Livingston ( sco, Leivinstoun, gd, Baile Dhunlèibhe) is the largest town in
West Lothian,
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
. Designated in 1962, it is the fourth post-war
new town
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
to be built in Scotland. Taking its name from
a village of the same name incorporated into the new town, it was originally developed in the then-counties of
Midlothian and
West Lothian along the banks of the
River Almond. It is situated approximately fifteen miles (25 km) west of
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
and thirty miles (50 km) east of
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
, and is close to the towns of
Broxburn
Broxburn ( gd, Srath Bhroc, IPA: s̪ɾaˈvɾɔʰk is a town in West Lothian, Scotland, on the A89 road, from the West End of Edinburgh, from Edinburgh Airport and to the north of Livingston.
Etymology
The name Broxburn is a corruption of ...
to the north-east and
Bathgate
Bathgate ( sco, Bathket or , gd, Both Chèit) is a town in West Lothian, Scotland, west of Livingston, Scotland, Livingston and adjacent to the M8 motorway (Scotland), M8 motorway. Nearby towns are Armadale, West Lothian, Armadale, Blackburn, ...
to the north-west.
The town was built around a collection of small villages,
Livingston Village
Livingston Village is a village in West Lothian, dating back to the 12th century. Originally a farming village in West Lothian it is now in the heart of the town of Livingston.
History Pre 1962
Before 1962 Livingston Village was known as Liv ...
,
Bellsquarry
Bellsquarry is a suburban area located in the south-west of Livingston, West Lothian, Scotland. Bellsquarry is located to the west of the Murieston area of the town and to the south of the Dedridge area of the town. The Brucefield industrial es ...
, and Livingston Station (now part of
Deans). The town has a number of residential areas. These include
Craigshill
Craigshill is a residential area in the east of Livingston, Scotland. To the west is the A899, with Howden, Ladywell and Knightsridge beyond it, to the south is the village of Mid Calder, and to the north is Houston Industrial Estate and the vi ...
,
Howden
Howden () is a market and minster town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies in the Vale of York to the north of the M62, on the A614 road about south-east of York and north of Goole, which lies across the ...
,
Ladywell
Ladywell is a locale in Lewisham in South East London, England, and a ward in the London Borough of Lewisham between Brockley, Crofton Park and Lewisham proper. It has ample green space including Ladywell Fields and Hilly Fields which borders ...
,
Knightsridge
Knightsridge ( Scots: Knichtsrig) is an area of Livingston in West Lothian, Scotland. Knightsridge lies to the north of the town.
History
Not long after the start of the construction of Craigshill and Howden began, the construction of Knightsri ...
,
Deans,
Dedridge
Dedridge is an area in the town of Livingston in West Lothian, Scotland. It is located in the south of the town, just south of the Almondvale area, and north of the Murieston area.
The area's streets are named after parts, events or characters fr ...
,
Murieston
Murieston (From Muir (moor) of Houstoun) is a primarily residential district on the southern edge of Livingston, West Lothian, Scotland. It lies to the south-east of Bellsquarry.
Buildings
Most of the housing is privately owned and the majority ar ...
,
Almondvale
Almondvale Stadium, also known as the Tony Macaroni Arena for sponsorship purposes, but most commonly referred to as ‘The Spaghettihad’ (alluding to the Etihad Stadium), is a football stadium, located in the Almondvale area of Livingston, We ...
,
Eliburn
Eliburn is an area, primarily residential, in Livingston, West Lothian, Scotland. Eliburn is bordered by Deans to the north, Ladywell to the west and Livingston Village to the south.
History
The original fortified tower (Livingston Peel) of Li ...
,
Kirkton, and
Adambrae
Adambrae is a residential area and small river (burn) in Livingston, consisting primarily of privately owned housing. There is a small nature area and pond adjacent to Bluebell Glade in Adambrae where the "Adambrae burn" runs through the area. Thi ...
. There are several large industrial estates in Livingston, including Houston industrial estate, Brucefield Industrial Estate, Alba Business Park, and Kirkton Campus. The locality of Livingston as defined by the
General Register Office for Scotland
The General Register Office for Scotland (GROS) ( gd, Oifis Choitcheann a' Chlàraidh na h-Alba) was a non-ministerial directorate of the Scottish Government that administered the registration of births, deaths, marriages, divorces and adopti ...
(GROS) includes
Uphall Station
Uphall Station is a village located in West Lothian, Scotland. The name is derived from the neighbouring town Uphall on account of the railway station located on the northeast perimeter of the village. The village is situated southeast of Uphall ...
and
Pumpherston
Pumpherston is a village in West Lothian, Scotland. Originally a small industrial village housing works for the nearby shale mine and works, it now forms the eastern part of the new town of Livingston, which was constructed to the west of Pumphe ...
. The wider urban settlement, also as defined by the GROS, also includes
Mid Calder
Mid Calder ( sco, Mid Calder; gd, Caladar Mheadhain) is a village in West Lothian, Scotland. It is located on a steep hill overlooking the River Almond and Calder Wood, around west of Edinburgh. The settlement has been on a major crossroads s ...
and
East Calder
East Calder is a village located in West Lothian, Scotland, about a mile east of Mid Calder and a mile west of Wilkieston. It forms part of 'the Calders (together with Mid and West Calder), three small neighbouring communities situated west o ...
. Other neighbouring villages include:
Kirknewton,
Polbeth
PolbethG. ''Poll'' - pool ''beithe'' - birch tree "birch pool" is a former oil shale mining village located about a mile from West Calder, and not far from Livingston, West Lothian, Scotland.
Five Sisters
A mile to the west of the village a ...
and
West Calder
West Calder ( sco, Wast Cauder, gd, Caladar an Iar) is a village in the council area of West Lothian, Scotland, located four miles west of Livingston. Historically it is within the County of Midlothian. The village was an important centre in th ...
. The
2001 UK Census reported that the town had a population of 50,826. The
2011 UK Census showed the population of Livingston had increased to 56,269.
Livingston is the second-largest settlement in the Lothians after Edinburgh.
History
Before 1962
![Livingston_Old_Kirk_-_Geograph-1242071-by-Jim-Smillie](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Livingston_Old_Kirk_-_Geograph-1242071-by-Jim-Smillie.jpg)
Livingston is first mentioned in an early 12th-century charter as ''Villa Levingi'' (Leving's town).
In 1128
David I David I may refer to:
* David I, Caucasian Albanian Catholicos c. 399
* David I of Armenia, Catholicos of Armenia (728–741)
* David I Kuropalates of Georgia (died 881)
* David I Anhoghin, king of Lori (ruled 989–1048)
* David I of Scotland (di ...
granted the newly founded
Abbey of Holyrood control of the church at Livingston and its income in a charter that was witnessed by ''Turstani filii Levingi'' (Thurstan son of Leving).
[Livingston Old Parish](_blank)
. He built a fortified tower (Livingston Peel) which no longer survives. The settlement that grew up around it became known as Levingstoun, Layingston, and eventually fixed at Livingston. The Leving family controlled the area until dying out in 1512. From 1512 until 1671 the tower house was occupied by the
Murrays of Elibank. In 1670, the
Edinburgh botanic garden
The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) is a scientific centre for the study of plants, their diversity and conservation, as well as a popular tourist attraction. Founded in 1670 as a physic garden to grow medicinal plants, today it occupies ...
was founded by Dr.
Robert Sibbald
Sir Robert Sibbald (15 April 1641 – August 1722) was a Scottish physician and antiquary.
Life
He was born in Edinburgh, the son of David Sibbald (brother of Sir James Sibbald) and Margaret Boyd (January 1606 – 10 July 1672). Educated at t ...
and Dr.
Andrew Balfour
Sir Andrew Balfour (21 March 1873 – 30 January 1931) was a Scottish Medical Officer who specialised in tropical medicine. Balfour spent twelve years in Khartoum, Sudan and was the Medical Officer of Health in the city. As well as writing m ...
using the plant collection from the Elibank private gardens of
Sir Patrick Murray, 2nd Lord Elibank, following his death in September 1671. In the late 17th century, the Peel was demolished and replaced by a house called Livingston Place. The estate eventually passed from the Murray family to the Cunningham family and it was eventually acquired by the
Earl of Rosebery
Earl of Rosebery is a title in the Peerage of Scotland created in 1703 for Archibald Primrose, 1st Viscount of Rosebery, with remainder to his issue male and female successively. Its name comes from Roseberry Topping, a hill near Archibald's wif ...
in 1828 and demolished in 1840.
The area of the former gardens and house is now a local garden and park, named Peel park.
The formal layout and planting in the park reflect the historic gardens, and a new peel mound and moat was recreated to reflect the earlier history.
The area around Livingston was historically an important
shale oil
Shale oil is an unconventional oil produced from oil shale rock fragments by pyrolysis, hydrogenation, or thermal dissolution. These processes convert the organic matter within the rock (kerogen) into synthetic oil and gas. The resulting oil c ...
area, and the world's first oil boom occurred in West Lothian. This was based on oil extracted from
shale
Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especial ...
