Pollok ( gd, Pollag, lit=a pool, sco, Powk) is a large housing estate on the south-western side of the city 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 ...

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 ...

. The estate was built either side of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

to house families from the overcrowded inner city. Housing 30,000 at its peak, its population has since declined due to the replacement of substandard housing with lower-density accommodation. The main features of the area are the nearby

Pollok Country Park Pollok Country Park is a country park located between Shawlands, Crossmyloof, and Pollok in Glasgow, Scotland. In 2007, Pollok Country Park was named Britain's Best Park, and in 2008 it was named the Best Park in Europe, beating competition fro ...

, where the Burrell Collection is now housed, the ruins of

Crookston Castle Crookston Castle is a ruined medieval castle in the Pollok area of Glasgow, Scotland. It is located some 5 miles (8 km) south-west of the city centre, on a hill overlooking the Levern Water, just before its confluence with the White Cart ...

(within the north part of residential Pollok) which

Mary, Queen of Scots Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567. The only surviving legitimate child of James V of Scot ...

once visited, and the

Silverburn Centre Silverburn (also known as Pollok Town Centre or The Centre) is an out-of-town shopping centre located on Barrhead Road in Pollok, Glasgow, Scotland. The development replaces the Pollok centre with a brand new shopping centre, anchored by Te ...

, one of Glasgow's major indoor retail complexes.

Location

The country park and the

White Cart Water The River Cart ( sco, River Cairt) is a tributary of the River Clyde, Scotland, which it joins from the west roughly midway between the towns of Erskine and Renfrew and opposite the town of Clydebank. The River Cart itself is very short, being f ...

which flows through it form the northern and eastern boundary of the district, with

Corkerhill Corkerhill is a neighbourhood of Glasgow, Scotland, southwest of the city centre. The area was originally a farm and a few houses built for workers of the Glasgow and South Western Railway at the Corkerhill Depot.Cardonald the closest northern suburbs. Recent developments in the late 20th and early 21st century have created an adjoining neighbourhood to the west of Pollok at Crookston, Glasgow, stretching from

Rosshall Rosshall is an area in the south-west of Glasgow, Scotland, within the Cardonald ward of Glasgow City Council. It has a fairly isolated location, with the White Cart Water forming a border to the south and east, the Paisley Canal Line railway ...

to Roughmussel and including conversions of the original buildings of

Leverndale Hospital Leverndale Hospital is a mental health facility at Crookston, Glasgow, Scotland. It is managed by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. The , which has been taken out of use, is Category A listed. History The hospital, which was designed by Malcolm Star ...

, alongside its newer facilities. Haugh Hill Woodland partially provides a natural barrier between Pollok and Crookston. the Levern Water, a tributary of the White Cart, flows through Pollok from the south-west where the Househillwood and

Priesthill Priesthill ( gd, Cnoc an t-Sagairt) is a neighbourhood in the south of the River Clyde in the Scottish city of Glasgow. It falls under the Greater Pollok ward of the city council area. The Darnley neighbourhood is located to the south, on the ...

residential areas are situated, with the Brock Burn bordering them and meeting the Levern Water in the centre of Pollok. In some contexts these neighbourhoods are referred to as separate localities, and otherwise are considered parts of ' Greater Pollok' (a ward of

Glasgow City Council Glasgow City Council is the local government authority for the City of Glasgow, Scotland. It was created in 1996 under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994, largely with the boundaries of the post-1975 City of Glasgow district of the S ...

), along with

Nitshill Nitshill ( gd, Cnoc nan Cnòthan) is a district on the south side of Glasgow. It is bordered by South Nitshill to the south, Darnley to the east, Crookston and Roughmussel to the north-west, Hurlet to the west and Househillwood and Priesthill t ...

South Nitshill South Nitshill ( gd, Cnoc nan Cnòthan a Deas) is a neighbourhood in the Scottish city of Glasgow. It is situated south of the River Clyde, in the south-west of the conurbation and within the Greater Pollok ward of the local authority area. A ...

, Parkhouse and Darnley further south which share the same G53 postcode;Pollok.Priesthill.Nitshill.The Bundy.Gowanbank.Silverburn.Schools, Memories, and Pubs
Alex and Bob's Blue Sky Scotland, 21 January 2014 Househillwood is next to the district's central amenities and bus terminus.

