Villa at Clarkston Road, Cathcart
The houses on the south side of Glasgow map the progress of the ever expanding city from the old inner city areas like Gorbals and Govanhill in the nineteenth century, to the outlying housing schemes such as Castlemilk and Toryglen which were created in the second half of the twentieth century.
Tenements at Brownlie Street, Mount Florida
The traditional Glasgow tenements, which were built in the period from 1880 to 1914, can be seen throughout the area.
For those of you trying to trace your ancestors, the complete 1913-14 Valuation Roll showing the occupiers of houses in the city has been digitised as part of the "Glasgow Story" project.
Many of the traditional sandstone tenements have been preserved through the work of housing associations, which sprung up in the mid-1970's. They were funded to carry out complete internal and external renovations of the buildings, which in some cases were stripped back to empty shells.
The Cathcart Circle Railway line follows the route of the older housing developments in the wealthy new suburbs which had been established circa 1900. As well as districts where the predominant house types are tenements, there are many areas on the route where large stone houses with extensive gardens are abundant. These substantially built houses are usuallly very well maintained and will probably survive into the next century.
Villa at Maxwell Park
Passengers using the Cathcart Inner Circle from Glasgow Central Station will pass through the affluent neighbourhoods of Pollokshields West, Maxwell Park and Langside & Newlands before the train reaches Cathcart.
Bungalow at Cathcart
The inter - war bungalows built by McTaggart & Mickel are the last speculatively built sandstone houses in Cathcart. These were built as late as the early 1930's, before brick with a roughcast finish became the norm for house construction.
Villa at Queen's Park
Some of the oldest villas on the Circle line can be found in Queens Park, where the housing plots were developed in the 1870's and 1880's, pre-dating the Maxwell Park, Newlands and Cathcart houses.
Villa at Pollokshields
The main differences in house style between Pollokshields and those built later houses in Newlands was of scale and attachment. The large houses of Pollokshields are mostly detached, while those in Newlands are more likely to be semi-detached and situated in smaller plots.
Semi - detached Villa at Newlands
Detached Villa in Maxwell Park
Many of the villas in Maxwell Park show unique design touches. The houses in this area were not mass produced as the tenements and terraced houses in nearby areas were. Even some of the larger houses were built to a few popular designs with small variations to make them appear original.
If you are lucky enough to find a development plot for a new house in the Conservation Area, Glasgow City Council will ensure that it is built in the style of the existing properties surrounding it. The house under construction, above, is situated in Sherbrooke Avenue. When it is completed the stonework and building style will make it blend in naturally with the beautiful houses erected a century earlier. its good to know that old fashioned workmanship is still around in Glasgow and traditional construction skills haven't been completely overtaken by the modern world.
Cathcart Circle Architecture
Tracing the origins of the earliest blocks can be difficult as in many cases the street names came later than the buildings.
The tenement illustrated above is part of a development originally known as Randolph Terrace which was erected by Alexander Brownlie in 1886. The disposition refers to the property as being in the "Parish of Cathcart in the County of Renfrew". In 1893, after further development of the surrounding area, Randolph Terrace was renumbered from the new streets which it now fronted. The part of the street shown above, known as 10 Randolph Terrace in 1886, became 25-27 Brownlie Street in 1893. The Brownlie connection remained 100 years later, with some of the flats still in the ownership of the Brownlie family.
Maps of all 36 electoral wards have also been digitised to help identify streets which may have had their names changed.
The houses nearer the city centre in areas such as Gorbals had been systematically demolished in the 1960's and early 1970's as part of Comprehensive Redevelopment schemes, where it was fashionable to flatten everything in sight.
The Planners replaced the sandstone tenements of the old Gorbals with prefabricated concrete deck blocks reminiscent of post war eastern Europe. These blocks did not survive more than twenty years before they were in turn demolished.
To view the largest & grandest villas in Glasgow, get off the train at Maxwell Park Station and visit "the Avenues" off St Andrews Drive. You could not fail to be impressed with the detached villas in Sherbrooke, Springkell, Sutherland and Hamilton Avenues, which all run into Maxwell Park. There are many other large houses scattered throughout Pollokshields, but not as grand as those in "the Avenues"
The house above is typical of the bungalows in Carmunnock Road and the streets leading off it, not far from Cathcart Old Parish Church.
The houses around Maxwell Park were richly embellished, like the one above, which features a circular turret added to the front public room and an individually designed porch to the side entrance. The rear of this house has small rooms upstairs which were originally intended as servants quarters.