, and by 1870 over 3 million tons of shale were being mined each year in the area around Livingston. Output declined with the discovery of liquid oil reserves around the world in the early 1900s, but shale mining only finally ceased in 1962. The "
bing
Bing most often refers to:
* Bing Crosby (1903–1977), American singer
* Microsoft Bing, a web search engine
Bing may also refer to:
Food and drink
* Bing (bread), a Chinese flatbread
* Bing (soft drink), a UK brand
* Bing cherry, a varie ...
s" that characterise oil shale mining in West Lothian have largely been flattened. Two shale bings nearby are scheduled monuments – Five Sisters and Greendykes.
By 1898, the main Livingston village was recorded as having several houses, a mill, a
Church of Scotland
The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland.
The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Scottish Reformation, Reformation of 1560, when it split from t ...
church, a United Free church, a school, and a coaching inn.
The oldest church, Livingston Old Kirk, in its current form, dates from 1732 and is an example of plain Presbetryrian architecture from the Georgian period.
It stands on the site of a pre-Reformation church which appears to have stood on the site from .
The nearby coaching inn was built in 1760 and the poet
Robert Burns
Robert Burns (25 January 175921 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who hav ...
is said to have been a guest.
The nearby Livingston Mill was also built around the same date, in 1770 although there is evidence that suggests there may have been a mill on the site since the 14th or 15th century.
Around north of Livingston village, there was
a railway station with a smaller settlement called Livingston Station which is now part of
Deans.
Livingston station was built as a settlement to serve the workforce and their families of the nearby Deans Oil Works, owned by the Pumpherston Oil Company. Livingston Station had six streets with homes, as well as a store, a small church and a works institute.
[ The original Livingston railway station was operated by the ]Edinburgh and Bathgate Railway
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
and opened on 12 November 1849. British Railways
British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...
closed the station on 1 November 1948 following the ending of passenger services on the line. In the 1980s a site was chosen for a new railway station on the line to the east of the original station and Livingston North station opened on 24 March 1986, concurrent with the re-introduction of passenger services. The Livingston Village and Livingston Station settlements were both subsequently incorporated into Livingston new town in the 20th century.
New Town
Under the New Towns Act of 1946, Livingston was designated as a New Town
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
on 16 April 1962 in order to ease overcrowding in Glasgow. Livingston was the fourth new town of five in Scotland; the others were East Kilbride
East Kilbride (; gd, Cille Bhrìghde an Ear ) is the largest town in South Lanarkshire in Scotland and the country's sixth-largest locality by population. It was also designated Scotland's first new town on 6 May 1947. The area lies on a rais ...
, Glenrothes
Glenrothes (; , ; sco, Glenrothes; gd, Gleann Rathais) is a town situated in the heart of Fife, in east-central Scotland. It is about north of Edinburgh and south of Dundee. The town had a population of 39,277 in the 2011 census, making i ...
, Cumbernauld
Cumbernauld (; gd, Comar nan Allt, meeting of the streams) is a large town in the historic county of Dunbartonshire and council area of North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is the tenth most-populous locality in Scotland and the most populated t ...
and Irvine. Three villages (Livingston Village and Livingston Station in the old parish of Livingston and Bellsquarry in the parish of Mid Calder) and numerous farmsteads were incorporated into the Livingston new town. Published in July 1962, the first edition of the Livingston plan designated new areas for housing for up to 100,000 people, as well as areas for new industry and offices, marked by new roads, pathways, and recreational spaces, under an survey led by Professors Donald Robertson and Sir Robert Matthew
Sir Robert Hogg Matthew, OBE FRIBA FRSE (12 December 1906 – 2 June 1975) was a Scottish architect and a leading proponent of modernism.
Early life & studies
Robert Matthew was the son of John Fraser Matthew (1875–1955) (also an archite ...
.[ ][ ][ ] Many of the initial houses were factory-built. A subsequent edition to the plan was published in 1966 with Livingston intended as the centre of a new population area of up to 250,000 persons in the Lothians.[ ] The new town plan envisaged Livingston as a focal point for economic growth in the Lothian region, incorporating 'overspill' population from Glasgow and Edinburgh. The design incorporated a vision of mixed development, connected by a new series of roads in a grid system by means of grade separated junctions and roundabouts. While the new town plan considered the car to be the principle form of transport, it also envisaged a series of core footpaths to connect communities under the Radburn design
Radburn design housing (also called Radburn housing, Radburn design'', ''Radburn principle, or Radburn concept) is a concept for planned housing estates, based on a design that was originally used in Radburn, New Jersey, United States.
History ...
.
In order to build, manage, and promote Livingston, a quango
A quango or QUANGO (less often QuANGO or QANGO) is an organisation to which a government has devolved power, but which is still partly controlled and/or financed by government bodies. The term was originally a shortening of "quasi-NGO", where NG ...
organisation was formed, the Livingston Development Corporation (LDC). Sir David Lowe, a local large scale farmer and businessman, was appointed chairman.[ Following designation of the new town, the first large building begun was the Corporation's own offices in 1963.][ Residential construction began in 1962 with the first homes to be built as part of the new town being constructed in Deans (to house corporation employees and construction workers).] The first major development of the new town took place in Craigshill, with the first people moving into the newly built housing areas in April 1966 at Broom Walk.[ The construction of the areas of Howden, Ladywell, and Knightsridge began in the late 1960s and this was followed in the 1970s by the creation of Dedrige and further development of Deans.][ Some of the first prominent buildings in the new town built in these decades included Riverside Primary School (the first primary school built in the new town in April 1966), Livingston Fire Station (1967 by the architects Bamber & Hall), the new town's first ]public house
A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...
(the Tower in Craigshill built in 1968), Craigshill school (the first secondary school built in the new town in 1969), and the 'Centre' (Livingstons shopping centre) built in 1977. Craigshill was said to exemplify the spartan, geometric approach to new town planning, with buildings composed of the Danish style Jesperson blocks and high-density, low-rise concrete homes with Scandinavian style mono-pitch roofs.
By 1971, the town's population had risen to 14,000. On 9 November 1979 the Livingston UFO Incident took place, when Robert Taylor, employed by the Livingston Development Corporation, is said to have encountered a UFO
An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are id ...
on Dechmont Law
''Disambiguation: the name Dechmont, and an associated "Dechmont Hill" are also places near Cambuslang in Scotland''
Dechmont Law is a hill in Livingston, West Lothian, Scotland. It lies around 700 yards southwest of the village of Dechmont, ...
and the incident was subsequently investigated by Lothian and Borders Police
Lothian and Borders Police was the territorial police force for the Scottish council areas of the City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian, Scottish Borders and West Lothian between 1975 and 2013. The force's headquarters were in Fettes ...
.[Bob Taylor (Obituary)]
The Telegraph 23 March 2007 (2008-04-06) It is the only UFO incident that was part of a criminal investigation in the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
.[Obituary: Robert Taylor, a possible victim of alien abduction, died on March 14th, aged 88]
''The Economist'' published 29 March 2007
In 1984 a new railway station was built for the town on the Shotts Line
The Shotts Line is a suburban railway line linking and via in Scotland. It is one of the four rail links between the two cities.
Between Glasgow Central and , the line is shared with the West Coast Main Line (WCML), before branching off tow ...
called Livingston South which was shortly followed by another station Livingston North on the redeveloped Edinburgh to Bathgate Line
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...
in 1986. These stations replaced the former Livingston
Livingston may refer to:
Businesses
* Livingston Energy Flight, an Italian airline (2003–2010)
* Livingston Compagnia Aerea, an Italian airline (2011–2014), also known as Livingston Airline
* Livingston International, a North American custom ...
and Newpark stations which had closed before the construction of the town. In 1995 Livingston gained its professional football team, Livingston F.C. The first team was essentially formed from the relocation of Meadowbank Thistle F.C. from Edinburgh.
While in 1980, the LDC owned 90% of the town's housing, by 1996 this had reduced to some 40% through sales and increasing private home ownership. The Livingston Development Corporation guided Livingston until its mandate expired on 22 March 1997 and the town was transferred to the West Lothian Council
West Lothian Council is the local authority for the council area of West Lothian in Scotland.
History
West Lothian District Council was created in 1975 as one of four districts within the Lothian region. The West Lothian district took its name ...
. The last major construction operation carried out by the LDC was the Almondvale Stadium
Almondvale Stadium, also known as the Tony Macaroni Arena for sponsorship purposes, but most commonly referred to as ‘The Spaghettihad’ (alluding to the Etihad Stadium), is a football stadium, located in the Almondvale area of Livingston, We ...
. Housing development continues under West Lothian Council, through private developers such as Barratt Developments
Barratt Developments plc is one of the largest residential property development companies in the United Kingdom operating across England, Wales and Scotland. It was founded in 1958 as Greensitt Bros., but control was later assumed by Sir ...
and Bellway
Bellway plc is a residential property developer and home construction, housebuilder based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
History
The company was fou ...
, and under the management of housing associations
In Ireland and the United Kingdom, housing associations are private, non-profit making organisations that provide low-cost "social housing" for people in need of a home. Any budget surplus is used to maintain existing housing and to help fin ...
such as the Almond Housing Association and the West Lothian Housing Partnership.
