Toryglen is a district in southern

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 ...

, falling within the Langside ward under

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 ...

. It is approximately two miles south of the city centre, bounded to the west by

Mount Florida Mount Florida ( gd, Cnoc Florida) is an area in the south-east of the city of Glasgow, Scotland. Origins The Glasgow district of Mount Florida originated on the "Lands of Mount Floridon", which were described in detail when offered for sale a ...

, the north-west by

Polmadie Polmadie (; gd, Poll Mac Dè, lit=Son of God pool) is a primarily industrial area of Glasgow in Scotland. Situated south of the River Clyde, Polmadie is close to residential neighbourhoods including Govanhill (to the west) and Toryglen (south-e ...

, to the north-east by the

West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...

railway and the

M74 motorway The A74(M) and M74 form a major motorway in Scotland, connecting it to England. The routes connect the M8 motorway in central Glasgow to the Scottish-English border at Gretna. In conjunction with their southward continuation, the M6 motorwa ...

the south by King's Park, and immediately to the east by the town of

Rutherglen Rutherglen (, sco, Ruglen, gd, An Ruadh-Ghleann) is a town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, immediately south-east of the city of Glasgow, from its centre and directly south of the River Clyde. Having existed as a Lanarkshire burgh in its own ...

History and location

The name 'Torryglen' first appeared on maps in the late 18th century and was a small farmhouse in the north of the present day territory.A history of Toryglen Golf Club, Rutherglen
Rutherglen Heritage Society, October 2018 The area is broadly defined as between the major railway lines to the north, Curtis Avenue to the south and Aikenhead Road to the west. The eastern boundary where Glasgow meets

South Lanarkshire gd, Siorrachd Lannraig a Deas , image_skyline = , image_flag = , image_shield = Arms_slanarkshire.jpg , image_blank_emblem = Slanarks.jpg , blank_emblem_type = Council logo , image_map ...

(the Rutherglen neighbourhoods of Burnhill and Newfield) is difficult to observe from ground level as it involves houses backing onto one another right up to the border in most places. However, as this is a major administrative divide it is clearly marked on maps, with the street names also changing, e.g. Newfield Place becomes Ardnahoe Avenue. Toryglen is residential in character, built mainly south of Prospecthill Road between 1947 and 1962 by the

Scottish Special Housing Association The Scottish Special Housing Association was established in 1937 to provide good-quality social housing. It had headquarters in Edinburgh's West End, Palmerston Place and Manor Place, Edinburgh, where it employed a large team of architects, enginee ...

on land which was previously a farm and a golf course. As well as tenements, the area contains some of the city's early experiments in multi-storey housing, built around 1955 at Prospecthill Crescent. Highrise flats in Prospecthill - geograph

Highrise flats in Prospecthill - geograph

In the northern portion of the district, Prospecthill Circus was a colourful collection of two 23-storey tower blocks, a 20-storey slab block and numerous deck access maisonettes (all since demolished) constructed by the city authorities between 1963 and 1968. When the neighbourhood was at its lowest ebb in the mid-2000s awaiting redevelopment, the local street gang reacted with hostile racist graffiti directed towards asylum seekers being housed in empty properties in the area, with a perception that the incomers were being given priority treatment over locals living in deprivation. A derelict multi-storey block awaiting demolition in Prospecthill Circus was used in 2006 by

SONY , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

to create an

advertisement Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...

for their

BRAVIA Bravia (stylized as BRAVIA) is a brand of Sony Visual Products Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation, and used for its television products. Its backronym is "Best Resolution Audio Visual Integrated Architecture". All Sony high-defi ...

range of televisions. The commercial involved the blasting of paint onto disused buildings. The main tower block in the advert was demolished in a controlled

explosion An explosion is a rapid expansion in volume associated with an extreme outward release of energy, usually with the generation of high temperatures and release of high-pressure gases. Supersonic explosions created by high explosives are known ...

on 21 January 2007; the remaining two towers survived for almost a decade before being demolished in stages during late 2016, using a

Long reach excavator A long reach excavator is a type of excavator where the arm has been extended to reach farther than a normal excavator would. It is often used in demolition of buildings, but it can also be used in other applications. History The term ''long reac ...

