Hillhead subway station is a station on the

Glasgow Subway The Glasgow Subway is an underground light metro system in Glasgow, Scotland. Opened on 14 December 1896, it is the fourth-oldest underground rail transit system in Europe after the London Underground, Liverpool's Mersey Railway and the Budapes ...

, serving the

Hillhead Hillhead ( sco, Hullheid, gd, Ceann a' Chnuic) is an area of Glasgow, Scotland. Situated north of Kelvingrove Park and to the south of the River Kelvin, Hillhead is at the heart of Glasgow's fashionable West End, with Byres Road forming th ...

area 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 entrance is located on

Byres Road Byres Road is a street in Hillhead, Glasgow, Scotland. It is the central artery of the city's West End. Location and history Byres Road is a mixed commercial, shopping and upmarket residential area consisting largely of traditional sandstone ...

. This station is the nearest to

Glasgow Botanic Gardens Glasgow Botanic Gardens is a botanical garden located in the West End of Glasgow, Scotland. It features several glasshouses, the most notable of which is the Kibble Palace. The Gardens has a wide variety of temperate and tropical flora, a h ...

and the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

. The station is one of the busiest on the system with 1.86 million boardings per year. This is largely due to the shopping facilities of Byres Road and proximity to the university, which allows students to travel between campus and the city centre.

History

During the modernisation of the underground system between 1977 and 1980, Hillhead subway station went through major rebuilding. Previously the station had a single

island platform An island platform (also center platform, centre platform) is a station layout arrangement where a single platform is positioned between two tracks within a railway station, tram stop or transitway interchange. Island platforms are popular on ...

serving both tracks; the station was rebuilt with a much more spacious ticket office, escalators and an additional

side platform A side platform (also known as a marginal platform or a single-face platform) is a platform positioned to the side of one or more railway tracks or guideways at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. A station having dual side platforms ...

. Hillhead is one of the stations mentioned in

Cliff Hanley Clifford Leonard Clark "Cliff" Hanley (28 October 1922 – 9 August 1999) was a journalist, novelist, playwright and broadcaster from Glasgow in Scotland. Originally from Shettleston in the city's East End, he was educated at Eastbank Ac ...

's song ''The Glasgow Underground''. The song reflects the traditional local pronunciation of the name, "Hillheed".

Current layout

There are three automated ticket machines located in the entrance way, which leads up to an information centre where passengers may buy tickets of longer duration and get more information on transport in Glasgow. Then there is the ticket office which is manned by one staff member at a time. There are six turnstiles into which a ticket must be entered in order to pass. There are three for entering and three for exiting the subway. Two escalators and one staircase provide access to the two platforms, and maps are present to guide passengers to the correct platform for their destination. This is the only station on the network to feature a retail unit inside the station. Beside the ticket office, there is a Costa Pronto store. The platform features, on one side, a perspex barrier with a handrail which was built for safety reasons.

Modernisation

Hillhead was the first station to be upgraded as part of SPT's plan to modernise the Subway at a cost of £1.5million. Under the plans, the escalators were replaced and the interior design was refreshed. Lighting and facilities for disabled people were also be improved. In addition, SPT commissioned author and artist

Alasdair Gray Alasdair James Gray (28 December 1934 – 29 December 2019) was a Scottish writer and artist. His first novel, ''Lanark'' (1981), is seen as a landmark of Scottish fiction. He published novels, short stories, plays, poetry and translations, and ...

to create a piece of public artwork for the station. The improvement work was completed in 2012.

Alasdair Gray mural

On 16 September 2012 a

mural A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spani ...

that depicts the surrounding area was unveiled in the station's foyer. The work is by

, and was developed over fourteen months with artist Nichol Wheatley using

ceramics A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...

. Gray stated, "The station is in the centre of Hillhead, which I know well.

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum is a museum and art gallery in Glasgow, Scotland. It reopened in 2006 after a three-year refurbishment and since then has been one of Scotland's most popular visitor attractions. The museum has 22 galleries, h ...

, the old BBC building and

Botanic Gardens A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...

had been among my favourite places since the age of eleven. I have lived and worked in the district since 1969, and I knew I would enjoy depicting it, and those who use the subway, in a symbolic and humorous way."

Past passenger numbers

* 2011/12: 1.834 million annually

References

{{Glasgow stations Glasgow Subway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1896 Railway stations located underground in the United Kingdom Hillhead