In September 2021, the town submitted a bid for city status in the United Kingdom
City status in the United Kingdom is granted by the monarch of the United Kingdom to a select group of communities. , there are 76 cities in the United Kingdom—55 in England, seven in Wales, eight in Scotland, and six in Northern Ireland. ...
as part of the Platinum Jubilee
A platinum jubilee is a celebration held to mark an anniversary. Among monarchies, it usually refers to a 70th anniversary.
The most recent monarch to celebrate a platinum jubilee is Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and the other C ...
Civic Honours Competition. Although the town was not successful in being raised to city status, 2022 marked its 60th anniversary as a town.
Geography
Livingston is the eighth-largest settlement
Settlement may refer to:
*Human settlement, a community where people live
*Settlement (structural), the distortion or disruption of parts of a building
* Closing (real estate), the final step in executing a real estate transaction
*Settlement (fin ...
and the third-largest town in Scotland. It is also the 171st largest settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies from Glasgow and from Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
.
The Livingston new town was planned so that the River Almond, the namesake of the Almondvale district, runs through the town centre.
Outer Livingston districts include Wester Dechmont, Deans (including the Deans Industrial Estate), Kirkton, and Houston to the north, Craigshill
Craigshill is a residential area in the east of Livingston, Scotland. To the west is the A899, with Howden, Ladywell and Knightsridge beyond it, to the south is the village of Mid Calder, and to the north is Houston Industrial Estate and the vi ...
to the east, Bellsquarry
Bellsquarry is a suburban area located in the south-west of Livingston, West Lothian, Scotland. Bellsquarry is located to the west of the Murieston area of the town and to the south of the Dedridge area of the town. The Brucefield industrial es ...
(including the Brucefield Industrial Estate) and Murieston
Murieston (From Muir (moor) of Houstoun) is a primarily residential district on the southern edge of Livingston, West Lothian, Scotland. It lies to the south-east of Bellsquarry.
Buildings
Most of the housing is privately owned and the majority ar ...
to the south, and Adambrae
Adambrae is a residential area and small river (burn) in Livingston, consisting primarily of privately owned housing. There is a small nature area and pond adjacent to Bluebell Glade in Adambrae where the "Adambrae burn" runs through the area. Thi ...
and Kirkton Campus to the east of the town. Craigshill takes its name from the Scottish Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well as ...
word for the slopes of a hill.
Inner central districts in the town include Almondvale
Almondvale Stadium, also known as the Tony Macaroni Arena for sponsorship purposes, but most commonly referred to as ‘The Spaghettihad’ (alluding to the Etihad Stadium), is a football stadium, located in the Almondvale area of Livingston, We ...
, Livingston Village
Livingston Village is a village in West Lothian, dating back to the 12th century. Originally a farming village in West Lothian it is now in the heart of the town of Livingston.
History Pre 1962
Before 1962 Livingston Village was known as Liv ...
, Eliburn
Eliburn is an area, primarily residential, in Livingston, West Lothian, Scotland. Eliburn is bordered by Deans to the north, Ladywell to the west and Livingston Village to the south.
History
The original fortified tower (Livingston Peel) of Li ...
, Howden
Howden () is a market and minster town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies in the Vale of York to the north of the M62, on the A614 road about south-east of York and north of Goole, which lies across the ...
, Ladywell
Ladywell is a locale in Lewisham in South East London, England, and a ward in the London Borough of Lewisham between Brockley, Crofton Park and Lewisham proper. It has ample green space including Ladywell Fields and Hilly Fields which borders ...
, Knightsridge
Knightsridge ( Scots: Knichtsrig) is an area of Livingston in West Lothian, Scotland. Knightsridge lies to the north of the town.
History
Not long after the start of the construction of Craigshill and Howden began, the construction of Knightsri ...
, and Dedridge
Dedridge is an area in the town of Livingston in West Lothian, Scotland. It is located in the south of the town, just south of the Almondvale area, and north of the Murieston area.
The area's streets are named after parts, events or characters fr ...
. Ladywell takes its name from a historic well that was dedicated to Mary
Mary may refer to:
People
* Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name)
Religious contexts
* New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below
* Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...
and was said to have been used by medieval Scottish Kings as a site for a yearly Royal touching ceremony.
The geology of Livingston is similar to that of West Lothian in general, characterised by former glacial history and composed of till
image:Geschiebemergel.JPG, Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains (pebbles and gravel) in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material (silt and sand), and this characteristic, known as ''matrix support'', is d ...
. This includes areas of clay
Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4).
Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...
, sand
Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class of s ...
, silt
Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel when ...
, and gravel
Gravel is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally throughout the world as a result of sedimentary and erosive geologic processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone.
Gravel is classifi ...
, primarily along the Almond river valley environment.[ Parts of Livingston also have isolated areas of carboniferous sedimentary rocks (primarily in and around the Deans area of the town) which were worked and extracted for shale oil in the 19th and 20th centuries.][ The oldest rocks are classified as part of the ]Inverclyde Group
The Inverclyde Group is a Carboniferous lithostratigraphic group (a sequence of rock strata) in southern Scotland and northernmost England. The name is derived from Inverclyde. The rocks of the Inverclyde Group have also previously been referre ...
(primarily located in the south-east of Livingston between Linhouse Water and Kirknewton).[ There are also several areas of underlying ]sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...
in Livingston which were used as local quarries, now since defunct, including Dedridge quarry, refilled and landscaped as a local park (Quarry Froggy Park). Bellsquarry originates from a former Burdiehouse limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
quarry and the surname of its owner, Mr Bell. The quarry was in operation by 1782 and continued until the early 20th century, when it was used as a rubbish dump before being tidied and covered.[
Until the development of the new town, except for localised industry in areas such as Deans, the area was primarily ]agricultural
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating Plant, plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of Sedentism, sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of Domestication, domesticated species created food ...
, with farming focused on the alluvial soils of the Almond river. The area is now primarily an urban area
An urban area, built-up area or urban agglomeration is a human settlement with a high population density and infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas are created through urbanization and are categorized by urban morphology as cities, t ...
although as a new town, Livingston is characterised by large areas of forested paths, public parks and open spaces. Forested areas in Livingston include Livingston Old Wood () in Eliburn, the Wilderness in Adambrae (), Bellsquarry Wood (), Kirkton Woods (), Linhouse Glen, and Calder Woods (on the boundary with East Calder
East Calder is a village located in West Lothian, Scotland, about a mile east of Mid Calder and a mile west of Wilkieston. It forms part of 'the Calders (together with Mid and West Calder), three small neighbouring communities situated west o ...
).
Economy
The area where Livingston now sits was historically dominated by oil shale mining, which is evident from the bings which still exist on much of the surrounding landscape. The designation of Livingston as a new town in the 1960s attracted new light industries to the area, with high technology and pharmaceutical companies moving into the town. Livingston formed a major hub in Scotland's Silicon Glen
Silicon Glen is a nickname for the high tech sector of Scotland, the name inspired by Silicon Valley in California. It is applied to the Central Belt triangle between Dundee, Inverclyde and Edinburgh, which includes Fife, Glasgow and Stirling ...
with factories constructed in purpose-build business parks at Houston Industrial Estate and Kirkton Campus. Like most other areas, this went into a slow decline from the late 1990s with companies including Motorola
Motorola, Inc. () was an American Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent p ...
and NEC
is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as NEC. It provides IT and network soluti ...
closing down their factories. Several multi-national companies still have factories in the town, including Wyman Gordon
Wyman-Gordon is a company that designs and manufactures complex metal components. Founded in 1883 as a manufacturer of crankshafts for looms, it has a long history of making forged metal components, particularly for the aerospace industry. Wyman-G ...
who manufacture aircraft components on the Houston Industrial Estate. Other companies on the Houston Industrial Estate include Mitsubishi Electric (who have an electric air conditioning
Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...
factory which produces almost 150,000 air conditioning and heat pump units every year), Paterson Arran (a food manufacturer whose bakery, the Royal Burgh Bakery is located in Livingston), and DS Smith
DS Smith plc is a British multinational packaging business, headquartered in London, England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
History
The business was founded by two cousins, David Gabriel ...
(who have a box production plant on the estate).
From the 1970s, Kirkton Campus on the western edge of the town was developed as Scotland's first technology science park. Developed for private businesses by the LDC, it included 300 acres of landscaped offices and factory sites along the Killandean Burn and River Almond.[ Former businesses included ]Ethicon
Ethicon, Inc. is a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson. It was incorporated as a separate company under the Johnson & Johnson umbrella in 1949 to expand and diversify the Johnson & Johnson product line.
Ethicon has manufactured surgical sutures and ...
, Boehringer Mannheim
F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, commonly known as Roche, is a Swiss multinational healthcare company that operates worldwide under two divisions: Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics. Its holding company, Roche Holding AG, has shares listed on the SIX ...
