Glasgow

Glasgow

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Glaswegian" redirects here. For the Scots dialect spoken in Glasgow, see Glasgow patter.

This article is about the original Glasgow in Scotland. For other uses, see Glasgow (disambiguation).

Coordinates: 55.858°N 4.259°W

City of Glasgow

Scottish Gaelic: Glaschu

Scots: Glesga

From upper left: University of Glasgow, Royal Exchange Square at night, The Clyde Auditorium, Hyndland, Gallery of Modern Art and the City Chambers

City of Glasgow

 City of Glasgow shown within Glasgow

Area    67.76 sq mi (175.5 km2) [1]

Population     592,820 (2010)[2]

    - Density    8,541.8/sq mi (3,298 /km2)

Urban[2]        1,750,000

Metro Est. 2,550,000

Language        English, Scots (see Glasgow Patter)

OS grid reference     NS590655

    - Edinburgh            42 mi (68 km) 

    - London     403 mi (649 km) 

Council area   Glasgow City Council

Lieutenancy area      Glasgow

Country          Scotland

Sovereign state         United Kingdom

Post town      GLASGOW

Postcode district       G1–G80

Dialling code  0141

Police  Strathclyde

Fire     Strathclyde

Ambulance    Scottish

EU Parliament           Scotland

UK Parliament           Glasgow Central

Glasgow East

Glasgow North

Glasgow North East

Glasgow North West

Glasgow South

Glasgow South West

Scottish Parliament  Glasgow

Glasgow Anniesland

Glasgow Baillieston

Glasgow Cathcart

Glasgow Govan

Glasgow Kelvin

Glasgow Maryhill

Glasgow Pollok

Glasgow Rutherglen

Glasgow Shettleston

Glasgow Springburn

Website         www.glasgow.gov.uk

List of places: UK • Scotland • Glasgow

Glasgow (i /ˈɡlæzɡoʊ/ glaz-goh; Scots: Glesga  listen (help·info); Scottish Gaelic: Glaschu, pronounced [ˈkɫ̪as̪əxu]) is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands. A person from Glasgow is known as a Glaswegian.

Glasgow grew from the medieval Bishopric of Glasgow and the later establishment of the University of Glasgow in the 15th century, which subsequently became a major centre of the Scottish Enlightenment in the 18th century. From the 18th century the city also grew as one of Britain's main hubs of transatlantic trade with British North America and the British West Indies. With the Industrial Revolution, the city and surrounding region shifted to become one of the world's pre-eminent centres of Heavy Engineering,[3] most notably in the Shipbuilding and Marine engineering industry, which produced many innovative and famous vessels. Glasgow was known as the "Second City of the British Empire" for much of the Victorian era and Edwardian period.[4][5][6][7] Today it is one of Europe's top twenty financial centres and is home to many of Scotland's leading businesses.[8] Glasgow is also ranked as the 57th most liveable city in the world.[9]

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries Glasgow grew to a population of over one million,[10] and was the fourth-largest city in Europe, after London, Paris and Berlin.[11] Vast numbers of Irish Catholic immigrants added to the population at this time. In the 1960s, comprehensive urban renewal projects resulting in large-scale relocation of people to new towns and peripheral suburbs, followed by successive boundary changes, have reduced the current population of the City of Glasgow unitary authority area to 580,690,[2] with 1,199,629[12] people living in the Greater Glasgow urban area. The entire region surrounding the conurbation covers approximately 2.3 million people, 41% of Scotland's population.[13]

Contents [hide]

