A look at coverage of the Green in the news archives, from 1853 to 1899
Glasgow Constitutional 16 July 1853 Glasgow Fair on Glasgow Green
Hylton’s Royal Menagerie, Glasgow Fair. 10am – 10pm. Lions, tigers, leopards, panthers, hyenas and howling wolves, with birds,beasts and monsters of the deep. + brass band. Pro bono publico
Paisley Herald 27 March 1858 Glasgow Green in Danger
Letter from IRLG against coal mining on the Green. ‘The old Unreformed Town Council would have been ashamed to have anything to do with such a job….the present Council…the only one in the kingdom capable of perpetrating such a barbarism as wilfully spoiling a public park, and that park the ancient Green of Glasgow, used by our forefathers for ages back.’
Glasgow Herald 29 June 1862 Glasgow Green on a summer Sabbath day.
Many thousands of people were to be seen on the Green. About six o’clock the assemblages were immense, yet everybody appeared to conduct themselves with propriety and good order. Large numbers…were stretched out on the grass, and evidently enjoying sound sleep and rest in the open air. Larger numbers were seen to be crowding round the various preachers or debaters – for about a dozen or a score of orators were holding forth on a variety of topics….it is certainly a good thing that so many poor people ae thus drawn to the open air from many of those ill-ventilated and confined dwellings in the Saltmarket and wynds of the city.
Glasgow Morning Journal 8 May 1865 Spanish Circo & Hippodrome Company
Troupe of 30 Equestriennes and 40 brilliant horsemen + 60 animals performing on Glasgow Green
Glasgow Evening Post 21 March 1867 Improvements on the Green
Lately, these have included new and suitable roads, lit with gas lamps at night, numerous seats for invalids, several gravitational water fountains, trees, shrubs, flowers. Upper Suspension Bridge now free on Sundays; pontage may be removed on other days as well.
Large common sewer now under construction on the Green to drain the lowest parts of Bridgeton. Runs from the river near the Gymnasium, along the Green, John Street, Muslin Street, Hosier Street, past the Glasgow Jute Company’s works to the London Road. Size: 4 x 6 feet interior, constructed of brick, depth of 19 feet. 8000- 10000 people employed.
Road to be constructed, Washing House to Allan’s Pen.
Glasgow Evening Citizen 5 April 1870 Glasgow Green Vigilance Committee
Social meeting of the Glasgow Green Vigilance Committee in Mr Ancell’s restaurant, Glassford Street. Papers connected with the late Green Encroachment case, inclosed in a box bearing a suitable inscription, handed to the Custodiers, Councillor James Moir and Mr William Smeal. Income / expenditure £368.1s. 1d. Moir: “as long as he had a tongue he would strike the oppressors of his poor brethren”
Glasgow Herald 13 March 1871 Glasgow Green Improvements
‘The relegation to another locale…of the infant prodigies, fat boys, Hibernian giants, speaking fish, “poor players”, circuses and waxworks, with their surroundings of nut barrows, shooting alleys, and voluble “Cheap Johns”, accustomed to congregate in this neighbourhood’. [Jail Square, foot of Saltmarket] The railing of the Green will be carried forward, and the distance between it and the Court Houses reduced at the entrance. Avenue to be built to Nelson’s Monument, the breadth being 40 feet. The Monument will stand in a central place, having a diameter of 200 feet. Drives will thence branch off towards Charlotte Street and the river. A double row of poplars will be planted the entire length of the principal avenue, that stretching from Charlotte Street to the Clyde by a single row. Shrubbery will be planted in the railed-off space facing Greendyke Street and a continuous belting of young trees will then skirt “The People’s Park” from the extreme east to the western entrance at the Court Houses.
Edinburgh Evening News 26 September 1876 Glasgow Green Disturbances
Meeting in the Mission Hall, Saltmarket last night. The notorious Peter McGowan, the anti-Popery lecturer and several other well known Green preachers talked against each other. Two policemen sent for.
Glasgow Herald 13 October 1876 Roman Bowl (Samian ware) found in Glasgow Green.
Letter by Aesica. The bowl was found flat on its bottom, as if carefully put down – no chip, abrasion or other indication of accident. Suggestion that a Roman cavalryman may have been watering his horses at the Clyde, laid the bowl down and lost it.
Glasgow Herald 19 August 1878 Demonstration on Glasgow Green against begging by Nuns.
“A great meeting of protestants” held on Glasgow Green ‘to petition the Magistrates to enforce the law against begging by nuns’. 1.5 hour meeting of 1000 – 1500 people.
Dundee Evening Telegraph 12 November 1878 Unemployed on Glasgow Green
Meeting of 2000 men, largely unemployed labourers.
Glasgow Evening Post 24 June 1879 Flowers
Eastern Police Court case, 20 boys on charges of pulling flowers or damaging shrubbery on Glasgow Green. 5/- or 4 days imprisonment. Over the last 4 days, 40 men, boys and girls in court charged with these offences.