History

View from Crookston Castle - ENE - geograph

Previously farmland which was purchased by the city from the Stirling-Maxwell family in 1935,No Mean City: 1914 to 1950s: Neighbourhoods: Pollok
The Glasgow Story Pollok was built by the old

Glasgow Corporation The politics of Glasgow, Scotland's largest city by population, are expressed in the deliberations and decisions of Glasgow City Council, in elections to the council, the Scottish Parliament and the UK Parliament. Local government As one of ...

and was the first of the 'big four' peripheral housing schemes constructed to improve Glasgow's slum housing conditions in the inner city. Braidcraft Road, Pollok (geograph 4681986)

Braidcraft Road, Pollok (geograph 4681986)

The building of ''Old Pollok'', as the first sector retrospectively became known, commenced in the 1930s but was interrupted by World War II. The urgent need for housing after the war along with budgetary constraints meant that the original plan to build a 'garden suburb' was abandoned in favour of higher density, lower quality housing.Bridgend Road (Glasgow City Archives, Department of Architectural and Civic Design, 1949)
the Glasgow Story Unusually, one of the 'new' churches in Pollok (St James') was transplanted from

Pollokshields Pollokshields ( gd, Buthan Phollaig, Scots: ''Powkshiels'') is an area in the Southside of Glasgow, Scotland. Its modern boundaries are largely man-made, being formed by the M77 motorway to the west and northwest with the open land of Pollok C ...

, away. Pollok suffered the same social problems that also emerged from the other large housing schemes ( Castlemilk,

Drumchapel Drumchapel ( gd, Druim a' Chapaill), known locally as 'The Drum', is a district in the north-west of the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It borders Bearsden (in East Dunbartonshire) to the north-east and Drumry (part of Clydebank, in West Dunbartons ...

and

Easterhouse Easterhouse is a suburb of Glasgow, Scotland, east of the city centre on land gained from the county of Lanarkshire as part of an expansion of Glasgow before the Second World War. The area is on high ground north of the River Clyde and south ...

). The

slum clearance Slum clearance, slum eviction or slum removal is an urban renewal strategy used to transform low income settlements with poor reputation into another type of development or housing. This has long been a strategy for redeveloping urban communities; ...

programme disrupted the networks of the old communities and the extended family. There were few shops (a central shopping centre was not added for three decades), no pubs, cinemas or leisure facilities. Even schools, something which eventually were well provisioned, were not built until some years after the main wave of housing, with pupils being transported to facilitates elsewhere at considerable cost and disruption. People lived far away from their places of work and there were very few employment opportunities locally. Netherplace Road (geograph 3413620)

The post-war tenement buildings were of poor quality and suffered from damp, condensation and lack of soundproofing. Glasgow Corporation (later Glasgow District Council) could not maintain the buildings in the face of budgetary cuts imposed by central Government. Local manufacturing jobs were outsourced to overseas countries and unemployment rates grew to unprecedented levels. Those who were able to left the area, the remaining population enduring poverty, lack of opportunities, ill-health and lower life expectancy. In recent years there has been a sustained effort to improve the area. Most of the post-war tenement housing has been demolished or refurbished, and new private housing has also been built among the individual houses, which lasted more successfully than the multi-floor blocks. To the east of the residential area, Pollok House is a

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

building constructed in 1752 with many fine paintings, and

was chosen to house the " Burrell Collection" in a modern contemporary and clean air green space. It is the largest park in Glasgow.

Education

Pollok has one secondary school: St Paul's High School, recognised as one of the 'schools of ambition' in Scotland. It was built on the site of another former school, ''Craigbank Secondary'', which had lain empty for some years, and replaced the area's previous Catholic school, ''St Robert Bellarmine Secondary'' which was sited where the southern sector of Silverburn now stands. However, St Paul's associated primary schools are in neighbourhoods to the south of Pollok proper, whereas the Pollok-based primaries are part of the 'learning community' of

Lourdes Secondary School Lourdes Secondary School, established in 1956, is a school in the south-west of Glasgow which serves a large catchment area, including the communities of Cardonald, Craigton, Crookston, Drumoyne, Govan, Hillington, Ibrox, Kinning Park, Mosspa ...

in Cardonald. The nondenominational

Rosshall Academy Rosshall Academy is a secondary school in the Rosshall ( Crookston) area of Glasgow, Scotland. The school was formed in August 1999 to merge Penilee Secondary School (Penilee) and Crookston Castle Secondary School (Pollok) and moved to a new bu ...

(completed in 2002) serves a large catchment area including much of Pollok, but replaced ''

Penilee Penilee is a small housing scheme and suburb on the southwestern edge of Glasgow, Scotland. The area is bounded to its east by the Glasgow suburbs of Cardonald and Hillington, and to the west by the Renfrewshire border and the farms of North a ...

