Bennan Square Park

Image: © Ian Dodds Taken: 3 Jun 2023

It is often useful to read online 'memory lane' articles/discussions - most commonly found on Facebook or local news sites - to get a feel of the history of a place not noteworthy enough to have been covered by more official sources. However, memories are notoriously unreliable, and my research into this little park provided a good example of why these memories should always be treated with a bit of caution. A Mr McInally, born in 1941 according to a 2019 piece in the Glasgow Times, 'remembers' when Bennan Square 'was just a big, empty green space'. In actual fact OS maps show that the street, along with its largely unaltered park, was fully built by at least 1936, five years before he was born! The park is a bit of a throwback. On StreetMap it has the appearance of a football pitch in the middle of a street. This is because it has two opposing entrances halfway along its long sides and a path running between the two, as well as a path running round its perimeter. It's rather like British TV's most famous little park surrounded by houses - Albert Square in EastEnders. There is no playground here, which may lie behind it being an 'ever-popular' place to live, according to the estate agents. The planning at the time did include a playground, which was - and still is - on a neighbouring street to the North. So in the interwar years the lucky residents of Bennan Square could read their daily newspapers in peace, having sent their children to the less popular street nearby. Not a bad idea really, though these days the adults are no doubt reading their phones instead. One interesting recollection of Mr McInally - which I see no reason to dispute - is that swings often got tied up on a Saturday night to preserve the sanctity of the Sabbath!

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