Glasgow -The Road That Never Was
Discussion
The Glasgow motorway which we now know as the M8 and M74 was originally designed in 1963 as a ring road. Only the west and north sides were built. What we now know as the M8 from the Kingston Bridge to Townhead.
Going south on the KIngston Bridge the ramp that ends in the air was to continue east on a line similar to the M74.
At Townhead a 4 lane road similar in standard to the Clydeside Expresssway would have gone south just east of High Street to complete the ring.
My dad was the original designer from 1963 when it was him and one other civil engineer in a tenement flat through to completion of what was built when the company employed 30 or 40 engineers and other staff in the Glasgow office.
When I was clearing out my dads house after his death I found this painting by a well known Scottish achitectural illustrator - Alexander Duncan Bell. Dated 1967. An impression of what the road going south from Townhead would have looked like.
Aside from the Townhead junction the obvious landmarks are in the bottom right, the Glasgow Necropolis, the cathedral, and Provans Lordship.
The artist obviously thought the old Victorian Royal Infirmary would be gone in a few years. Still here.
Further north the artist predicted large blocks of flats where Tesco St Rollox is now.
Going south on the KIngston Bridge the ramp that ends in the air was to continue east on a line similar to the M74.
At Townhead a 4 lane road similar in standard to the Clydeside Expresssway would have gone south just east of High Street to complete the ring.
My dad was the original designer from 1963 when it was him and one other civil engineer in a tenement flat through to completion of what was built when the company employed 30 or 40 engineers and other staff in the Glasgow office.
When I was clearing out my dads house after his death I found this painting by a well known Scottish achitectural illustrator - Alexander Duncan Bell. Dated 1967. An impression of what the road going south from Townhead would have looked like.
Aside from the Townhead junction the obvious landmarks are in the bottom right, the Glasgow Necropolis, the cathedral, and Provans Lordship.
The artist obviously thought the old Victorian Royal Infirmary would be gone in a few years. Still here.
Further north the artist predicted large blocks of flats where Tesco St Rollox is now.
Edited by irc on Monday 11th April 22:02
Edited by irc on Monday 11th April 22:05
Edited by irc on Monday 11th April 22:08
Edited by irc on Monday 11th April 23:16
That's a fantastic painting.
I was latterly involved in the Gorbals regeneration (Crown St and Queen Elizabeth Square) and now Sighthill (North Bridge) so a bit familiar with the legacy of that period of Glasgow's town planning.
I own the site where the Cypress trees are painted at the top of Wishart St opposite the hospital overlooking the Necropolis.
You have to admire the level of ambition of those times though. The complexity of that road design is something else. I'm reminded of this fun little video which, from around 15mins onwards, is very reminiscent of your dad's design
: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OzC-LG9pG4
I was latterly involved in the Gorbals regeneration (Crown St and Queen Elizabeth Square) and now Sighthill (North Bridge) so a bit familiar with the legacy of that period of Glasgow's town planning.
I own the site where the Cypress trees are painted at the top of Wishart St opposite the hospital overlooking the Necropolis.
You have to admire the level of ambition of those times though. The complexity of that road design is something else. I'm reminded of this fun little video which, from around 15mins onwards, is very reminiscent of your dad's design
: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OzC-LG9pG4Edited by ben5575 on Monday 11th April 22:33
irc said:
The Glasgow motorway which we now know as the M8 and M74 was originally designed in 1963 as a ring road. Only the west and north sides were built. What we now know as the M8 from the Kingston Bridge to Townhead.
Going south on the KIngston Bridge the ramp that ends in the air was to continue east on a line similar to the M74.
At Townhead a 4 lane road similar in standard to the Clydeside Expresssway would have gone south just east of High Street to complete the ring.
My dad was the original designer from 1963 when it was him and one other civil engineer in a tenement flat through to completion of what was built when the company employed 30 or 40 engineers and other staff in the Glasgow office.
When I was clearing out my dads house after his death I found this painting by a well known Scottish by a well known Scottish achitectural illustrator - Alexander Duncan Bell. Dated 1967. An impression of what the road going south from Townhead would have looked like.
Aside from the Townhead junction the obvious landmarks are in the bottom right, the Glasgow Necropolis, the cathedral, and Provans Lordship.
