Bellahouston Park
Encyclopedia
Bellahouston Park is a public park in the South Side of Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow 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...

, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, between the areas of Mosspark
Mosspark
Mosspark is a district in the Scottish city of Glasgow. It is situated south of the River Clyde, in the south-west of the city.-History:Mosspark and the lands of East and Mid-Henderston were incorporated into Glasgow in 1909...

, Craigton
Craigton
Formerly farming land for the Township of Govan, Craigton is a residential suburb in the southwest of the Scottish city of Glasgow. It borders Cardonald, Govan and Bellahouston Park. It has a primary school, Craigton Primary School, a small industrial estate and a number of shops lining Paisley...

, Ibrox, and Dumbreck
Dumbreck
Dumbreck is a district in the Scottish city of Glasgow. It is situated south of the River Clyde.The district is served by Dumbreck railway station. The only church in Dumbreck is St Leo the Great RC church....

, covering an area of 71 hectares (175.4 acre). It is based around Ibrox hill in the centre, with commanding views over most of the city, exceptions being views to the east that are obscured by trees and to the south by hills in Mosspark
Mosspark
Mosspark is a district in the Scottish city of Glasgow. It is situated south of the River Clyde, in the south-west of the city.-History:Mosspark and the lands of East and Mid-Henderston were incorporated into Glasgow in 1909...

. Notable views include that of Ballageich (Balagich) hill, rising to 1084 feet (330.4 m) on the southern horizon in East Renfrewshire
East Renfrewshire
East Renfrewshire is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. Until 1975 it formed part of the county of Renfrewshire for local government purposes along with the modern council areas of Renfrewshire and Inverclyde...

.

History

Until the late 19th century, Bellahouston Park consisted of rural farmland as part of the Maxwell Estate
Stirling-Maxwell Baronets
The Maxwell, later Stirling-Maxwell Baronetcy, of Pollock in the County of Renfrew, is a title in the Baronetage of Nova Scotia. It was created on 12 April 1682 for John Maxwell, with remainder to the heirs of the body. In 1707 he was given a new patent extending the remainder to heirs of entail in...

, which also included much of the surrounding areas including Maxwell Park, Pollok Country Park
Pollok Country Park
Pollok Country Park is a large country park located in Pollok, south Glasgow. Prior to the building of the M77 motorway it was the largest urban green space in Europe. In 2007 it was named the best park in Britain...

, Pollok House
Pollok House
Pollok House is the ancestral home of the Maxwell family, located in Pollok Country Park, Glasgow, Scotland.The house - built in 1752 and designed by William Adam - was gifted to the City of Glasgow in 1966 by Dame Anne Maxwell Macdonald, whose family had owned the estate for almost 700 years...

 and Haggs Castle
Haggs Castle
Haggs Castle is a fine example of a large 16th century tower house, located in the neighbourhood of Pollokshields, in Glasgow, Scotland. The richly decorated building was restored in the 19th century, and today is once more occupied as a residence.-History:...

, and also housed a riding school.

The land was purchased by Glasgow Corporation in 1895 and opened as a public park in 1896. Adjacent land was added to the park in 1901 and 1903. As Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow 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...

 expanded it was eventually surrounded to the west, south and east by housing and to the north by the "White City" stadium, built in 1928, which hosted greyhound and speedway racing (located close to Rangers
Rangers F.C.
Rangers Football Club are an association football club based in Glasgow, Scotland, who play in the Scottish Premier League. The club are nicknamed the Gers, Teddy Bears and the Light Blues, and the fans are known to each other as bluenoses...

' stadium at Ibrox). This site is now on that of the M8 motorway and the Headquarters of Strathclyde Police
Strathclyde Police
Strathclyde Police is the territorial police force responsible for the Scottish council areas of Argyll and Bute, City of Glasgow, East Ayrshire, East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, South Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire and West...

's G-Division.

The park has often been used as a location for major public events, including the Empire Exhibition of 1938
Empire Exhibition, Scotland 1938
Empire Exhibition, Scotland 1938 was an international exposition held at Bellahouston Park in Glasgow, from May to December 1938....

