Breathing new life into the Gorbals Viaduct

A LANDSCAPE designer wants to see the Gorbals Viaduct—one of the last, remaining structures surviving from the days when Gorbals was the traditional home of a large Irish, immigrant community—redesigned as an urban park.

Jock Breckenridge—who often cycles past the mile-long, and sadly-neglected piece of local history and heritage—says that the park would open the viaduct up to residents and visitors alike, while celebrating the history and heritage of the Gorbals.

The viaduct runs behind Gorbals Main Street, and once carried crack expresses to between London St Pancras and Glasgow’s St Enoch Station. It was built by the City of Glasgow Union Railway in 1871 and came into its own with the opening of St Enoch Station by the Glasgow & South Western Railway in 1876. From then on, until St Enoch closed in 1965, trains passing over the viaduct, Irish boat trains ran to and from Stranraer and Ardrossan, with commuter and holiday trains serving the Clydeside resorts of Ayr, Prestwick, Troon and Largs, while mainline services ran to and from Kilmarnock and Dumfries.

Backing into Hospital Street and adjacent tenemented streets, all home to the Irish community, trains ran all day, with goods traffic running to and from busy College Street Goods Station during the night, so that residents were well used to the sound of trains on the viaduct above their homes, many longing for the day they caught the Irish boat trains passing their windows, for a visit home in the summer.

“So busy was the line that the Gorbals even had its own station up until 1929, and you can still see the staircases which led to it today,” Jock said. “After 1965, two of the four tracks were lifted and two have been kept to allow empty trains to travel between the north and south sides of the Clyde for maintenance at Shields Road Depot. The two, abandoned tracks have been allowed to become overgrown over the last 60 years, and I’m proposing that they’re cleared of tree growth, landscaped and turned into an attractive urban park. You can see a similar and very successful scheme on New York’s High Line and on the Castlefield Viaduct in Manchester.”

Jock also wants to see the abandoned Cumberland Street Station restored and turned into a local community hub and heritage centre concentrating on the Irish heritage of the area as well as on the once-large Jewish population and the railways which helped shape Gorbals, too.

“The Gorbals has a wonderful story to tell, especially that of the Irish community and using the impressive Cumberland Street Station building would be an ideal base for this,” he said. “Along with the urban park, it would transform the area.”

Today, Network Rail owns Gorbals Viaduct whose arches are home to some local businesses, including two of the Irish community’s best-known pubs, Sharkey’s Bar, famous for its traditional music session and Celtic hub, The Brazen Head. Both are housed in arches under the viaduct, and are reminders of the once-thriving Gorals Irish community.

Now Jock is talking to local community groups and businesses to involve them in the project as well as looking into potential funding streams. He’s inviting the Irish community to support the project and he’s be delighted to hear from anyone with memories of living close to the viaduct, whose parents maybe worked on the railway, or who has pictures of the railway in action.

Jock can be contacted via his Instagram account: jock_breckenridge_design or via e-mail: jockbreckenridge@gmail.com