The artist obviously thought the old Victorian Royal Infirmary would be gone in a few years. Still here.
Further north the artist predicted large blocks of flats where Tesco St Rollox is now.
Interesting stuff. Are you aware of this? They might be interested.Going south on the KIngston Bridge the ramp that ends in the air was to continue east on a line similar to the M74.
At Townhead a 4 lane road similar in standard to the Clydeside Expresssway would have gone south just east of High Street to complete the ring.
My dad was the original designer from 1963 when it was him and one other civil engineer in a tenement flat through to completion of what was built when the company employed 30 or 40 engineers and other staff in the Glasgow office.
When I was clearing out my dads house after his death I found this painting by a well known Scottish by a well known Scottish achitectural illustrator - Alexander Duncan Bell. Dated 1967. An impression of what the road going south from Townhead would have looked like.
Aside from the Townhead junction the obvious landmarks are in the bottom right, the Glasgow Necropolis, the cathedral, and Provans Lordship.
The artist obviously thought the old Victorian Royal Infirmary would be gone in a few years. Still here.
Further north the artist predicted large blocks of flats where Tesco St Rollox is now.
https://www.scottishroadsarchive.org/
ben5575 said:
You have to admire the level of ambition of those times though. The complexity of that road design is something else. I'm reminded of this fun little video which, from around 15mins onwards, is very reminiscent of your dad's design : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OzC-LG9pG4
A colleague of my dads told a story of when the company was part of an exhibition in London. There was a scale model of the Townhead to Kingston Bridge section before construction. He overheard a couple of engineers looking at it telling each other "nice design it will never get built though". : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OzC-LG9pG4Edited by ben5575 on Monday 11th April 22:33
It's a long story, but my dad, born and brought up in Glasgow, was probably the only person in the UK in 1963 who had experience of designing urban motorways going through city centres. The M6 and M1 etc skirt the cities. My dad had worked in California in the 1950s on urban freeways.
He always said the Charing Cross to Townhead section was the most complicated road he ever designed as there was so many different roads to connect to the motorway in a short distance constrained by existing structures. The reason the M8 has the unusual feature of on ramps merging into the "fast" lanes is because there was no other way of doing it in the available space.
Halmyre said:
Interesting stuff. Are you aware of this? They might be interested.
https://www.scottishroadsarchive.org/
I'll drop them an e-mail. They have possibly seen it. Much of their archive material was donated by my dad who was approached by them after he published his own book on the motorway. One of the founders of the site was an occasional visitor to my dad in his latter years. https://www.scottishroadsarchive.org/
Thanks OP for posting - fascinating stuff.
Recently just read the website noted above and it’s full of interesting information and photos.
As said earlier, the scale of the ambition was quite something and it’s interesting to understand what the complete design intent of the whole scheme was.
I usually go a wander with one of my friends on a Sunday morning around Glasgow, and have a few points of interest from this to go and see.
Recently just read the website noted above and it’s full of interesting information and photos.
As said earlier, the scale of the ambition was quite something and it’s interesting to understand what the complete design intent of the whole scheme was.
I usually go a wander with one of my friends on a Sunday morning around Glasgow, and have a few points of interest from this to go and see.
Some of the stuff that wasn't built is a bit sad. The Maryhill Motorway for example. A Clydeside Expresssway going from the M8 north past Firhill, between Maryhill and Possil and out the city. Local objections scuppered that largely on the basis that the Maryhill locals would suffer the inconvenience to allow Bearden commuters to get to Glasgow.
At the time car ownership in Maryhill was low. Now of course the huge numbers of car owners in Maryhill suffer gridlock along with the Bearsdenites.
Compare Maryhill Road, gridlock much of the day, with Paisley Rd, free flowing, where the through traffic is on the motorway.
One of the many things that future Lib Dem leader Vince Cable, then a Maryhill councilor, got wrong in his career.
https://www.libdems.org.uk/interview-with-vince
At the time car ownership in Maryhill was low. Now of course the huge numbers of car owners in Maryhill suffer gridlock along with the Bearsdenites.
Compare Maryhill Road, gridlock much of the day, with Paisley Rd, free flowing, where the through traffic is on the motorway.
One of the many things that future Lib Dem leader Vince Cable, then a Maryhill councilor, got wrong in his career.
https://www.libdems.org.uk/interview-with-vince
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