Date | 28 April – 26 September 1988 |
---|---|
Location | Plantation Quay, Govan, Glasgow, Scotland |
Coordinates | 55°51′33″N4°17′46″E / 55.8592°N 4.2960°E |
The Glasgow Garden Festival was the third of the five national garden festivals, and the only one to take place in Scotland.
It was held in Glasgow between 28 April and 26 September 1988. It was the first event of its type to be held in the city in 50 years, since the Empire Exhibition of 1938, and also marked the centenary of Glasgow's first International Exhibition, the International Exhibition of Science, Art and Industry of 1888.
It attracted 4.3 million visitors over 152 days, by far the most successful of the five National Garden Festivals. Its significance in the rebirth of the city was underlined by the 1990 European City of Culture title bestowed on Glasgow in September 1986. The two events together did much to restore Glasgow to national and international prominence.
The festival site covered 120 acres (0.49 km2), including 17 of water, on the south bank of the River Clyde at Plantation Quay in Govan, and also on land reclaimed from the partial filling-in of the Prince's Dock basin. Once the largest dock on the River Clyde when opened in 1900, it had been closed to navigation in the early 1970s with the advent of Containerization. Continuing businesses including Smith & McLean Galvanisers were now resited elsewhere in the city. Most of the docklands required had already been sold by Clydeport Authority to Laing Homes. To ensure a clear site the Scottish Development Agency and Glasgow City Council identified suitable off-set sites within the city which Laing Homes then purchased and promptly developed, relinquishing their ownership of the dockland site. [1]
The Festival was designed and built by the Scottish Development Agency after the necessary industrial dismantling and site-clearing. The Agency also led the creation of the Scottish Exhibition Centre on the north bank of the Clyde, upon the site of the Queen's Dock. [2] Glasgow Garden Festival 1988 Ltd., a subsidiary of the Scottish Development Agency, managed the public operation of the Festival.
Features included the 240 feet (73 m) high Clydesdale Bank 150th Anniversary Tower, the Coca-Cola Roller roller coaster, a miniature railway and five former Glasgow Corporation Tramways vintage trams running again in the city along the riverside. A new swing bridge, Bell's Bridge , sponsored by the Distillers Company, had been constructed across the river to link the Garden Festival to the SECC, which held the Grand International Show in its Hall 4 in conjunction with the festival. The official opening ceremony took place on 29 April and was conducted by Prince Charles and Princess Diana. The event had significant media coverage, including daily BBC TV magazine shows, The Beechgrove Garden and radio features, the festival was also used as a backdrop for the Taggart episode "Root of Evil" and an episode of the comedy show City Lights. [3]
After the end of the festival, the site was expected to be developed for commerce and leisure, with a small Festival Park retained. After a decade and more new developments started on the site, renamed Pacific Quay. [4]
The Glasgow Science Centre, substantially led by SDA with the City Council, Glasgow University and others, was built and close by the media campus and digital centres, which include new headquarters for BBC Scotland and Scottish Television, opening in 2007. The Clydesdale Bank tower was dismantled and re-erected in Rhyl in North Wales; however, its spiritual successor came in the form of the Glasgow Millennium Tower as part of the Science Centre complex, which stands on approximately the same spot. Office premises and hotels have completed the development.
In 2018 a number of events were held across Glasgow to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the festival. These included exhibitions at The Mitchell Library, [3] Kelvingrove Art Gallery and a summer festival, The Glasgow Garden Wildlife Festival, led by RSPB Scotland and Glasgow City Council. [5]
The River Clyde is a river that flows into the Firth of Clyde, in the west of Scotland. It is the ninth-longest river in the United Kingdom, and the third longest in Scotland after the River Tay and the River Spey. It runs through the city of Glasgow. The River Clyde estuary has an upper tidal limit located at the tidal weir next to Glasgow Green.
Glasgow is the most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in west central Scotland. The city is the third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom and the 27th-most-populous city in Europe. In 2022, it had an estimated population as a defined locality of 632,350 and anchored an urban settlement of 1,028,220.
Canary Wharf is an area of London, England, located near the Isle of Dogs in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Canary Wharf is defined by the Greater London Authority as being part of London's central business district, alongside Central London. Alongside the City of London, it constitutes one of the main financial centres in the United Kingdom and the world, containing many high-rise buildings including the third-tallest in the UK, One Canada Square, which opened on 26 August 1991.
Glasgow Green is a park in the east end of Glasgow, Scotland, on the north bank of the River Clyde. Established in the 15th century, it is the oldest park in the city. It connects to the south via the St Andrew's Suspension Bridge.
The SEC Centre is Scotland's largest exhibition centre, located in Glasgow, Scotland. It is one of the three main venues within the Scottish Event Campus.
