DEAR GREEN SPACE

If shopping sprees and bar crawls across the West End leave you with sore feet, pause and park yourself down in any of the city’s legendary green spaces. From Highland coos to art museums, there’re almost as many memories made in Glasgow’s gardens as blades of grass.

Words: Lewis Robertson

One of The Dear Green Place’s dearest, greenest places is Kelvingrove Park, a West End wonder as popular now as it was when it opened in the mid-1800s. The subway serves the park with stations Kelvinhall and Kelvinbridge, their names referring to the river that runs right through the landmark. Within, you’ll find the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, one of Scotland’s mightiest and most-attended attractions, containing a never-ending archive of paintings, sculptures and artefacts. You can head upstairs for an intimate viewing of Salvador Dali’s Christ of Saint John on the Cross, or sit in the foyer and try to count as many floating heads as you can. Beyond the bowling greens and across the bridge sits the Kelvingrove Bandstand, an open-air venue seating over 2000 gig-goers for acts as high-profile as The Pixies and Tom Jones.

The West End doesn’t stop there – follow the river North for the Glasgow Botanic Gardens. As well as containing thousands of specimens, and the UK’s national collection of tree ferns, the crown jewel of the Botanic Gardens is Kibble Palace. If you’ve got an appetite for carnivorous plants, this kingly greenhouse contains flora temperate and tropical. It’s also on the other side of the river from the community-organised Children’s Wood, an inner-city ‘secret garden’.

Nature lovers need not idle in the North – Glasgow’s largest green space, Pollok Country Park, spans the Southside at over 300 acres. Other than the usual features of any good green space (wildlife gardens, woodland walks, riverside vistas, you know the type), Pollok’s herd of Highland cows are popular with visitors, sharing the grounds with the other year-round residents, the park ranger service. It's also home to the Burrell Collection, a museum built to house the donated archive of art collector William Burrell, displaying over 9000 artefacts from around the world and throughout history.

It’s also not far from Bellahouston Park. This land was used for the legendary 1938 Empire Exhibition, and once its buildings and exhibits closed, the sole standing Palace of Art remains as a fitness centre and Glasgow’s coolest workout spot. Nearby, find the Art Nouveau House for an Art Lover, built in the 90s based on turn-of-the-century plans by Glasgow’s architectural doyen, Charles Rennie Macintosh. The tremendous size of the land has attracted global sensations to give performances in Bellahouston, from The Cure to Kendrick Lamar. Also in the Southside, Queen’s Park has a royal selection of tennis courts and cricket pitches, a rose garden dedicated to the pantheon of Scottish poets past, and lends its name to the nation’s oldest association football club.

Over in the East End, Glasgow Green makes the site for TRNSMT, the city’s most star-studded music festival (headliner alumni include Radiohead and Lewis Capaldi) and though they may not have pulled in as many crowds, the historic parkland also hosted Bonnie Prince Charlie and James Watt. The People’s Palace is a bespoke museum, dedicated to chronicling the Glaswegian way of life and celebrating the population of the city. Turn east for Tollcross Park, then north for Alexandra Park, and bear true to Seven Lochs Wetland Park if you want to knock out the city’s natural beauty in one day.

Prefer not to stray too far from the city centre? There’s always the Hamiltonhill Claypits, where minerals were extracted to line the Clyde canals, which has become popular with bird-watchers due to its bridges and walkways, and the Glasgow Necropolis, conceived as Scotland’s response to Père Lachaise Cemetery, which was recently canonised in cinema, playing a part of Gotham City in Robert Pattinson’s Batman.

The area north of Great Western Road is comprised of several different neighbourhoods, strung together down the Forth and Clyde Canal. To the South west lie Maryhill and North Kelvinside, land historically owned by literal Mary Hill and today a beloved residential area frequented by students and locals alike. East of the canal you’ll find Port Dundas, a 19thcentury industrial hubturned 21st-century hub of the cultural variety.

Things To Do

To get active, make for The Loading Bay skatepark (Borron St) or the Climbing Academy’s Prop Store (24 Craigmont St), a bouldering centre housed in the BBC’s old prop warehouse.

For a dive into the city’s cultural past, the historic Queen’sCross Church (870 Garscube Rd) sits around the corner from a four-storey-high mural of the sun that closely resembles Partick Thistle’s mascot Kingsley (Northpark St). One is a site of worship and iconography that has left its mark on Glasgow’s art world; the other is the Charles Rennie Mackintosh church.

The canal’s banks are home to a huge array of creative folk: many of them, including Glasgow Sculpture Studios, can be found in TheWhisky Bond (2 Dawson Rd). Round the corner, CarnivalArtsYard (124 Craighall Rd) is always worth a nosey.

CivicHouse (26 Civic St) is a community-minded arts space that hosts everything from music festivals to LGBTQIA+ bike maintenance workshops. Sister venue TheGlue Factory (22 Farnell St for studios, 15 Burns St for events) also serves as an occasional location for gigs.

Food And Drink

The Civic House canteen was taken over late last year by Parveen’s and the sisters have quickly won hearts with their communal atmosphere and delicious food. Across the canal you’ll find Ocho (8 Speirs Wharf), an all-day cafe with great brunch options, or up the road there’s RockvillaPizza& Subs (6 Possil Rd) who’ll do you a meatball (or ve ie ball) sub with pizza dough in place of bread. If you want even more rolls, try NorthStar Cafe or CometPieces (108 and 150 Queen Margaret Dr).

For tourists on the Trainspotting circuit, 97-year-old Cafe D’Jaconelli (570 Maryhill Rd) may be of interest. Its jukebox and red leather booths mark it out as one of the film’s most iconic Glasgow locations.