IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Hollybrook Street, GLASGOW, G42 8SR

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.

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!

Some history of this rather splendid building is given in Image

This Church in Dixon Avenue is one of the earliest post- Reformation Catholic churches outwith central Glasgow, and was built in 1911. The parish of Holy Cross had been established in 1886 during the short period when Crosshill was an independent burgh. The architects were Pugin and Pugin, whose Italianate design provides a local landmark.

Shops on Cathcart Road.

This community garden once grew many plants, veg & fruit & was ran by local lads who also did smaller projects around Govanhill. Now closed Big thanks to Danny & the rest of you.

Looking northward towards the junction with Calder Street. It was about here that I had a run in with a motorised moron objecting to me being on its road, something that is commonplace in English cities, but something I had almost forgotten about.

Earmarked for the development of a purpose built residential unit for dementia sufferers the garden is now closed.

Crosshill is the station between Queen's Park and Mount Florida on the Cathcart Circle Line out of Glasgow Central. It is also on the route leading towards the Newton and Neilston branch lines.