Glasgow Science Centre is a visitor attraction located in the Clyde Waterfront Regeneration area on the south bank of the River Clyde in Glasgow, Scotland. Queen Elizabeth II opened Glasgow Science Centre on 5 July 2001. It is one of Scotland's most popular paid-for visitor attractions. It is a purpose-built science centre composed of three principal buildings: Science Mall, Glasgow Tower and an IMAX cinema. It is a registered charity under Scottish law.
The Finnieston Crane or Stobcross Crane is a disused giant cantilever crane in the centre of Glasgow, Scotland. It is no longer operational, but is retained as a symbol of the city's engineering heritage. The crane was used for loading cargo, in particular steam locomotives, onto ships to be exported around the world.
The Kelvin Hall, located on Argyle Street in the Yorkhill area of Glasgow, Scotland, is one of the largest exhibition centres in Britain and now a mixed-use arts and sports venue that opened as an exhibition venue in 1927. It has also been used as a concert hall, home to the Kelvin Hall International Sports Arena to 2014, and from 1988 to 2010, Glasgow's Museum of Transport. As part of the economic redevelopment of Greater Glasgow promoted by the Scottish Development Agency and local authorities to enhance the city's tourist infrastructure and to attract further national and international conferences, the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre was designed as the Hall's successor for exhibitions and entertainments, built in 1983 and opened on the nearby Queen's Dock in 1985 with an exhibition area equal in size to the Kelvin Hall but with the benefit of extensive car parks and land for other complementary buildings. The Hall is protected as a category B listed building, and is served by city bus services and by Kelvinhall subway station.
Glasgow Harbour is a private sector urban regeneration scheme at Partick in the West End of the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It is not the history and development of the wider and internationally famous Glasgow Harbour from Glasgow Green to Clydebank which developed from the early 1800s and witnessed the birth and growth of modern shipbuilding and shipping.
Dublin Docklands is an area of the city of Dublin, Ireland, on both sides of the River Liffey, roughly from Talbot Memorial Bridge eastwards to the 3Arena. It mainly falls within the city's D01 and D02 postal districts but includes some of the urban fringes of the D04 district on its southernmost side.
Pacific Quay is an area south of the River Clyde in Glasgow, Scotland. It is located at the former Plantation Quay and Princes' Dock Basin. The Princes' Dock Basin was the largest on the River Clyde when it was opened by the Clyde Navigation Trust in 1900. It ceased to be used as a commercial dock by the Clyde Port Authority in the 1970s as the volume of Shipping using the Upper Clyde declined with the onset of containerization. The site was later used for the Glasgow Garden Festival in 1988. The former electric generating station and pumping house, "Four Winds" which was used to pump water between the rotundas and generate power for the electric cranes still stands and is now home to a consultant engineers and radio station. The name 'Pacific Quay' has no historical significance, as it was created simply as a marketing enterprise following the land being reclaimed for commercial use after the Garden Festival closure. It did not reflect the site as a departure point for ships bound for the Pacific Rim.
The International Financial Services District (IFSD) is a financial district in the city of Glasgow, the largest city in Scotland. Nicknamed "Wall Street on the Clyde", it ranked in the top 40 of international financial districts, ahead of cities including Brussels, Madrid, Helsinki, Milan and Dublin.
The General Terminus and Glasgow Harbour Railway was authorised on 3 July 1846 and it opened, in part, in December 1848.
The Riverside Museum is a museum in the Partick area of Glasgow, Scotland, housed in a building designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, with its River Clyde frontage at the new Pointhouse Quay. It forms part of the Glasgow Harbour regeneration project. The building opened in June 2011, winning the 2013 European Museum of the Year Award. It houses many exhibits of national and international importance. The Govan–Partick Bridge, provides a pedestrian and cycle path link from the museum across the Clyde to Govan, opened in 2024.
The 20 km long Clyde Waterfront Regeneration, launched in 2003, embraced a section of the River Clyde in Scotland that runs from Glasgow Green in the city's center to Dumbarton down river. This scene focussed on earlier initiatives underway from the 1980s, and as a separate marketing tool, with several local authorities involved, came to an end in 2014.
Glasgow Tower is a 127 metres (417 ft) free-standing landmark observation tower located on the south bank of the River Clyde in Glasgow, Scotland, and is part of the Glasgow Science Centre complex. It holds a Guinness World Record for being the tallest fully rotating freestanding structure in the world, in which the whole structure is capable of rotating 360 degrees.
The Millennium Mills is a derelict turn of the 20th century flour mill in West Silvertown on the south side of the Royal Victoria Dock, between the Thames Barrier and the ExCeL London exhibition centre alongside the newly built Britannia village, in Newham, London, England. The Mills are currently undergoing a major renovation as part of a £3.5billion redevelopment of Silvertown.
Kelvinhaugh is a neighbourhood in the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It is situated directly north of the River Clyde in the West End of the city.