow, seemingly forever. To a humorous writer like PG Wodehouse, for example, it was a conveniently exotic and ancient sounding Scottish place name for a fictional character in A Damsel in Distress of 1919, whose lady friend abandoned him in order to marry “Lord Ronald Spofforth, the second son of his Grace the Duke of Gorbals and Strathbungo.” Clearly Hugh MacDonald, himself a Glaswegian, also found the name amusing. The origins of the name are, as MacDonald would have said, shrouded in mystery. It has been suggested that it is a combination of strath - Gaelic for a valley - and bungo, a corruption of St Mungo, the founding saint of Glasgow. But this seems unlikely. I have read that an earlier name for the village was Marchtown, it being on the marches, i.e. borders, of Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire (hence March Street). It also sometimes used to be spelled Strabungo, which may reflect an older pronunciation. More research is needed. The transformation of Strathbungo from a village of weavers’ cottages and pubs into a thriving middleclass suburb was part of the gradual growth of the city southwards. Even if the precise date of the “new” Strathbungo can be defined as 1859 and 1860, the dates of the feuing dispositions granted by Sir John Maxwell of Pollok to the builder John McIntyre and quarrier William Stevenson, the process had begun earlier.

Alexander “Greek” Thomson (1817-1875) and the South Side

As early as 1849 the first speculative proposals were made for Sir John Maxwell by the Edinburgh architect David Rhind for the feuing of Pollokshields with upper middleclass villas and tenement blocks laid around spacious squares and gardens. This created the division either side of Shields Road between villas on the west and tenements to the east that exist today. So, during the 1850s villas began to be built at the northern edge of the site along the canal and railway at Kinning Park. Alexander “Greek” Thomson designed a large villa, The Knowe, for John Blair, cap and hat manufacturer, built from 1852 on the site of the Shields steading. He also designed smaller villas along St. Andrew’s Drive, which have now been demolished. South of Strathbungo, the Langside estate was feued in 1853 with a plan of terraces and villas with the help of Alexander Thomson, whose Double Villa of 1856-7 is such a famous feature of the development. Thomson had already by the mid 1850s also built cottages and little terraces in Crossmyloof, Cathcart and Shawlands, where he then lived. The railway line (built in 1848) did not in itself spur the development of the new Strathbungo, although the prospect of a station in the future may have helped. There was no station at Strathbungo until the late 1870s. Of more importance was the purchase by Glasgow City Council of Queen’s Park, or at least the easterly, Parkhead Farm, part of it, from Neale Thomson in 1857 and its eventual opening in 1862 (Camphill House and its grounds were added in 1893). Public parks were an important way in which local government could encourage the growth of suburbs by providing public amenities.