Secondary'' and ''Crookston Castle Secondary'' so was built on a site between its predecessors which falls outwith Pollok across the White Cart. In 2009 the area lost a local primary school, Bonnyholm Primary, which was merged with other schools to create ''Crookston Castle Primary School''. It was officially opened in August 2007 on the grounds of the former Crookston Castle Secondary, close to the castle. The former Cardonald College, now a campus of the merged

Glasgow Clyde College Glasgow Clyde College is a further and higher education college, located in the Scottish city of Glasgow. It was created following the mergers of Anniesland College, Cardonald College and Langside College in August 2013. Merger timeline On 17 N ...

, is near to Pollok between Cardonald and

Mosspark Mosspark ( gd, Pàirc na Mòna) is a district in the Scottish city of Glasgow. It is situated south of the River Clyde, in the southwest of the city. History Mosspark and the lands of East and Mid-Henderston were incorporated into Glasgow in 1 ...

Shopping

Entrance to new Silverburn Centre in Pollok - geograph

Pollok is home to the Silverburn Centre which opened in October 2007, replacing the old Pollok Shopping Centre dating from the late 1970sModern Times: 1950s to The Present Day: Neighbourhoods: Pollok, 1979)
The Glasgow Story which itself was previously tenement housing built in the late 1940s which survived barely 30 years before being torn down. The largest of its kind in Scotland, Silverburn has brought hundreds of jobs to the area. Key stores include a 24-hour

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 ...

Extra adjoining the centre. This was the largest store in Scotland when it opened in July 2006. Other anchor stores are M&S, Debenhams and

Next Next may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Next'' (1990 film), an animated short about William Shakespeare * ''Next'' (2007 film), a sci-fi film starring Nicolas Cage * '' Next: A Primer on Urban Painting'', a 2005 documentary film Lit ...

. Altogether, the centre houses 95 shopping units and 14 restaurants and cafés. A cinema complex with further restaurants was later added as an extension in 2015.

Other amenities

Next to the Silverburn Centre is the ''Pollok civic realm'', renovated in 2009 containing an extended Health Centre and the Pollok Library and Swimming Pool. There is another sports centre, Nethercraigs, at the north-east of Pollok near

Corkerhill Corkerhill is a neighbourhood of Glasgow, Scotland, southwest of the city centre. The area was originally a farm and a few houses built for workers of the Glasgow and South Western Railway at the Corkerhill Depot.Glasgow International 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 ...

, and from

Glasgow Prestwick Airport Glasgow Prestwick Airport () is an international airport serving the west of Scotland, situated northeast of the town of Prestwick in South Ayrshire and southwest of Glasgow. It is the less busy of the two airports serving the western part of ...

. The area is accessible from Junctions 2 and 3 of the M77 motorway, and the main bus terminus is

Silverburn Silverburn (also known as Pollok Town Centre or The Centre) is an out-of-town shopping centre located on Barrhead Road in Pollok, Glasgow, Scotland. The development replaces the Pollok centre with a brand new shopping centre, anchored by Te ...

bus station. Pollok is served by four nearby railway stations which run to central Glasgow, although none in the district itself; these are and to the south on the

Glasgow South Western Line The Glasgow South Western Line is a mainline railway in Scotland that runs from Glasgow to Kilmarnock, and then either via Dumfries, or Stranraer via Ayr, with a branch to East Kilbride. History The line was built by several railway compan ...

, and and to the north on the Paisley Canal line.

References

A History of Mearns Parish by J.A. Stang 1939 hand-typed document circa 500 pages donated to the Mitchel Library Glasgow ref Shelfmark: 597928-30 A History of Mearns Parish
by J.A. Stang, 1939, hand-typed document circa 500 pages donated to the Mitchell Library Glasgow ref Shelfmark: 597928-30

External links

*
Overspill Policy and the Glasgow Slum Clearance Project in the Twentieth Century: From One Nightmare to Another?
article by Lauren Paice,

Oxford Brookes University Oxford Brookes University (formerly known as Oxford Polytechnic (United Kingdom), Polytechnic) is a public university, public university in Oxford, England. It is a new university, having received university status through the Further and High ...

, 2008
Pollok
at

Gazetteer for Scotland The ''Gazetteer for Scotland'' is a gazetteer covering the geography, history and people of Scotland. It was conceived in 1995 by Bruce Gittings of the University of Edinburgh and David Munro of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, and cont ...

{{Authority control Areas of Glasgow Housing estates in Glasgow