IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Boyd Street, GLASGOW, G42 8AG

Offices and workspaces in the former Category B listed http://portal.historicenvironment.scot/designation/LB32467 New Bridgegate Church and hall on Dixon Road.

A quiet residential street. Looking towards Dixon Road.

Seen from a close window of a tenement on Eskdale Street. The sheds are in the 'back court' at the rear of the tenements. In the background is Holyrood Secondary School. The tenement on the left is on Dixon Road. This view was not visible a few months earlier. The large tree that grew beside the sheds was recently felled. Only the double stumps remain.

The currently disused lodge is part of the Category B listed http://portal.historicenvironment.scot/designation/LB32415 Holyrood Secondary School.

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!

Crosshill and Govanhill Burgh Hall was gifted to the burghs by William Smith Dixon of Govan Iron Works. The Scottish Baronial building was completed in 1879. The architect was Frank Stirrat, the winner of a competition for its commission. The boundary between the two burghs bisected the building allowing courtrooms and offices for each burgh to have separate access. The building was renamed Dixon Halls when Crosshill and Govanhill were annexed by Glasgow in 1891.

Some history of this rather splendid building is given in Image

North-western range of the Category B http://portal.historicenvironment.scot/designation/LB32415 listed school, on Dixon Road, dating from 1936. The school is the biggest secondary school in Scotland, with over 2,000 pupils and 150 teaching staff.

With Crosshill Grocers and Co-op funeral care in background