, Canon Business Machines and Seagate Micro Electronics. While these factories on the Campus have closed, it is still home to several businesses, including Sky UK
Sky UK Limited is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television and broadband Internet services, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers and businesses in the United Kingdom. It is a subsidiary of ...
who is one of the largest private sector employers in Livingston with a range of offices and their biggest UK contact centre at Kirkton Campus. Other companies at Kirkton Campus include Merck
Merck refers primarily to the German Merck family and three companies founded by the family, including:
* the Merck Group, a German chemical, pharmaceutical and life sciences company founded in 1668
** Merck Serono (known as EMD Serono in the Unite ...
(a pharmaceutical company), Gore W L & Associates (a clothes manufacturer in a triangular plan building built in 1984), SCION Instruments (a chromatography
In chemical analysis, chromatography is a laboratory technique for the separation of a mixture into its components. The mixture is dissolved in a fluid solvent (gas or liquid) called the ''mobile phase'', which carries it through a system ( ...
and gas detector manufacturer), JPT Foodtech, and Palletways (a distribution service which owns a hub facility).
Other large employers include Tesco
Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...
(whose distribution centre for Scotland and Northern Ireland is located on the northern edge of the town), Schuh
Schuh (pronounced //, like "shoe") is a Scottish footwear retailer based in Livingston, Scotland. It has 132 stores in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The company is predominantly a branded shoe stockist, selling over 80 brands, including: Conv ...
(whose head office and customer service centre is on the Deans Industrial Estate in Livingston), Shin-Etsu Europe (who have a manufacturing facility in Livingston that produces semiconductors), those in the retail sector in the shopping centres, supermarkets, and the health care sector such as NHS Scotland
NHS Scotland, sometimes styled NHSScotland, is the publicly funded healthcare system in Scotland and one of the four systems that make up the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. It operates 14 territorial NHS boards across Scotland, ...
. The Witherby Publishing Group
Witherby Publishing Group, formerly known as Witherby Seamanship, is a technical publisher of maritime, nautical and navigation training, reference and regulatory materials. The company is the resulting merger of Witherby Books and Seamansh ...
, established in 1740, is one of the oldest publishers
Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...
in the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
and their offices and warehouse is located in Livingston at Navigation House. Valneva SE
__NOTOC__
Valneva SE is a French biotech company headquartered in Saint-Herblain, France, developing and commercializing vaccines for infectious diseases. It has manufacturing sites in Livingston, West Lothian, Livingston, Scotland; Solna, Sweden ...
is a biotech company that has a manufacturing facility in Livingston which produces vaccines, including a vaccine against COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
.
The Brucefield Industrial Estate is located west of Bellsquarry and includes companies such as Diet Chef (a food manufacturer), ScoMac (a catering equipment manufacturer), and Snag Tights (a textile manufacturer based in Livingston that exports to 90 countries).
Alba Business Park is located in Livingston to the west of Adambrae and includes a technology innovation centre. Companies in the Alba Business Park include Glenmorangie
Glenmorangie distillery (pronounced with the stress on the second syllable: ; the toponym is believed to derive from either Gaelic ''Gleann Mòr na Sìth'' " vale of tranquillity" or ''Gleann Mór-innse'' " vale of big meadows") is a distill ...
, the whisky distillers, who have offices and a bottling facility that was opened in 2011. Quintiles IMS, a healthcare data provider, have a large office in the business park. The prosthetic company Össur
Össur hf. is a company based in Iceland that develops, manufactures and sells non-invasive equipment for orthopaedics, including bracing and support products, compression therapy, and prosthetics. The company is headquartered in Reykjavík, wit ...
(Touch Bionics) has a research and development facility in the park.
Town centre
Livingston town centre
A town centre is the commercial or geographical centre or core area of a town. Town centres are traditionally associated with shopping or retail. They are also the centre of communications with major public transport hubs such as train or bus s ...
sits on the southern edge of the Almond Valley and provides shops and services for the surrounding area. It is bounded by a ring road to the east and has been purposely planned, distinguishing it from many other town centres. Howden Park is located immediately north of the town centre and adjoins Howden House, an 18th-century house which contains an arts centre and private housing. The south western edge of the town centre is dominated by retail parks. Livingston's town centre also contains a large number of offices. Private sector offices are also concentrated at the eastern and western edges of the town centre and along the Almondvale Boulevard
A boulevard is a type of broad avenue planted with rows of trees, or in parts of North America, any urban highway.
Boulevards were originally circumferential roads following the line of former city walls.
In American usage, boulevards may ...
. Other facilities in the town centre include: hotels, a swimming pool and local authority gym, and restaurants and pubs. Almondvale Football Stadium and West Lothian College
West Lothian College is a further education institution in Livingston, West Lothian, Scotland. The Principal of the college is Jackie Galbraith, who was previously Vice-Principal at Ayrshire College.
History
The college has been located in L ...
are located at the north western edge of the town centre.
The Livingston Civic Centre was completed in June 2009 and officially opened by then-First Minister
A first minister is any of a variety of leaders of government cabinets. The term literally has the same meaning as "prime minister" but is typically chosen to distinguish the office-holder from a superior prime minister. Currently the title of ' ...
Alex Salmond
Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond (; born 31 December 1954) is a Scottish politician and economist who served as First Minister of Scotland from 2007 to 2014. A prominent figure on the Scottish nationalist movement, he has served as leader ...
on 25 November 2009. The Civic Centre is located just north of The Centre on the bank of the River Almond. It was home to the divisional headquarters of Lothian and Borders Police
Lothian and Borders Police was the territorial police force for the Scottish council areas of the City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian, Scottish Borders and West Lothian between 1975 and 2013. The force's headquarters were in Fettes ...
until the creation of Police Scotland
Police Scotland ( gd, Poileas Alba), officially the Police Service of Scotland (), is the national police force of Scotland. It was formed in 2013, through the merging of eight regional police forces in Scotland, as well as the specialist service ...
in 2013, as well as the sheriff
A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...
and justice of the peace
A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...
, West Lothian Council
West Lothian Council is the local authority for the council area of West Lothian in Scotland.
History
West Lothian District Council was created in 1975 as one of four districts within the Lothian region. The West Lothian district took its name ...
, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service
The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service is the independent public prosecution service for Scotland, and is a Ministerial Department of the Scottish Government. The department is headed by His Majesty's Lord Advocate, who under the ...
, the Scottish Children's Reporter Administration
The Scottish Children's Reporter Administration (SCRA) is an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government, with responsibility for protecting children at risk. SCRA was formed under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1994 ...
, Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service
Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service was a Local Authority fire and rescue service covering an area of of south east Scotland, and serving a total population of 890,000. It was amalgamated into the single Scottish Fire and Rescue Service ...
, and the West Lothian Community Health and Care Partnership.
Shopping
Livingston has three major shopping centres, three medium large retail parks, and clusters of small local stores located throughout the different areas. The largest shopping centres are 'The Centre' (formerly named the Almondvale Shopping Centre, comprising more than of retail space) and Livingston Designer Outlet
Livingston Designer Outlet is the largest outlet mall in Scotland, and opened in October 2000 under the ownership of McArthur Glen as McArthur Glen Livingston Designer Outlet and sits opposite the popular The Centre (Livingston) shopping centre. ...
(the largest outlet mall
Mall commonly refers to a:
* Shopping mall
* Strip mall
* Pedestrian street
* Esplanade
Mall or MALL may also refer to:
Places Shopping complexes
* The Mall (Sofia) (Tsarigradsko Mall), Sofia, Bulgaria
* The Mall, Patna, Patna, Bihar, India
...
in Scotland, formerly called the McArthurGlen
McArthurGlen Group is a public company, which develops and manages designer outlet malls.
Background
McArthurGlen originated as a private company in North America, part of the Vancouver based McLean Group. It opened and ran factory outlet sh ...
Designer Outlet Centre). The combined retail spaces of central Livingston form the largest indoor shopping location in Scotland and the 10th largest in the UK.[
The first phase of the Livingston's shopping centres was completed in 1977 to facilitate the needs of the local residents and workers at The Centre, known as the "Livingston Centre" at that point.][ The first major refurbishment was completed in 1988 by ]Land Securities
Land Securities Group plc is the largest commercial property development and investment company in the United Kingdom. The firm became a real estate investment trust (REIT) when REITs were introduced in the United Kingdom in January 2007. It is ...
. The centre was extended by in 1996/1997, creating phase 2 of the development, bringing the size of the centre to over . It has since been renamed "The Almondvale Centre".[ The Centre was completed in its current structure on 16 October 2008. The total development has around 155 shops and eating establishments. In early 1999, construction started on phase 3 of the development with the construction of McArthur Glen Designer Outlet Centre (reamed as the Livingston Designer Outlet in 2007). This opened in October 2000, with other work continuing into 2002.][ The Livingston Designer Outlet, contains a VUE multiplex cinema, a food court with many chain fast-food outlets, bars, restaurants, and cafés, as well as around 70 outlet shops.] In the early 2000s, Asda
Asda Stores Ltd. () (often styled as ASDA) is a British supermarket chain. It is headquartered in Leeds, England. The company was founded in 1949 when the Asquith family merged their retail business with the Associated Dairies company of York ...
constructed a new supercentre at the other end of the shopping centre in place of the old Woolco
Woolco was an American-based discount retail chain. It was founded in 1962 in Columbus, Ohio, by the F. W. Woolworth Company. It was a full-line discount department store unlike the five-and-dime Woolworth stores which operated at the time. At i ...
store (which had also been used as a Gateway hypermarket before Asda acquired the firm in late-1989). This Asda supercentre is the largest Asda store in Scotland.