Glasgow Herald 4 May 1880 Party Riots on Green
Sunday riot started by John McIntyre, the “orator” whose connection with the People’s Park is pretty well known. Disturbances 3 – 7pm.
Glasgow Herald 3 June 1881 Damage by the Glasgow Agricultural Society:
‘The weather turned out unfavourable and so much damage was done to the Green as to deprive the inhabitants of the east end the privilege of using it for the whole season after the show took place. On this occasion, the Green had been damaged to a great extent, and the inhabitants had complained very bitterly indeed of the condition in which it had been put by the show…..Mr Richmond was never more astonished in his life. It was a perfect quagmire, and it would be a mystery to him if all the efforts of Mr McLellan and his staff could put that part of the Green in a favourable condition by the time it was required for the show next year.’
According to the Lord Provost: ‘It must be apparent that if they were to have shows of cattle for the inhabitants, they must provide a place for them’.
+ debate on by laws and free speech on the Green
Glasgow Herald 10 May 1882 Public meeting anent the use of the Green
First Ward Committee in the Bridgeton Temperance Institute “to protest against the annual granting of the Green to the Glasgow Agricultural Society for their show”. “The public had now suffered for years from…the annual destruction of Glasgow Green….some years ago there had been a good – going law plea in reference to it….The Town Council has been nibbling the boundaries of the park – cutting off two or three yards – while now they were year after year shutting up acre upon acre – not for the purposes of benefitting the citizens of Glasgow – but for the purpose of giving a present to the Glasgow Agricultural Society or Club …[shows] should not be held at the expense of “The People’s Park” and to the detriment of the enjoyment of the citizen’s children for six moths of every year”. Three resolutions passed to go to the Council and reports on the condition of the ground to be made
Dundee Evening Telegraph 29 June 1882 Democratic Federation
Open air meeting on Glasgow Green last night. Mr Webster, Unitarian minister spoke on the abolition of the House of Lords, dis-establishment of the Church of Scotland and the nationalisation of the land.
Aberdeen Evening Express 30 June 1884 Suicide on Glasgow Green
Man, 28 years old, found dead at the foot of Nelson’s Monument yesterday morning. Boots missing (taken off by some of the Green prowlers). Bottle of chloroform nearby; camphor in his hat.
Aberdeen Evening Express 17 February 1886 Boomerang demonstration
Billy, an Australian Native appearing at Crouch’s Palace of Varieties gave a demonstration of boomerang throwing at Nelson’s Monument.
Greenock Telegraph 3 September 1887 Great Jubilee Fete
Arrangements for Fete 10 September for thousands of school children. 2 balloons will ascend, 8000 prizes contested for and refreshments distributed to the children. Cooke’s Circus from Greenock will perform gratuitously.
Edinburgh Evening News 6 July 1888 Coal Under Glasgow Green
Glasgow Town Council. Mr Paterson, proposal to mine coal on the Green, estimated value £60,000 or £70,000. Treasurer Richmond, in the interests of the fund of the Common Good, supported the proposal but it was hotly contested; not pressed to a division.
Edinburgh Evening News 9 September 1890 H A Long
A Vigilance Committee to watch over and preserve the Green as “a place of social intercourse, recreation, interchange of thought and free discussion” formed, following the prosecution of Harry Alfred Long, the well-known Protestant lecturer, for alleged obstruction at the entrance to Glasgow Green
Glasgow Herald 31 January 1891 Report by Sir James Marwick, Town Clerk on Glasgow Green.
20 folio page report on the legal status of Glasgow Green.
2. The lands known as Mildamhead, Peatbog and the Dassie Green, which appear to have formed part of the ancient common lands of the burgh, were sold by the Council in 1383 for the relief of its necessity, but were re-acquired by the Council subsequent to 1662 and now form part of the Green…and the common good.
5. Act 33, George III, c124, passed in 1793, empowered the Council to sell or otherwise dispose of certain specified portions of the Green…..the statutory powers which the Act confers have not been hitherto exercised to the full extent.
6. Feuars in Monteith Row have no special powers, privileges or rights over any portion of the Green and stand in relation to it in the same position as do other citizens of Glasgow.
7. Interdict obtained in 1869 against the Council determined nothing but simply suspended the operations…till the questions raised were judicially decided.
8. The Council is entitled to work or lease the coal, fire clay and other minerals under the Green…as not to injure the surface area or create nuisance…..such working must necessarily depreciate the capital of the common good, the net profit so derived should be applied primo loco to the extinction of the municipal debt of the city.
Dundee Evening Telegraph 3 April 1893 Encroachment on Glasgow Green
Mass meeting of citizens held on Glasgow Green on Saturday to protest against the proposed roadway through that park. Green Defence Fund to be raised to oppose the proposal if necessary, in Courts of Law
Kirkintilloch Herald 21 September 1898 Glasgow Green Debates
Dundee Evening Telegraph 25 January 1899 Tidal Weir, Glasgow Green Messrs Morrison & Mason’s contract held up during the last 4 months by a series of almost uninterrupted floods. Great spate following the snow storm last week.
