Paisley - Geography

Geography

Paisley sits primarily on an expanse of low ground around 40 ft above sea level surrounding the White Cart Water, which runs through the town centre. There are a number of elevated hills and ridges which have been absorbed as the town has expanded. The settlement is historically centred on Oakshaw, an area surrounding a hill to the north of the current High Street. Oakshaw is a conservation area and on the high ground many of Paisley's significant buildings can be found, such as the High Kirk, the Coats Observatory and the former John Neilson Institution, which was once a school and is now converted into residential flats.

Around the centre there are a large number of older residential buildings. The town centre, Williamsburgh and Charleston areas contain many examples of Scottish tenement flats. Three to four stories tall, with shops on the ground floor and constructed of local blond and red sandstone, these tenement flats have been extensively restored and modernised over the last two decades.

Paisley expanded steadily, particularly in the Victorian and Edwardian eras, creating many suburbs around the centre of the town. Castlehead is a wooded conservation area primarily made up of Victorian villas where many of the town's leading industrialists made their homes in the late 19th century. Thornly Park, another conservation area, is located to the south of the town. It contains a variety of architecture ranging from mock Tudor to Art Deco. Many of the houses were designed by W D McLennan, who also designed several local churches such as Saint Matthew's.

Particularly following the Housing Act 1946, modern Paisley grew into the surrounding countryside and several large residential areas were created in the post-war period. These include portions of Glenburn (south), Foxbar (south west), Ferguslie Park (north west), Gallowhill (North East) and Hunterhill (South East). Gockston in the far north of the town has many terraced houses and, after regeneration has many detached and semi-detached houses as well as several blocks of flats. Dykebar, situated to the south east of the centre of the town, is a residential area which is also the site of a secure psychiatric hospital.

On the outskirts of the town are a number of settlements such as Ralston, a residential area in the far east bordering the city of Glasgow. Ralston was outside the Paisley burgh boundary when constructed in the 1930s but, as a result of local authority re-organisation in the 1990s, it is now generally regarded as a suburb of Paisley.