Until 2016, there was also a large B&Q in the south-west of the town centre, as well as a large Morrisons
Wm Morrison Supermarkets, trading as Morrisons, is the fifth largest supermarket chain in the United Kingdom. As of 2021, the company had 497 supermarkets across England, Wales and Scotland, as well as one in Gibraltar. The company is headqu ...
supermarket which remains open. The Homebase
Homebase is a British home improvement retailer and garden centre with stores across the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. Founded by Sainsbury's and GB-Inno-BM in 1979, the company was owned by Home Retail Group from October 2006, un ...
store closed in July 2010 and Argos
Argos most often refers to:
* Argos, Peloponnese, a city in Argolis, Greece
** Ancient Argos, the ancient city
* Argos (retailer), a catalogue retailer operating in the United Kingdom and Ireland
Argos or ARGOS may also refer to:
Businesses
...
moved to premises across the road. The former Homebase and Argos stores were converted into a large Sainsbury's
J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is the second largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, with a 14.6% share of UK supermarket sales.
Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company ...
supermarket that opened in December 2010. Also in the town centre are discount supermarkets such as Aldi
Aldi (stylised as ALDI) is the common company brand name of two German multinational family-owned discount supermarket chains operating over 10,000 stores in 20 countries. The chain was founded by brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht in 1946, when t ...
and Lidl
Lidl Stiftung & Co. KG (; ) is a German international discount retailer chain that operates over 11,000 stores across Europe and the United States. Headquartered in Neckarsulm, Baden-Württemberg, the company belongs to the Schwarz Group, whi ...
, the latter of which is located beside the Almondvale Stadium.
Under the original Livingston plans, neighbourhood shopping centres were to be located at strategic points around the town and the first of these to be built was The Mall at Craigshill, which claimed to be one of the first covered shopping centres in Scotland.[ This was followed by the Carmondean Centre in Deans and groupings of shops in Ladywell and Murieston.]
Transport
Walking / cycling
Livingston has an excellent 'core path network' which is shared use, and available to pedestrians and cyclists. It connects all of the main areas of the town with shopping and work areas. It is for the most part segregated from roads and uses an extensive network of under/over pass systems to keep pedestrians and cyclists away from motorised traffic.
Road
Livingston has excellent connections to the central Scotland road network: the M8 bounds Livingston in the north and the A71 in the south; The A899 dual carriageway spine road passes north south along Livingston's eastern edge and connects the two; The A89 runs east west on the north side of the M8.
Buses
Livingston has a central bus terminal with seven stances located on Almondvale Avenue between the two shopping centres in the town centre. This provides regular services to surrounding towns and villages. McGill's Scotland East
McGill's Bus Services is a bus operator based in Greenock, Scotland.[Lothian Country Buses are the main bus operator in Livingston. Other operators include E&M Horsburgh, Blue Bus, SD Travel, and ]Stagecoach
A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...
. Livingston has buses to Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
, Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
, Edinburgh Royal Infirmary
The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, or RIE, often (but incorrectly) known as the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, or ERI, was established in 1729 and is the oldest voluntary hospital in Scotland. The new buildings of 1879 were claimed to be the largest v ...
, Lanark
Lanark (; gd, Lannraig ; sco, Lanrik) is a town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, located 20 kilometres to the south-east of Hamilton. The town lies on the River Clyde, at its confluence with Mouse Water. In 2016, the town had a population of 9 ...
, Fife
Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...
, Falkirk
Falkirk ( gd, An Eaglais Bhreac, sco, Fawkirk) is a large town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow.
Falkirk had a ...
, and most West Lothian towns and villages.
Rail
Livingston has three railway stations; , and Uphall
Uphall ( sco, Uphauch, gd, Ubhalaidh) is a village in West Lothian, Scotland. It is a swiftly growing village in a conurbation with Broxburn to the east, Dechmont to the west and the major town of Livingston to the south west. Uphall is 30 mil ...
(on the eastern edge of Livingston).
Livingston North is located adjacent to the Carmondean Shopping Centre between Eliburn and Deans and is on the North Clyde Line
The North Clyde Line (defined by Network Rail as the ''Glasgow North Electric Suburban'' line) is a suburban railway in West Central Scotland. The route is operated by ScotRail Trains. As a result of the incorporation of the Airdrie–Bathgat ...
. The station opened on 24 March 1986, concurrent with the re-introduction of passenger services on the Edinburgh to Bathgate Line
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...
. On 12 December 2010, with the completion of the Airdrie-Bathgate Rail Link, Livingston North is now served by trains running to and .
Livingston South is located at the Murieston Shops and is on the Shotts Line
The Shotts Line is a suburban railway line linking and via in Scotland. It is one of the four rail links between the two cities.
Between Glasgow Central and , the line is shared with the West Coast Main Line (WCML), before branching off tow ...
and has trains running between and via . It was opened by British Rail on 6 October 1984.
Airports
Livingston is west of Edinburgh Airport
Edinburgh Airport is an airport located in the Ingliston area of Edinburgh, Scotland. It was the busiest airport in Scotland in 2019, handling over 14.7 million passengers. It was also the sixth-busiest airport in the United Kingdom by ...
and east of Glasgow Airport
gd, Port-adhair Eadar-nàiseanta Ghlaschu
, image = Glasgow Airport logo.svg
, image-width = 200
, image2 = GlasgowAirportFromAir.jpg
, image2-width = 250
, IATA = GLA
, ICAO = EGPF
, type = Public
, owner = AGS Airports
, hub =
*easy ...
, both of which have regular flights to British and international destinations.
Media
The local newspaper covering Livingston is the West Lothian Courier (published under the Daily Record). There was previously a Livingston Post newspaper which was stopped in the early 1990s. There was also a newspaper called West Lothian Herald & Post that served Livingston but that ceased to print in July 2011. Dedridge Grapevine is a voluntary community magazine, delivering several thousand copies to houses in and around Dedridge, founded and edited by Kathleen Ross-Hale since 1976. Konect is a free local magazine that serves the West Lothian area, including Livingston, with approximately 10,000 copies a month delivered in the Livingston area.
Livingston previously had its own Radio Station called River FM that was broadcast from the Almondvale Stadium
Almondvale Stadium, also known as the Tony Macaroni Arena for sponsorship purposes, but most commonly referred to as ‘The Spaghettihad’ (alluding to the Etihad Stadium), is a football stadium, located in the Almondvale area of Livingston, We ...
, from 1 September 2003 until 29 January 2007. Current local radio includes the local BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
station BBC Radio Scotland
BBC Radio Scotland is a Scottish radio network owned and operated by BBC Scotland, a division of the BBC. It broadcasts a wide variety of programmes. It replaced the Scottish BBC Radio 4 opt-out service of the same name from 23 November 197 ...
and local commercial radio including Capital Scotland
Capital Scotland (formerly known as Beat 106, XFM Scotland, and later Galaxy Scotland) is a regional radio station owned by Communicorp UK and operated by Global. It broadcasts to Scotland's Central Belt, an area surrounding the two citie ...
and 97.3 Forth One. Livingston also has a hospital radio station called Radio Grapevine which broadcasts to St John's Hospital.
Livingston is covered by the BBC Scotland and STV Central
Scottish Television (now, legally, known as STV Central Limited) is the ITV network franchisee for Central Scotland. The channel — the largest of the three ITV franchises in Scotland — has been in operation since 31 August 1957 and is the ...
regions.
Governance
Local
Livingston is the administrative centre
An administrative center is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune is located.
In countries with French as administrative language (such as Belgium, Lu ...
of West Lothian Council
West Lothian Council is the local authority for the council area of West Lothian in Scotland.
History
West Lothian District Council was created in 1975 as one of four districts within the Lothian region. The West Lothian district took its name ...
. Within West Lothian, Livingston is covered by four multi-member wards each electing four councillors. They are Livingston North, Livingston South, East Livingston, and East Calder wards.
Many of the responsibilities of West Lothian Council were previously the responsibility of the Livingston Development Corporation (LDC) until 1997 when the LDC was disbanded.[
]
Scottish Parliament
Livingston is in the Almond Valley constituency for the Scottish Parliament
The Scottish Parliament ( gd, Pàrlamaid na h-Alba ; sco, Scots Pairlament) is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Scotland. Located in the Holyrood area of the capital city, Edinburgh, it is frequently referred to by the metonym Holyro ...
, and the Member of the Scottish Parliament
Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP; gd, Ball Pàrlamaid na h-Alba, BPA; sco, Memmer o the Scots Pairliament, MSP) is the title given to any one of the 129 individuals elected to serve in the Scottish Parliament.