1 History

1.1 Early origins and development

1.2 Trading port

1.3 Industrialisation

1.4 Toponymy

1.5 Heraldry

2 Government

2.1 Scottish Parliament region

2.2 United Kingdom Parliament constituencies

3 Geography

3.1 Location

3.2 Climate

4 Demography

5 Districts and suburbs

5.1 City centre

5.1.1 Retail and theatre district

5.1.2 Merchant City

5.1.3 Financial district

5.2 West End

5.3 East End

5.4 South Side

5.5 North Glasgow

6 Culture

6.1 Recreation

6.2 Music scene

6.3 Media

6.4 Religion

6.5 Dialect

6.6 Architecture

6.7 Housing

7 Healthcare

8 Academia

9 Sport

9.1 Football

9.2 Rugby union

9.3 Rugby league

9.4 Ice hockey

9.5 Swimming

9.6 Basketball

9.7 Other sports

9.8 2014 Commonwealth Games

10 Economy

11 Transport

11.1 Public transport

11.2 Shipping

11.3 Roads

11.4 Airports

12 Twin towns and sister cities

13 References

14 External links

History

Main article: History of Glasgow

Early origins and development

The seal or signet of Jocelin, Bishop of Glasgow, founder of the burgh of Glasgow

The present site of Glasgow has been used since prehistoric times for settlement due to it being the furthest downstream fording point of the River Clyde, at the point of its confluence with the Molendinar Burn. The origins of Glasgow as an established city derive ultimately from its medieval position as Scotland's second largest bishopric. Glasgow increased in importance during the 10th and 11th centuries as the site of this bishopric, reorganised by King David I of Scotland and John, Bishop of Glasgow.

There had been an earlier religious site established by Saint Mungo in the 6th century. The bishopric became one of the largest and wealthiest in the Kingdom of Scotland, bringing wealth and status to the town. Between 1175 and 1178 this position was strengthened even further when Bishop Jocelin obtained for the episcopal settlement the status of Burgh from King William I of Scotland, allowing the settlement to expand with the benefits of trading monopolies and other legal guarantees. Sometime between 1189 and 1195 this status was supplemented by an annual fair, which survives to this day as the Glasgow Fair.

Glasgow grew over the following centuries, the first bridge over the River Clyde at Glasgow was recorded from around 1285, giving its name to the Briggait area of the city, forming the main North-South route over the river via Glasgow Cross. The founding of the University of Glasgow in 1451 and elevation of the bishopric to become the Archdiocese of Glasgow in 1492 served to increase the town's religious and educational status. Glasgow was subsequently raised to the status of Royal burgh in 1611.

Daniel Defoe visited the city in the early 18th century and famously opined in his book A tour thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain, that Glasgow was "the cleanest and beautifullest, and best built city in Britain, London excepted."[14] At that time, the city's population numbered approximately 12,000, and was yet to undergo the massive changes to the city's economy and urban fabric, brought about by the influences of the Scottish Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution.

Trading port

After the Acts of Union in 1707, Scotland gained trading access to the vast markets of the new British Empire and Glasgow became prominent in international commerce as a hub of trade to the Americas, especially in the movement of tobacco, cotton and sugar into the deep water port that had been created by the city's Tobacco Lords at Port Glasgow on the Firth of Clyde, due to the shallowness of the river within the city itself at that time.[15] By the late 18th century more than half of the British tobacco trade was concentrated on Glasgow's River Clyde, with over 47,000,000 lb (21,000,000 kg) of tobacco being imported at its peak.[16]

Industrialisation

Shipping on the Clyde, Grimshaw 1881

In its subsequent industrial era, Glasgow produced textiles, chemicals, engineered goods and steel, which were exported. The opening of the Monkland Canal and basin at Port Dundas in 1795, facilitated access to the iron-ore and coal mines in Lanarkshire. After extensive River engineering projects to dredge and deepen the River Clyde as far as Glasgow, shipbuilding became a major industry on the upper stretches of the river, pioneered by industrialists such as Robert Napier, John Elder, George Thomson, Sir William Pearce and Sir Alfred Yarrow. The River Clyde also became an important source of inspiration for artists, such as John Atkinson Grimshaw, James Kay and L.S. Lowry, willing to depict the new industrial era and the modern world.