, the 1978 IAAF World Cross Country Championships
1978 IAAF World Cross Country Championships
The 6th IAAF World Cross Country Championships were held on March 26, 1978 in Glasgow, Scotland.- Individual :- Team :- Individual :- Team :- Individual :- Team :- External links :**...

, the 1982 visit to Scotland by Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II's visit to the United Kingdom
Pope John Paul II's visit to the United Kingdom in 1982 was the first visit to that country by a reigning pope. John Paul arrived in the UK on 28 May 1982, and during his time there visited 9 cities, delivering 16 major addresses...

, and the September 2010 mass of Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United Kingdom
Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United Kingdom from 16 to 19 September 2010 was the first state visit by a pope to the United Kingdom...

, when Susan Boyle
Susan Boyle
Susan Magdalane Boyle is a Scottish singer who came to international public attention when she appeared as a contestant on the TV programme Britain's Got Talent on 11 April 2009, singing "I Dreamed a Dream" from ...

 sang. It has also been host to many Scottish Pipe Band
Pipe band
A pipe band is a musical ensemble consisting of pipers and drummers. The term used by military pipe bands, pipes and drums, is also common....

 competitions, a visit by Billy Graham
Billy Graham
William Franklin "Billy" Graham, Jr. is an American evangelical Christian evangelist. As of April 25, 2010, when he met with Barack Obama, Graham has spent personal time with twelve United States Presidents dating back to Harry S. Truman, and is number seven on Gallup's list of admired people for...

 the evangelist in the late 1980s, a Coldplay
Coldplay
Coldplay are a British alternative rock band formed in 1996 by lead vocalist Chris Martin and lead guitarist Jonny Buckland at University College London. After they formed Pectoralz, Guy Berryman joined the group as a bassist and they changed their name to Starfish. Will Champion joined as a...

 concert in summer 2005, and more recently a Snow Patrol
Snow Patrol
Snow Patrol are an alternative rock band from Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland. Formed at the University of Dundee in 1994 as an indie rock band, the band is now based in Glasgow...

 concert in 2010.

The Tait Tower
Tait Tower
Tait Tower was a tower in the art deco style constructed at the summit of Bellahouston Hill in Bellahouston Park in Glasgow in Scotland as part of the Empire Exhibition, Scotland 1938.It was designed by Thomas S...

 was built on a hill in the park as part of the 1938 Empire Exhibition but was demolished on the outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. A monument in the form of a large inscribed granite stone commemorating the 1938 Empire Exhibition currently overlooks Bellahouston Sports Centre and was unveiled by King George VI on 9 July 1937. Long distance races, such as the Glasgow Marathon and Half Marathon pass through the park, although events to the south were restricted in the 1990s when subsidence into old mine workings resulted in some depressions in the park surface.

Facilities

The park is home to several sporting facilities and buildings of cultural interest. These include Bellahouston Sports Centre and the Palace of Art Sports for Excellence Centre, the latter consisting of a building retained from the 1938 exhibition. The Glasgow Ski Centre houses an artificial ski slope, which was adapted from the seating area around a former bandstand in the early 1970s. This centre is now getting an extension. The bandstand has been retained as the clubhouse and equipment store. There is also a "pitch and putt" miniature golf course
Golf course
A golf course comprises a series of holes, each consisting of a teeing ground, fairway, rough and other hazards, and a green with a flagstick and cup, all designed for the game of golf. A standard round of golf consists of playing 18 holes, thus most golf courses have this number of holes...

, a bowling
Bowling
Bowling Bowling Bowling (1375–1425; late Middle English bowle, variant of boule Bowling (1375–1425; late Middle English bowle, variant of boule...

 club, all weather hockey
Hockey
Hockey is a family of sports in which two teams play against each other by trying to maneuver a ball or a puck into the opponent's goal using a hockey stick.-Etymology:...

 pitches, cycling facilities, an adventure playground and an orienteering
Orienteering
Orienteering is a family of sports that requires navigational skills using a map and compass to navigate from point to point in diverse and usually unfamiliar terrain, and normally moving at speed. Participants are given a topographical map, usually a specially prepared orienteering map, which they...

 course. In March 2006, construction began on a cycling track adjacent to Bellahouston Drive. In the past there were many football pitches and three large changing rooms, which have since been removed.