. 'The Circus' underwent comprehensive redevelopment by the

Glasgow Housing Association Wheatley Homes Glasgow (formerly Glasgow Housing Association or GHA) is the largest social landlord in Scotland with 40,000 homes across Glasgow. Wheatley Homes Glasgow is a not-for-profit company created in 2003 by the then Scottish Executive fo ...

(GHA) in the early 21st century, culminating in a major development by Cruden Homes, with construction taking place between around 2015 and 2018, leaving the area virtually unrecognisable from the way it looked a few years prior. Flats on Prospecthill Crescent - geograph

Flats on Prospecthill Crescent - geograph

The 851 tenement flats and 232 tower block apartments in the south of the district (managed by Thistle

Housing Association In Ireland and the United Kingdom, housing associations are private, Non-profit organization, non-profit making organisations that provide low-cost "Public housing in the United Kingdom, social housing" for people in need of a home. Any budge ...

) were also refurbished externally, including brighter rendering and

energy efficiency Energy efficiency may refer to: * Energy efficiency (physics), the ratio between the useful output and input of an energy conversion process ** Electrical efficiency, useful power output per electrical power consumed ** Mechanical efficiency, a ra ...

, in the 2010s. The association's management of the properties came under scrutiny during the course of the project which suffered various delays and serious concerns over quality and safety, resulting in some of the houses being transferred to Sanctuary Scotland in 2020 on instruction of the

Scottish Housing Regulator The Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) is an independent Non-Ministerial Department, directly accountable to the Scottish Parliament. The body was established on 1 April 2011 under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2010. SHR is the successor to the previ ...

Queen's Park Secondary School

Between 1967 and 1994, the buildings of

Queen's Park Secondary School Queen's Park Secondary School was a secondary school in Glasgow, Scotland. History Queen's Park School was built in 1873 for the ''Cathcart Parish School Board'' and opened officially in 1876, with the original building located on Grange Road in ...

(originally based at Grange Road,

Battlefield A battlefield, battleground, or field of battle is the location of a present or historic battle involving ground warfare. It is commonly understood to be limited to the point of contact between opposing forces, though battles may involve troops ...

) were located in Toryglen. After several years as a derelict plot, the 'Crown Gardens' housing development was built on the site. The school's football pitches (on the south side of Prospecthill Road) were built into Toryglen Regional Football Centre, as part of

's plans to boost the city's sporting facilities in the run up to hosting the

2014 Commonwealth Games The 2014 Commonwealth Games ( gd, Geamannan a' Cho-fhlaitheis 2014), officially known as the XX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Glasgow 2014, ( sco, Glesca 2014 or Glesga 2014; gd, Glaschu 2014), was an international multi-sport ev ...

. On the opposite site of the road there is an

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 ...

superstore, built in 1997.

Malls Mire

The ''Malls Mire'' burn, which has been almost entirely

culvert A culvert is a structure that channels water past an obstacle or to a subterranean waterway. Typically embedded so as to be surrounded by soil, a culvert may be made from a pipe, reinforced concrete or other material. In the United Kingdom ...

ed, runs north-east under

Hampden Park Hampden Park (Scottish Gaelic: ''Pàirc Hampden''), often referred to as Hampden, is a football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland. The -capacity venue serves as the national stadium of football in Scotland. It is the no ...

, the Football Centre and the supermarket, to the west of the Prospecthill Circus area under the railway line and motorway, joins the West/Cityford Burn from RutherglenThe Cityford Burn
Rutherglen Heritage Society which becomes the Polmadie Burn (also known as Jenny's Burn) – once heavily polluted by waste from ''White's Chemicals'' at nearby

Shawfield Shawfield is an industrial/commercial area of the Royal Burgh of Rutherglen in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, located to the north of the town centre. It is bordered to the east by the River Clyde, to the north by the Glasgow neighbourhood of Oa ...