Electoral system
The ad ...
is Angela Constance
Angela Constance (born 15 July 1970) is a Scottish politician serving as Minister for Drug Policy since 2020, having previously served in the Scottish Cabinet from 2014 to 2018. A member of the Scottish National Party (SNP), she has been the M ...
of the Scottish National Party
The Scottish National Party (SNP; sco, Scots National Pairty, gd, Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic political party in Scotland. The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence from ...
. Livingston is also covered by the Lothian electoral region which gives the area seven additional MSPs.
House of Commons
Livingston has its own constituency in the House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
; Livingston
Livingston may refer to:
Businesses
* Livingston Energy Flight, an Italian airline (2003–2010)
* Livingston Compagnia Aerea, an Italian airline (2011–2014), also known as Livingston Airline
* Livingston International, a North American custom ...
, and is represented by the Scottish National Party Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
(MP) Hannah Bardell
Hannah Mary Bardell (born 1 June 1983) is a Scottish politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Livingston since 2015. A member of the Scottish National Party (SNP), she served as its spokesperson for Digital, Culture, Media ...
.
Livingston for the majority of its existence has returned Labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
MPs since the town was founded in 1962. However, in the election of 2015, the constituency voted in Hannah Bardell of the SNP as their member for Parliament.
It was for the 1983 general election that Livingston gained its own constituency at Westminster
Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster.
The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...
. The first MP elected for Livingston was Robin Cook
Robert Finlayson "Robin" Cook (28 February 19466 August 2005) was a British Labour politician who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1974 until his death in 2005 and served in the Cabinet as Foreign Secretary from 1997 until 2001 wh ...
who held the seat for six consecutive elections and held many government positions, most notably Foreign Secretary
The secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, known as the foreign secretary, is a minister of the Crown of the Government of the United Kingdom and head of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Seen as ...
between 1997 and 2001. In 2005 Robin Cook suddenly died of a heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...
and a by-election was called and won by the Labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
Jim Devine
James Devine (born 21 May 1953) is a former Member of Parliament. He was the Labour Party member for Livingston from 2005 until 2010 and Chairman of the Scottish Labour Party between 1994 and 1995.
On 16 June 2009, following the 2009 expenses ...
. Devine was deselected in 2009 after being caught up in the 2009 expenses scandal.
European Parliament
Before Brexit
Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or ...
, Livingston was part of the Scotland European Parliament constituency. It was represented by six MEPs
A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament.
When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...
; the nearest ones to Livingston were Alyn Smith
Alyn Edward Smith (born 15 September 1973) is a Scottish politician. A member of the Scottish National Party (SNP), he was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Stirling at the 2019 general election. He also served as a Member of the E ...
( SNP) and Struan Stevenson
Struan John Stirton Stevenson (born 4 April 1948) is a Scottish politician. He was the Conservative Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Scotland from 1999 to 2014 and chair and Vice Chair of the Committee on Fisheries, in addition to whi ...
(Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
) who were both based in Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
and David Martin (Labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
) who was based in Roslin. Livingston used to be part of the Lothians European Parliament constituency.
Education and libraries
Livingston has 18 nursery schools
A preschool, also known as nursery school, pre-primary school, or play school or creche, is an educational establishment or learning space offering early childhood education to children before they begin compulsory education at primary schoo ...
, 17 primary school
A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...
s, and five special schools. There are four secondary school
A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...
s in the town which are Inveralmond Community High School
Inveralmond Community High School is an 11–18, mixed comprehensive school in the Ladywell area of Livingston and serves a cluster of six primary schools.
The school roll is currently 1105.
Ian Colquhoun, disabled author and historian, atte ...
, The James Young High School
The James Young High School is a secondary school in Dedridge, Livingston, West Lothian, Scotland. The school opened in 1982 and was named after James Young, who patented the process of extracting oil from coal and shale.
James Young High is a ...
, St. Margaret's RC Academy and Deans Community High School
Deans Community High School is a secondary school, secondary level school, in Deans, Livingston, West Lothian, Livingston, Scotland. The school opened in 1978, and is Coeducational, co-educational, with 1279 pupils.
Feeder schools
Until Octobe ...
.[
]West Lothian College
West Lothian College is a further education institution in Livingston, West Lothian, Scotland. The Principal of the college is Jackie Galbraith, who was previously Vice-Principal at Ayrshire College.
History
The college has been located in L ...
offers higher and further education and its central campus is based in Livingston. The college has sports facilities, a library, a training restaurant for hospitality students (which was awarded Scottish Restaurant of the Year in 2015 and 2017), and a salon/spa.[ The college provides educational services to over 8,000 students a year and has 350 staff.]
Livingston has three public libraries
A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...
which are Almondbank Library in Craigshill, Lanthorn Library in Dedridge, and Carmondean Library in Deans. A local history library which includes items on the history of Livingston is located in nearby Linlithgow
Linlithgow (; gd, Gleann Iucha, sco, Lithgae) is a town in West Lothian, Scotland. It was historically West Lothian's county town, reflected in the county's historical name of Linlithgowshire. An ancient town, it lies in the Central Belt on a ...
.[
The Scotland Japanese School (スコットランド日本語補習授業校 ''Sukottorando Nihongo Hoshū Jugyō Kō''), a weekend Japanese school,][概要]
Archive
. The Scotland Japanese School. Retrieved on 15 February 2015. "1982年5月 三菱電機、日本電気、ダイワスポーツが中心となり、SDA(現在のSDI、スコットランド国際開発庁)の協力を得て、エジンバラ市のGraigmount High Schoolの教室を借り、生徒数11名、教師3名の複合3クラスでスタートし、その後2003年4月 に上記の所在地に移転、現在に至っています。" is held at St. Margaret's Academy
St Margaret's Academy in Livingston, West Lothian, Scotland is a Catholic secondary school.
The school serves Broxburn, East Calder and the areas of Livingston: Eliburn, Deans, Howden, Craigshill, Dedridge, Ladywell, Livingston Village and ...
in Livingston.[欧州の補習授業校一覧(平成25年4月15日現在)]
(). Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
The , also known as MEXT or Monka-shō, is one of the eleven Ministries of Japan that composes part of the executive branch of the Government of Japan. Its goal is to improve the development of Japan in relation with the international community ...
(MEXT). Retrieved on 10 May 2014. "St. Margaret's Academy (High School) Howden South Road, Livingston, EH54 6AT, Scotland" It first opened in 1982 and moved to Livingston in April 2003.[
]
Health
Livingston is part of the NHS Lothian
NHS Lothian is one of the 14 regions of NHS Scotland. It provides healthcare services in the City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian and West Lothian areas. Its headquarters are at Waverley Gate, Edinburgh
Services
It is responsible for the ...
region in NHS Scotland
NHS Scotland, sometimes styled NHSScotland, is the publicly funded healthcare system in Scotland and one of the four systems that make up the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. It operates 14 territorial NHS boards across Scotland, ...
. Livingston previously had a psychiatric hospital with a general hospital in the Dechmont
Dechmont (Gaelic: ''Deagh Mhonadh'') is a small village located near Uphall, West Lothian in Scotland. Bangour Village Hospital is located to the west of Dechmont. It has an approximate population of 989 people. Its postal code is EH52. An allege ...
area of the town called Bangour Village Hospital
Bangour Village Hospital was a psychiatric hospital located west of Dechmont in West Lothian, Scotland. During the First World War it formed part of the much larger Edinburgh War Hospital.
History
The hospital was modelled on the village system ...
. The hospital opened in 1904, and started closing in the 1990s. It closed completely in 2004 after the remaining services were transferred to St John's Hospital.
Livingston has a large hospital called St John's Hospital in the Howden. The construction of the hospital began in 1981 and it opened in 1990.[ The hospital has its own ]Accident and Emergency
An emergency department (ED), also known as an accident and emergency department (A&E), emergency room (ER), emergency ward (EW) or casualty department, is a medical treatment facility specializing in emergency medicine, the acute care of pa ...
and has 550 beds. St John's is a teaching hospital
A teaching hospital is a hospital or medical centre that provides medical education and training to future and current health professionals. Teaching hospitals are almost always affiliated with one or more universities and are often co-located ...
for the University of Edinburgh Medical School
The University of Edinburgh Medical School (also known as Edinburgh Medical School) is the medical school of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and the United Kingdom and part of the University of Edinburgh College of Medicine and Veterinar ...
.
Culture and recreation
Arts Centre
Howden Park Centre is the arts centre for the town which includes a 300-seat theatre providing arts performances, recitals, plays and other events.
Museum
The Museum of the Scottish Shale Oil Industry
The Museum of the Scottish Shale Oil Industry was created in 1990, to preserve the history of the shale industry in West Lothian and beyond. It is sited on a former mill at Millfield, near Livingston, Scotland. It is attached to the Almond Valle ...
was created in 1990, to preserve the history of the shale industry in West Lothian and beyond. It is sited on a former mill at Millfield in Livingston and is attached to the Almond Valley Heritage Centre, a large farm and play area in Livingston. The Almond Valley Light Railway
The Almond Valley Light Railway is a narrow gauge heritage railway running at the Almond Valley Heritage Trust site at Livingston, Scotland. The railway operates at weekends between Easter and the end of September and daily during some school ...
is a narrow gauge
A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and .
Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...
heritage railway
A heritage railway or heritage railroad (US usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) i ...
running at the Almond Valley Heritage Trust site.
Parks
Livingston has several public parks, including Eliburn park, Almondvale park, Howden park, Peel park, Campbridge park (Murieston), Quarry park (Dedridge), and Bankton Mains park. Eliburn park (in the north-west of Livingston) is a site owned by West Lothian Council which features a reservoir (fed by the local Nell burn) with fishing access, sports facilities and a children's play area. Almondvale park, located in the centre of town, is an outdoor recreation area, with an adventure playpark, health walk/run and wildflower meadows. Bankton Mains park is a large park with a sports centre, bowling club, tennis and football pitches and play park.
Youth activities
Livingston has its own Air Training Corps
The Air Training Corps (ATC) is a British volunteer-military youth organisation. They are sponsored by the Ministry of Defence and the Royal Air Force. The majority of staff are volunteers, and some are paid for full-time work – including C ...
squadron, 2535 (Livingston) Squadron (located in Craigshill
Craigshill is a residential area in the east of Livingston, Scotland. To the west is the A899, with Howden, Ladywell and Knightsridge beyond it, to the south is the village of Mid Calder, and to the north is Houston Industrial Estate and the vi ...
) and Army Cadet Force
The Army Cadet Force (ACF), generally shortened to Army Cadets, is a national youth organisation sponsored by the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence and the British Army. Along with the Sea Cadet Corps and the Air Training Corps, the ACF mak ...
unit (based at Dedridge
Dedridge is an area in the town of Livingston in West Lothian, Scotland. It is located in the south of the town, just south of the Almondvale area, and north of the Murieston area.
The area's streets are named after parts, events or characters fr ...
). The town also has Cubs, Scouts
Scouting, also known as the Scout Movement, is a worldwide youth movement employing the Scout method, a program of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activities, including camping, woodcraft, aquatics, hiking, backpack ...
, Boys' Brigade
The Boys' Brigade (BB) is an international interdenominational Christian youth organisation, conceived by the Scottish businessman Sir William Alexander Smith to combine drill and fun activities with Christian values. Following its inception ...
, Brownies, and Guides
A guide is a person who leads travelers, sportspeople, or tourists through unknown or unfamiliar locations. The term can also be applied to a person who leads others to more abstract goals such as knowledge or wisdom.
Travel and recreation
Exp ...
units, and other organisations such as LGBT Youth Scotland
LGBT Youth Scotland is a Scottish List of youth organizations, youth organisation dedicated to the inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) young people from 13 to 25 year of age in Scotland. It was established in November 1989 ...
and the Youth Action Project (WLYAP), and Firefly Youth Theatre (formerly West Lothian Youth Theatre) also operate at Howden Park Centre.[ The youth action project involves a music session and many gigs and is widely attended by teenagers from the surrounding area.
]
Livingston Skate Park
The Livingston Skatepark opened in 1981, at a time when most commercial skatepark
A skatepark, or skate park, is a purpose-built recreational environment made for skateboarding, BMX, scootering, wheelchairs, and aggressive inline skating. A skatepark may contain half-pipes, handrails, funboxes, vert ramps, stairsets, q ...
s were closing, and was one of the most important facilities in Britain during a critical period in the development of skateboarding. It is an example of a free, unsupervised facility which achieved international status. The park was designed by Scottish architect Iain Urquhart and was the subject of a 2020 BBC Radio 3 documentary 'Curves and Concrete' which explored the impact the design had on other UK skateparks.
Sport
The town has a local cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
club, Livingston Cricket Club; a rugby union
Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...
club, Livingston Rugby Football Club; a professional football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
club, Livingston F.C.; and a East of Scotland League
The East of Scotland Football League (EoSFL) is a senior football league based in the east and south-east of Scotland. The league sits at levels 6–9 on the Scottish football league system, acting as a feeder to the Lowland Football League.
Fo ...
club, Livingston United.
Livingston is also home to; two competitive swimming clubs, the Livingston & District Dolphins and the Aquanauts of Livingston; Livingston Handball Club, Livingston and West Lothian Hockey Club, which has several men's and women's teams and provides junior coaching; West Lothian Wolves Basketball Club, with men and women's teams at all age groups; and two track and field
Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...
athletics clubs, Livingston & District AAC and Lothian RC.
Livingston also has a number of youth football teams with the most successful being Murieston United who have teams ranging from the ages of under 9s to under 21s. They have some notable former players: Scott Arfield
Scott Harry Nathaniel Arfield (born 1 November 1988) is a professional association footballer who plays as a midfielder for Scottish Premiership club Rangers.
He began his career at Falkirk before moving to the English leagues for eight year ...
, Chris Innes, Derek Fleming
Derek Adam Fleming (born 5 December 1973 in Falkirk) is a former Scottish football defender.
Fleming began his career in 1993 with stokeroo Meadowbank Thistle, where he made a total of 49 appearances before moving to Dunfermline Athletic in ...
, and Gary Wales.
Livingston FC
Livingston F.C., known to locals as "''Livi''" or "''The Lions''", are the most notable football team in the town. They were formed in 1995 on the relocation of Edinburgh-based side Meadowbank Thistle. The stadium opened in November 1995, but the Livingston name had already been adopted some months earlier when the club was still playing at its former home Meadowbank Stadium
Meadowbank Stadium (officially the Meadowbank Sports Centre) is a multi-purpose sports facility located in the Meadowbank area of Edinburgh, Scotland. Built on the site of the earlier New Meadowbank and Old Meadowbank sports venues, it was or ...
in Edinburgh.
Although they were playing in the Scottish Third Division
The Scottish Football League Third Division was the fourth tier of the Scottish football league system between 1994 and 2013.
History
The Scottish football league system had operated with three divisions in the Scottish Football League (SFL) fro ...
in their first season in Livingston, six years later the club was promoted to the Scottish Premier League
The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football' ...
, finished third in their first season and qualifying for the UEFA Cup
A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...
. Relegation to the Scottish First Division
The Scottish Football League First Division was the second tier in the Scottish football league system between 1975 and 2013.
History
The First Division was introduced in 1975–76 to replace the old Scottish Football League Division Two, as ...
in 2006 came after the club entered administration in 2004 as well as other financial problems. In 2009 they narrowly avoided going out of business and as a result were placed back in the Third Division.
The Lions managed to gain promotion to the Scottish Second Division
The Scottish Football League Second Division was the third tier of the Scottish football league system between 1975 and 2013.
History
The Second Division was created in 1975, as part of a wider reconstruction of the Scottish Football League (SFL ...
the following year, and returned to the First Division after back to back league championships, on 6 August 2011. They currently compete in the top tier of Scottish Football ( Ladbrokes Premiership).
Swimming
Livingston has several swimming pools, the main pool being a 20m public pool run by West Lothian Leisure (Xcite). Other public pools are also located in local schools including Deans Community High School and Inveralmond High School and the Bannatyne Health Club has a private pool for members.
Livingston Cricket Club
Livingston has a cricket club known as the Kingfishers which fields teams for juniors and seniors and has fielded professional paid players. The club plays in the East of Scotland Cricket Association
The East of Scotland Cricket Association (ESCA) manages amateur cricket in the east of Scotland.
From Peebles in the South to Freuchie in the North, Largo and Dunbar in the East and Westquarter in the West, the ESCA covers a wide range of clubs ...
and is based in the Murieston area of Livingston. The Club was founded in 1981 by Dr Salem Patel and Doug Druce, playing its first match in August of that year in Armadale. The club joined the East League for the 1982 season, winning Grade D and promotion. The Club played at several locations in Livingston, including Bankton Mains and at Bangour Hospital sports field.[ The 1st XI remained in Division 4 until winning the league in 1992.][ In 1994 sponsorship by the Livingston Development Corporation enabled the club to successfully negotiate the big step up to Division 2 where half of the clubs employed paid professional players.][ West Indian ]Mark Harper
Mark James Harper (born 26 February 1970) is a British politician who has served as Secretary of State for Transport since 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Forest of Dean since 2005.
Harper w ...
became the club's first paid player and regularly set new batting records throughout the season.[ The creation of the National leagues in 1996 and the subsequent re-organisation of feeder leagues saw Livingston become a Division 1 club due to reconstruction of the East League.][ In 1999 the Club finished third, their highest league position to date.][ This coincided with a move back into Livingston to a large new ground in the Murieston area.][ Being almost in the foothills of the Pentlands, rainfall is heavier and the growing season considerably shorter than most of the other grounds in the Central Belt, which causes major problems in getting the ground ready for play in April.][ A new pavilion, the Gerry Toms Pavilion was officially opened on 22 August 2004.][
]
Religion
Christianity
Uniquely in Scotland, Livingston was from its formation designated an "Ecumenical
Ecumenism (), also spelled oecumenism, is the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships among their churches and promote Christian unity. The adjec ...
Parish" in a joint initiative by the Church of Scotland
The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland.
The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Scottish Reformation, Reformation of 1560, when it split from t ...
