Bellahouston Park - History

History

Until the late 19th century, Bellahouston Park consisted of rural farmland as part of the Maxwell Estate, which also included much of the surrounding areas including Maxwell Park, Pollok Country Park, Pollok House and Haggs Castle, and also housed a riding school.

The land was purchased by Glasgow Corporation in 1895 and opened as a public park in 1896. Adjacent land was added to the park in 1901 and 1903. As Glasgow expanded it was eventually surrounded to the west, south and east by housing and to the north by the "White City" stadium, built in 1928, which hosted greyhound and speedway racing (located close to Rangers' stadium at Ibrox). This site is now on that of the M8 motorway and the Headquarters of Strathclyde Police's G-Division.

The park has often been used as a location for major public events, including the Empire Exhibition of 1938, the 1978 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, the 1982 visit to Scotland by Pope John Paul II, and the September 2010 mass of Pope Benedict XVI, when Susan Boyle sang. It has also been host to many Scottish Pipe Band competitions, a visit by Billy Graham the evangelist in the late 1980s, a Coldplay concert in summer 2005, and more recently a Snow Patrol concert in 2010.

The Tait Tower was built on a hill in the park as part of the 1938 Empire Exhibition but was demolished on the outbreak of World War II. A monument in the form of a large inscribed granite stone commemorating the 1938 Empire Exhibition currently overlooks Bellahouston Sports Centre and was unveiled by King George VI on 9 July 1937. Long distance races, such as the Glasgow Marathon and Half Marathon pass through the park, although events to the south were restricted in the 1990s when subsidence into old mine workings resulted in some depressions in the park surface.