Glasgow’s East End Tourist Gems (2): Parkhead Cross and Tollcross Park

In July 2005, the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) approved a £1.4 million grant to conserve and regenerate Parkhead Cross. The HLF grant is part of a £4 million funding package for the Cross, which includes money from Glasgow City Council and Scottish Enterprise Glasgow.




The Parkhead Cross Townscape Heritage Initiative (THI) is a grants programme aimed at regenerating the historic heart of Parkhead. The scheme, which runs to the end of 2010, is an example of heritage funding working within a broader strategic context of regeneration and economic development.

The aim of the Townscape Heritage Initiative (THI) in the Parkhead Cross Conservation Area is to regenerate key buildings, bring vacant floor space back into use and improve the public realm. The THI project will improve the character of this exciting area and transform it into an attractive destination for shopping and cultural pursuits as well as a popular place to live and work.

Less than a mile a way from the cross is the elegant Forge Market and Forge Shopping Centre , the land in which the glass pyramids stand belonged in the past to The Parkhead Forge; the largest steelworks in Scotland, specialising in the manufacture of armaments and armour plate for warships; a family business that was established by Reoch Brothers & Co c 1837 and acquired by Robert Napier in 1841 to make forgings and iron plates for his shipyard. William Beardmore became a partner in the business in the 1860s and was joined by his brother and son, William Jr, who became sole partner and then founded William Beardmore & Co in 1886.

"An aerial view from the north-west of the vast iron and steel works of William Beardmore & Co at Parkhead Forge, 1950."


Parkhead Forge was a major employer in the East End, the number of workers reaching a peak of over 20,000 during the First World War. There was a slump during the 1920s and 1930s, a revival during the Second World War and then more hard times as the world-wide demand for warships and armaments declined. The Parkhead Forge finally closed in 1976. The Forge shopping centre was later built on the site, opening in 1988 and subsequently joined by a retail park and a market hall.

Parkhead Library is an example of exotic architecture; as the case of all library buildings round Glasgow. It was built circa 1906 as part of a grant to the city of Glasgow to build a series of branch libraries, given by Andrew Carnegie; a Scottish ex-pat in the United States.


The two-storey red sandstone library was built to a well proportioned asymmetrical design with a dome over the north-west corner.
The central entrance has a pedimented portico with Ionic columns flanking the doorway and a group of statues above.
The library is a striking example of the libraries constructed with Carnegie's 1901 gift to Glasgow. It was designed by the Inverness architect, James Robert Rhind. In the closing years of the 19th century Rhind had practised in Montreal, Quebec, for a decade before returning to Scotland. This is perhaps the source of the French Beaux-Arts influences evident in his Glasgow libraries.

Tollcross Park includes a magnificent piece of architecture known as the Mansion House, which dates back to the year 1843, when James Dunlop commissioned by the Architect, David Bryce, to design a new mansion house in the Jacobean style for the estate. The new 'A' listed Scottish baronial house with crow stepped gables, corbelled turrets and pointed roofs was set on the summit of the estate and approached by a drive off Tollcross Road.



Prior to that, the lands of Tollcross Park were recorded as far back as 1290 when Roger Corbett, a local baron, lived in the area. In 1580 a “Gabriel Corbart” was granted land in Towcorse.
Towcorse was originally an area of countryside separating the village of Tollcross from Shettleston. James Dunlop was actively involved in landscaping the surroundings to the Mansion House, particularly in the design of the sweeping Lime Tree Avenue leading to the house and the introduction of exotic tree species into the Glen.