The park also houses a walled flower garden and the "House for an Art Lover
House for an Art Lover
The House for an Art Lover is based on a design produced in 1901 by Charles Rennie Mackintosh with his wife, Margaret MacDonald. The building is situated in Bellahouston Park in Glasgow, Scotland. Construction began in 1989 and the house was finally opened to the public in 1996...

", which was designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh
Charles Rennie Mackintosh
Charles Rennie Mackintosh was a Scottish architect, designer, watercolourist and artist. He was a designer in the Arts and Crafts movement and also the main representative of Art Nouveau in the United Kingdom. He had a considerable influence on European design...

 and opened in 1996. A section of the park is used as a plant nursery by Glasgow City Council.

The park is easily accessible via public transport, with Paisley Road West to the north and Mosspark Boulevard to the south. Although the Bellahouston train station was only open for the 1938 exhibition, Dumbreck
Dumbreck railway station
Dumbreck railway station is a railway station in Dumbreck, a district of Glasgow, Scotland. The station is managed by First ScotRail and lies on the Paisley Canal Line, 3 km west of Glasgow Central...

 station on the Paisley Canal Line
Paisley Canal Line
The Paisley Canal Railway line was originally a Glasgow and South Western Railway branch line running from Glasgow, Scotland, through three stations in Paisley, to North Johnstone...

 is only 250m from the park. Ibrox is the closest underground station. Motorway access is good with the M8 passing the park, and the M77 first exit being near the former tram lines on Mosspark Boulevard which are used as car parks during exhibitions, and also house two small permanent car parks.

Papal visits

The papal visit of John Paul II
Pope John Paul II's visit to the United Kingdom
Pope John Paul II's visit to the United Kingdom in 1982 was the first visit to that country by a reigning pope. John Paul arrived in the UK on 28 May 1982, and during his time there visited 9 cities, delivering 16 major addresses...

 in June 1982, which attracted a congregation of approximately 250,000, was the largest recorded gathering in the history of the city. Despite this, the visit was the cause of some disquiet. The Roman Catholic Church had paid for the drainage of some parkland close to Mosspark Boulevard which was prone to flooding, in order to increase the number of worshippers able to attend. Six trees were also removed to improve the view of a hill that housed the dais where the Pope was to celebrate Mass. However, protesters chained themselves to the trees to prevent this.

There was also another protest in the form of Pastor Jack Glass
Jack Glass
John Thomas Atkinson Glass, often known as Pastor Jack Glass or simply as Jack Glass , was a Scottish Protestant preacher, evangelicalist and political activist. Pastor Glass is most readily associated with his strong views on unionism in Northern Ireland, his anti-Catholic speeches and his...

, who stood in a local election for the "Pastor Jack Glass against the Papal visit" political party. There was further disquiet after the event when some said that the church had failed to honour its pledge to return the park to its original condition. However, the reality was that the removed trees required to be held for a couple of years in a nursery to stabalise them before they were replanted back in the park, some three years after the Mass with Pope John Paul II. A white brick painted wall that accommodated the rear of the stage has been maintained. On the death of John Paul II in April 2005, flowers were laid against the wall.

It was due to the replacement of these trees that when Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...

 came to the same park on 16th September 2010, the same site for the altar was not possible since the replaced trees had grown for some 25 years, obscuring it from view. When a visit by the Vatican planning team took place, it was decided to arrange the Mass in an East-West direction in the lower area of the Park. This decision meant that it would be impossible to have the same numbers of people present for the visit of Pope Benedict XVI in September 2010.

Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...

 celebrated an open-air Mass in Bellahouston Park to celebrate the Feast of Saint Ninian
Saint Ninian
Saint Ninian is a Christian saint first mentioned in the 8th century as being an early missionary among the Pictish peoples of what is now Scotland...

 on the evening of 16 September 2010, with a congregation of over 71,000 people, as part of his state visit to the United Kingdom
Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United Kingdom
Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United Kingdom from 16 to 19 September 2010 was the first state visit by a pope to the United Kingdom...

.
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