, Scottish Episcopal Church
The Scottish Episcopal Church ( gd, Eaglais Easbaigeach na h-Alba; sco, Scots Episcopal(ian) Kirk) is the ecclesiastical province of the Anglican Communion in Scotland.
A continuation of the Church of Scotland as intended by King James VI, and ...
, Methodist Church in Great Britain
The Methodist Church of Great Britain is a Protestant Christian denomination in Britain, and the mother church to Methodists worldwide. It participates in the World Methodist Council, and the World Council of Churches among other ecumenical a ...
, and the Congregational Union of Scotland
The Congregational Union of Scotland was a Protestant church in the Reformed tradition.
The union was established in 1812, by 53 churches in Scotland. Its aim was to conduct missions in Scotland, and to support the existing Congregational churche ...
(which subsequently united with the United Reformed Church
The United Reformed Church (URC) is a Protestant Christian church in the United Kingdom. As of 2022 it has approximately 40,000 members in 1,284 congregations with 334 stipendiary ministers.
Origins and history
The United Reformed Church resulte ...
). The Ecumenical Parish has six places of worship. The ecumenical parish church is based at the Lanthorn Community complex, a ziggurat style building built on Kenilworth Rise in 1976.
Apart from the Ecumenical Parish, Livingston Old Parish is a congregation solely within the Church of Scotland. There are also churches of other denominations. These include the Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
(who have three congregations: Saint Peters in Carmondean, Saint Andrews in Craigshill
Craigshill is a residential area in the east of Livingston, Scotland. To the west is the A899, with Howden, Ladywell and Knightsridge beyond it, to the south is the village of Mid Calder, and to the north is Houston Industrial Estate and the vi ...
, and St Philips in Dedridge
Dedridge is an area in the town of Livingston in West Lothian, Scotland. It is located in the south of the town, just south of the Almondvale area, and north of the Murieston area.
The area's streets are named after parts, events or characters fr ...
). St Andrew's Church in Craigshill is seen as a notable architectural example in Brutalist style. Designed by George R M Kennedy and Partners, it was designed in 1968 and completed in 1970. It consists of a dramatic swirl made of shutter-marked concrete and is Category B listed.
Also represented in the community are the Baptist Church (who have two congregations in Dedridge and Ladywell), Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The group reports a worldwide membership of approximately 8.7 million adherents involved in ...
(who have two congregations: Livingston Deans and Livingston Dedridge), the Free Church
A free church is a Christian denomination that is intrinsically separate from government (as opposed to a state church). A free church does not define government policy, and a free church does not accept church theology or policy definitions fr ...
, and The Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints (who have a Ward in Deans).
Other religions
There is a mosque in the Craigshill
Craigshill is a residential area in the east of Livingston, Scotland. To the west is the A899, with Howden, Ladywell and Knightsridge beyond it, to the south is the village of Mid Calder, and to the north is Houston Industrial Estate and the vi ...
area of the town called Livingston Mosque and Community Centre and also another within the Deans area. In recent years Jehovah Witnesses have built a Kingdom Hall in Eliburn.
Notable residents
Notable residents of Livingston include Robin Cook
Robert Finlayson "Robin" Cook (28 February 19466 August 2005) was a British Labour politician who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1974 until his death in 2005 and served in the Cabinet as Foreign Secretary from 1997 until 2001 wh ...
(the former MP for Livingston and Foreign Secretary
The secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, known as the foreign secretary, is a minister of the Crown of the Government of the United Kingdom and head of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Seen as ...
from 1997 until 2001; died 2005) and Ian Colquhoun (author, born and educated in Livingston).
Actors, musicians and entertainers include Nina Nesbitt
Nina Nesbitt (born ) is a Scottish singer and songwriter. She has two top 40 singles, and is known for her single "Stay Out", which peaked at No. 21 on the UK Singles Chart in April 2013.
Her first Extended play, EP, ''The Apple Tree'', was r ...
(singer songwriter) and David Cicero
David John Cicero (born May 29, 1970, Greenport, New York, United States) is a Scottish-American singer and keyboardist who was signed in 1988 to Spaghetti Records, a record label owned by Pet Shop Boys. Releasing material as Cicero, he went ...
(singer/keyboardist and associate of the Pet Shop Boys
The Pet Shop Boys are an English synth-pop duo formed in London in 1981. Consisting of primary vocalist Neil Tennant and keyboardist Chris Lowe, they have sold more than 50 million records worldwide, and were listed as the most successful duo i ...
who moved to Livingston as a child).
Livingston sports personalities include (Olympic swimmer and World junior men's breaststroke champion, born and educated in Livingston), Peter 'Snakebite' Wright (born in Livingston, PDC World darts champion), and Elise Christie
Elise Christie (born 13 August 1990) is a British former short track speed skater. She was coached by Nicky Gooch and she specialised in the 1000m event. She is ten times a European gold medallist, including two overall European titles in 2015 ...
(short track skater, who competed at the 2010 Winter Olympics
)''
, nations = 82
, athletes = 2,626
, events = 86 in 7 sports (15 disciplines)
, opening = February 12, 2010
, closing = February 28, 2010
, opened_by = Governor General Michaëlle Jean
, cauldron = Catriona Le May DoanNancy GreeneWayne Gretz ...
and 2014 Winter Olympics
, ''Zharkie. Zimnie. Tvoi'')
, nations = 88
, events = 98 in 7 sports (15 disciplines)
, athletes = 2,873
, opening = 7 February 2014
, closing = 23 February 2014
, opened_by = President Vladimir Putin
, cauldron =
, stadium = Fisht Olympic ...
). Livingston is the birthplace and home of several Scottish footplayers, including Scott Arfield
Scott Harry Nathaniel Arfield (born 1 November 1988) is a professional association footballer who plays as a midfielder for Scottish Premiership club Rangers.
He began his career at Falkirk before moving to the English leagues for eight year ...
(football player for Rangers F.C
Rangers Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the Govan district of Glasgow which plays in the Scottish Premiership. Although not its official name, it is often referred to as Glasgow Rangers outside Scotland. The fo ...
), Mark Burchill
Mark James Burchill (born 18 August 1980) is a Scottish former professional Association football, football player and coach. He played for Scottish clubs Celtic F.C., Celtic, Dundee F.C., Dundee, Heart of Midlothian F.C., Hearts, Dunfermline Ath ...
(footballer, educated in Livingston), Paul Dickov
Paul may refer to:
*Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name)
*Paul (surname), a list of people
People
Christianity
* Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...
(former Arsenal player and former manager Doncaster Rovers
Doncaster Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The team compete in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club play their home games at ...
from 2013 to 2015), James Penrice (professional footballer for Partick Thistle), David Robertson (footballer for St Johnstone F.C.), Jimmy Scoular
James Scoular (11 January 1925 – 19 March 1998) was a Scottish football player and manager. Known as a tough, combative player with precise passing skills, Scoular made over 600 appearances in the Football League with Portsmouth, Newcastle ...
(former Portsmouth FC
Portsmouth Football Club is a professional football club based in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, which compete in . They are also known as ''Pompey'', a local nickname used by both HMNB Portsmouth and the city of Portsmouth; the ''Pompey'' nick ...
and Newcastle Utd football player and Cardiff City manager), Gary Wales (former Hearts player, and Kilmarnock
Kilmarnock (, sco, Kilmaurnock; gd, Cill Mheàrnaig (IPA: ʰʲɪʎˈveaːɾnəkʲ, "Marnock's church") is a large town and former burgh in East Ayrshire, Scotland and is the administrative centre of East Ayrshire, East Ayrshire Council. ...
player), Tommy Walker (former Hearts and Chelsea
Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to:
Places Australia
* Chelsea, Victoria
Canada
* Chelsea, Nova Scotia
* Chelsea, Quebec
United Kingdom
* Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames
** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...
player and manager for Hearts), Keith Watson (footballer, previously for Hartlepool United
Hartlepool United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Hartlepool, County Durham, England. The team competes in EFL League Two, League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system.
They were founded i ...
), and Danny Wilson (footballer, player for Rangers, Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
and a former Hearts captain).
Town twinnings
Livingston is twinned with:
* Hochsauerlandkreis
Hochsauerlandkreis (meaning “High Sauerland District” in German) is a Kreis (district) in the east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Neighboring districts are Soest, Paderborn, Höxter, Waldeck-Frankenberg, Siegen-Wittgenstein, Olpe, M ...
, Germany.
* Grapevine
''Vitis'' (grapevine) is a genus of 79 accepted species of vining plants in the flowering plant family Vitaceae. The genus is made up of species predominantly from the Northern Hemisphere. It is economically important as the source of grapes, ...
, Texas, USA.
References
Primary sources
*Wills, E (1996) ''Livingston: the Making of a Scottish New Town''
*Cowling, D (1997) ''An Essay for Today: the Scottish New Towns 1947–1997''
*Hendrie, W (1989) ''The History of Livingston
External links
*
West Lothian Business Portal
Livingstoni Community site for Livingston
West Lothian Archaeological Trust
{{authority control
Retailing in Scotland
Towns in West Lothian
New towns in Scotland
1960s establishments in Scotland
New towns started in the 1960s