Glasgow's population had surpassed that of Edinburgh by 1821. Despite the crisis caused by the City of Glasgow Bank's collapse in 1878, growth continued and by the end of the 19th century it was one of the cities known as the "Second City of the Empire" and was producing more than half Britain's tonnage of shipping[17] and a quarter of all locomotives in the world.[18] Vast numbers of Irish Catholic immigrants poured into the city at this time, especially from County Donegal in Ulster. Significant Irish Catholic immigration into the city, again especially from County Donegal, would continue for most of the twentieth-century.

During this period, the construction of many of the city's greatest architectural masterpieces and most ambitious civil engineering projects, such as the Loch Katrine aqueduct, Subway, Tramway system, City Chambers, Mitchell Library and Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum were being funded by its wealth. The city also held a series of International Exhibitions at Kelvingrove Park, in 1888, 1901 and 1911, with the Empire Exhibition subsequently held in 1938.

The regeneration of Glasgow has focused on the River Clyde and has created iconic structures such as the Armadillo.

The 20th century witnessed both decline and renewal in the city. After World War I, the city suffered from the impact of the Post–World War I recession and from the later Great Depression, this also led to a rise of radical socialism and the "Red Clydeside" movement. The city had recovered by the outbreak of World War II and grew through the post-war boom that lasted through the 1950s. By the 1960s, a lack of investment and innovation led to growing overseas competition in countries like Japan and Germany which weakened the once pre-eminent position of many of the city's industries.

As a result of this, Glasgow entered a lengthy period of relative economic decline and rapid de-industrialisation, leading to high unemployment, urban decay, population decline, welfare dependency and poor health for the city's inhabitants. There were active attempts at regeneration of the city, when the Glasgow Corporation published its controversial Bruce Report, which set out a comprehensive series of initiatives aimed at turning round the decline of the city. There are also accusations that the Scottish Office had deliberately attempted to undermine Glasgow's economic and political influence in post-war Scotland by diverting inward investment in new industries to other regions during the Silicon Glen boom and creating the new towns of Cumbernauld, Glenrothes, Irvine, Livingston and East Kilbride, dispersed across the Scottish Lowlands, in order to halve the city's population base.[19]

By the late 1980s, there had been a significant resurgence in Glasgow's economic fortunes. The 'Glasgow's miles better' campaign, launched in 1983, and opening of the Burrell Collection in 1983 and Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre in 1985 facilitated Glasgow's new role as a European centre for business services and finance and promoted an increase in tourism and inward investment.[20] The latter continues to be bolstered by the legacy of the city's Glasgow Garden Festival in 1988, its status as European City of Culture in 1990, and concerted attempts to diversify the city's economy.[21] This economic revival has persisted and the ongoing regeneration of inner-city areas, including the large-scale Clyde Waterfront Regeneration, has led to more affluent people moving back to live in the centre of Glasgow, fuelling allegations of gentrification.[22]

The city now resides in the Mercer index of top 50 safest cities in the world[23] and is considered by Lonely Planet to be one of the world's top 10 tourist cities.[24] Despite Glasgow's economic renaissance, the East End of the city remains the focus of severe social deprivation.[25] A Glasgow Economic Audit report published in 2007 stated that the gap between prosperous and deprived areas of the city is widening.[26] In 2006, 47% of Glasgow's population lived in the most deprived 15% of areas in Scotland,[26] while the Centre for Social Justice reported 29.4% of the city's working-age residents to be "economically inactive".[25] Although marginally behind the UK average, Glasgow still has a higher employment rate than Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester.[26]

Toponymy

It is common to derive the name Glasgow from the older Cumbric glas cau or a Middle Gaelic cognate, which would have meant green hollow. The settlement probably had an earlier Cumbric name, Cathures; the modern name appears for the first time in the Gaelic period (1116), as Glasgu. It is also recorded that the King of Strathclyde, Rhydderch Hael, welcomed Saint Kentigern (also known as Saint Mungo), and procured his consecration as bishop about 540. For some thirteen years Kentigern laboured in the region, building his church at the Molendinar Burn, and making many converts. A large community developed around him and became known as Glasgu (often glossed as "the dear Green" or "dear green place").