– and flows into the

River Clyde The River Clyde ( gd, Abhainn Chluaidh, , sco, Clyde Watter, or ) is a river that flows into the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. It is the ninth-longest river in the United Kingdom, and the third-longest in Scotland. It runs through the major cit ...

Richmond Park Richmond Park, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, is the largest of Royal Parks of London, London's Royal Parks, and is of national and international importance for wildlife conservation. It was created by Charles I of England, C ...

.Whites Chemical Company
Rutherglen Heritage Society While it was visible above ground, the Malls Mire formed part of the boundary between the ancient

counties A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

Renfrewshire Renfrewshire () ( sco, Renfrewshire; gd, Siorrachd Rinn Friù) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. Located in the west central Lowlands, it is one of three council areas contained within the boundaries of the historic county of Renfr ...

and

Lanarkshire Lanarkshire, also called the County of Lanark ( gd, Siorrachd Lannraig; sco, Lanrikshire), is a historic county, lieutenancy area and registration county in the central Lowlands of Scotland. Lanarkshire is the most populous county in Scotlan ...

; an informal search by a group of local historians in 2020 failed to uncover any of the old boundary stones denoted on maps from the time. The burn gives its name to an adjacent area of ground between Toryglen and Burnhill (meeting football pitches including the home ground of Rutherglen Glencairn F.C.), which lay overgrown for some years but was cleaned and landscaped in the early 21st century to be maintained as a 'community woodland', and was granted Local nature reserve status in 2015.

Notable people

Charlie Burchill Charles Burchill (born 27 November 1959) is a Scottish musician and composer, best known as the guitarist of Simple Minds. He is one of the founders of the group. Style During Simple Minds' early to mid-1980s period, Burchill's guitar had a dis ...

, guitarist and founder member of

Simple Minds Simple Minds are a Scottish rock band formed in Glasgow in 1977. They have released a string of hit singles, becoming best known internationally for "Don't You (Forget About Me)" (1985), which topped the '' Billboard'' Hot 100 in the United St ...

* William Haughey, Baron Haughey, businessman * Benny Higgins, banker *

Janis Hughes Janis Hughes (born 1 May 1958) is a Scottish Labour Party politician, who was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Glasgow Rutherglen constituency from 1999 to 2007. In the inaugural election to the parliament in 1999, Hughes won a 25% ...

, former MSP for the Glasgow Rutherglen constituency. *

Jim Kerr James Kerr (born 9 July 1959) is a Scottish singer and the lead singer of the rock band Simple Minds, becoming best known internationally for "Don't You (Forget About Me)" (1985), which topped the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in the United States. O ...

, lead singer and founder member of

* Michael Matheson, politician (Scottish Secretary for Transport, Infrastructure and Connectivity) *

Christine McKenna Christine McKenna (born 1951) is a British actress active during the 1970s and 1980s, best known for playing "Christina" in the television series '' Flambards''. McKenna was a drama student at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in G ...

, British actress active during the 1970s and 1980s, "Christina" in the television series ''

Flambards ''Flambards'' is a novel for children or young adults by K. M. Peyton, first published by Oxford University Press in 1967 with illustrations by Victor Ambrus. Alternatively, "Flambards" is the trilogy (1967–1969) or series (1967–1981) name ...

References

External links

*
Toryglen
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 ...

Video: Sony Bravia Paint Commercial
filmed at Prospecthill Circus
Black and White Town
music video by

Doves Columbidae () is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with short necks and short slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. They primarily ...

filmed partially at Prospecthill Circus (as well as Summerston) and featuring local children
Skyscraper Flats (1956)
short video of Prospecthill Crescent construction at

British Pathé British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...