October 3 2019

St Andrew’s Cathedral could stand as the focal point of a new public square in Glasgow as depicted in the latest visualisation illustrating a planned transformation of the city’s waterfront.

Glasgow City Council is leading efforts to reimagine Custom House Quay as a signature events space, overhauling the north bank of the River Clyde between Victoria Bridge and Glasgow Bridge with a mix of homes, leisure outlets and a hotel.

If realised this could transform the scruffy corridor into a destination space in its own right, drawing footfall from the city centre toward a revitalised riverfront.

Feasibility studies have identified the potential to push the current quay wall 20m further out into the river, freeing up development land for a range of attractions, public space and an enlarged promenade.

The authority is taking a lead role in the masterplanning process with the expectation that a start could be made on-site by spring 2022 subject to the necessary consents. A tender is expected to be released soon for the first phase of development.

6 Comments

#1 Posted by HoliestOfHolies on 3 Oct 2019 at 15:49 PM

I think this is the wrong approach to be coming at this from. Rather than turn a 'scruffy corridor' into a not-so-scruffy-corridor, we should be trying to incorporate and connect the area to the city centre. In order to do that, we need to sort out the parking issues at the St Enoch centre. Two massive surface car parks, plus some crazy little motorway flyover on Howard Street form a barrier that stretches from St Enoch square all the way to the saltmarket.
I imagine there'll be plenty of public money involved in this project. In which case, as a council tax payer, I would like to propose the following as a higher priority...

1. Build a new multi-story carpark on one of the surface carparks.
2. Develop the other surface carpark.
3. Close the carpark in St Enoch centre and remove the ramps from Howard Street.
4. Redevelop the south face of the St Enoch centre so Howard Street has some kind of frontage.
5. Improve the pedestrian route from Argyle Street to Howard Street.

#2 Posted by Jezza Alexander on 3 Oct 2019 at 17:14 PM

#1 There should definitely absolutely not be a new multi-storey carpark. Replacing eyesore with an even bigger one. City spending money on shiny new things to distract the public from it's failures with current infrastructure.

#3 Posted by Ross on 3 Oct 2019 at 18:50 PM

We definitely do not want to be building anymore car parks! People need to start getting off their backsides and getting public transport or using active transport rather than driving everywhere! The St Enoch one is enough - agree that the ramp is ugly but it can all be tarted up a bit.

There are big plans for the surface car park to the east of St Enoch - you can have a look on 3D’s website.

#4 Posted by gaypawel on 3 Oct 2019 at 20:02 PM

I wish they could reuse the river for something like catamarans, although I imagine they will have a huge premium over the the expenses. Interesting & thoughtful idea by number 1.

#5 Posted by Billy on 4 Oct 2019 at 00:37 AM

I don’t mind this proposal. Anything that encourages people down to the riverfront to feel safe at the riverfront. Bit lonely down there. Needs to be opened up. The car park to the East is a disgrace....all gravel and potholes. They should pay you to park there not charge you. I would rather they replaced it with a multi storey car park or even better a new event Square to free up George Square.

#6 Posted by ET on 15 Nov 2019 at 14:14 PM

I used to live by West Brewery (Templeton Building) and worked on Waterloo St. Whilst not the most direct route to work' I'd usually walk Clydeside and I loved this stretch - nice wide shared use path, grass that would be busy with people eating lunch etc. on nice days. I cannot understand why we'd want to lose this green space, hide some of the beautiful buildings (the blonde and red sandstone pair about to be dominated by tall towers) and make both Clyde St and the actual Clydeside path narrow corridors?
Leave this as open green space and develop further along the Clyde, past the Kingston Bridge.

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