Heraldry

The coat of arms of the City of Glasgow

Details

Adopted         1866

Crest   Saint Mungo

Supporters     Two salmon, bearing rings

Motto Let Glasgow flourish

The coat of arms of the City of Glasgow was granted to the royal burgh by the Lord Lyon on 25 October 1866.[27] It incorporates a number of symbols and emblems associated with the life of Glasgow's patron saint, Mungo, which had been used on official seals prior to that date. The emblems represent miracles supposed to have been performed by Mungo and are listed in the traditional rhyme:

Here's the bird that never flew

Here's the tree that never grew

Here's the bell that never rang

Here's the fish that never swam

St Mungo is also said to have preached a sermon containing the words Lord, Let Glasgow flourish by the preaching of the word and the praising of thy name. This was abbreviated to "Let Glasgow Flourish" and adopted as the city's motto. The motto was more recently commemorated in a song called "Mother Glasgow", which was written by Dundonian singer/songwriter Michael Marra, but popularised by Hue and Cry.

In 1450, John Stewart, the first Lord Provost of Glasgow, left an endowment so that a "St Mungo's Bell" could be made and tolled throughout the city so that the citizens would pray for his soul. A new bell was purchased by the magistrates in 1641 and that bell is still on display in the People's Palace Museum, near Glasgow Green.

The supporters are two salmon bearing rings, and the crest is a half length figure of Saint Mungo. He wears a bishop's mitre and liturgical vestments and has his hand raised in "the act of benediction". The original 1866 grant placed the crest atop a helm, but this was removed in subsequent grants. The current version (1996) has a gold mural crown between the shield and the crest. This form of coronet, resembling an embattled city wall, was allowed to the four area councils with city status.

The arms were re-matriculated by the City of Glasgow District Council on 6 February 1975, and by the present area council on 25 March 1996. The only change made on each occasion was in the type of coronet over the arms.[28][29]

Government

Glasgow City Chambers is the headquarters of Glasgow City Council and the seat of Local Government in the city

See also: Politics of Glasgow

Although the city had been a pioneer in the municipal socialist movement from the late 19th century, since the Representation of the People Act 1918, Glasgow increasingly supported Left-wing ideas and politics at a national level. The city council has been controlled by the Labour Party for 30 years, since the decline of the Progressives. The left-wing support emanates from the city's legacy as an industrial powerhouse, and the relative poverty of many Glaswegian constituencies and wards. In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and German Revolution, the city's frequent strikes and Militant organisations caused serious alarm at Westminster, with one uprising in January 1919 prompting the Prime Minister, David Lloyd George to deploy 10,000 troops and tanks onto the city's streets. A huge demonstration in the city's George Square on 31 January ended in violence after the Riot Act was read.

Industrial action at the shipyards gave rise to the "Red Clydeside" epithet. During the 1930s, Glasgow was the main base of the Independent Labour Party. Towards the end of the 20th century it became a centre of the struggle against the poll tax, and then the main base of the Scottish Socialist Party, a left unity party in Scotland. The city has not had a Conservative MP since the 1982 Hillhead by-election, when the SDP took the seat, in Glasgow's wealthiest area. Revised constituency boundaries now make it difficult to elect a Conservative MP in Glasgow's prosperous West End because the area is split between two constituencies that include large council estates which predominantly vote Labour.

Scottish Parliament region

See also: Glasgow Scottish Parliament region

The Glasgow electoral region of the Scottish Parliament covers the Glasgow City council area, the Rutherglen area of the South Lanarkshire and a small eastern portion of Renfrewshire. It elects ten of the parliament's 73 first past the post constituency members and seven of the 56 additional members. Both kinds of member are known as Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs). The system of election is designed to produce a form of proportional representation.

The first past the post seats were created in 1999 with the names and boundaries of then existing Westminster (House of Commons) constituencies. In 2005, the number of Westminster Members of Parliament (MPs) representing Scotland was cut to 59, with new constituencies being formed, while the existing number of MSPs was retained at Holyrood.

The ten Scottish Parliament constituencies in the Glasgow electoral region are:-