Neighbourhoods
Whitecrook
By Sheila Livingstone
In early maps, Whitecrook appears as the name of a farm. It was not until the beginning of the 20th century that it was given to the area which lies north-east of Glasgow Road, bounded in the north by the Forth and Clyde Canal - a new lock was constructed at Boghouse in 2001 - and in the east by the Yoker Burn. The Cart Junction Canal (opened in 1840 and closed in 1893, on which Canal Street was subsequently built) sliced through the western edge of the area. During the 1980s, Whitecrook was designated an APT (Area of Priority Treatment).
Public Buildings
In the 1880s the Fire Brigade had a shed and stable for its horses beside the Cart Canal and there was a Police Station in North Douglas Street. There were railway works and coal rees (areas where coal was stored or sold) at Cochno Street. In 1906 the Clydebank Co-operative Society erected a slaughterhouse in Whitecrook Lane (nicknamed "Killer's Lane") for the use of all the butchers in the Burgh. A refuse destructor was opened by the Town Council in 1906 and upgraded in 1955. There was a town dairy in Glasgow Road. The milking was done in a byre at the back in North Bank Street Lane and the cows were herded twice a day from fields at the top of North Elgin Street.
Whitecrook Primary and St Andrew's High School provide education for over 1,000 pupils. North Elgin Street School closed in 1984.
Recreation
Meetings, concerts and wrestling bouts were held in Barns Public Hall in Hall Street, which was renamed Douglas Street in 1902 when the Town Hall was built. It was also the drill hall for the 1st Dumbartonshire Rifle Volunteers. The hall, which opened in 1884, was gifted to the community by the shipbuilders J & G Thomson. It was demolished in 1969. The firm also gifted a bowling green and quoiting rink, built in 1885. The quoiting rink was converted to a second bowling green and a new clubhouse was erected in 1907.
Whitecrook also had a recreation park with football pitches and a model yacht pond, the latter constructed in the 1920s to provide work for the unemployed. The bandstand in Dalmuir Park, erected in 1907, was transferred to Whitecrook in 1935. It was moved again in 1983 to provide the focal point in Three Queen's Square. Yoker Athletic and Clydebank Football Clubs played at Hamilton Park in the 1890s. The Clydebank Rugby Club, formed by Hardgate enthusiasts in 1969, plays at Whitecrook Sports Ground in Dean Street in 2004. There was a greyhound stadium in the area, which was also used for boxing matches. The Gaiety Theatre, built in 1902, became the Bank Cinema in 1927 and closed in 1966.
Many community clubs and organisations have been set up in Whitecrook over the years and the Whitecrook Bulk Buy Club, introduced during the Clydebank East End Initiative in 1986, proved the model for other areas to copy.
Industry
Edward Stanford, who became one of the first commissioners of the Burgh of Clydebank, opened the first factory in the area in 1864. His chemical works was situated on the banks of the Forth and Clyde Canal, permitting the delivery of coal from canal barges. The North British Chemical Co acquired the works in 1891 and its high chimney became a prominent local landmark. It closed in 1954.
The United Co-operative Bakery Society opened a biscuit factory in 1903. It employed around 900 women. It expanded in the 1950s but was closed in 1978 and an indoor Go-Kart Track was built on the site.
Dawson, Downie & Co, founded in 1905 in Glasgow, manufactured pumps. The company moved to Elgin Street in 1908. During both World Wars they manufactured munitions. In 1996 the company moved to Glenrothes, Fife.
The Clydebank Steam Laundry was situated in Barns Street from 1903 until 1974. Aitchison, Blair installed and carried out repairs on ships engines and D & J Tullis made machines for laundries. Light industries were introduced to the area after the Second World War, and in 2004 Clydebank Re-built is building small business units at John Knox Street.
Housing
Twenty-eight Workmens' Dwellings which were built for rent in Barns Street and Richmond Street in 1906 had gardens and internal toilets. They were lit by gas until electricity was installed in 1937 and they had no baths, as they were near the Public Baths which had opened in 1902. Further houses were built in the 1920s and 1930s. These were mainly permanent prefabricated, arriving in sections from the factory and assembled on site. There were a number of styles such as Kane Brickwood, Whitson Fairhurst, Blackburn Orbit and Atholl steel which was pioneered by William Beardmore & Co.
In 1948 a large number of houses were built to replace those damaged during German air raids. During the 1970s, sub-standard tenements on Glasgow Road, from Whitecrook Street to the Yoker boundary, were demolished to make way for new buildings and there have been developments by Clydebank Housing Association and private developers.
The most exotic example of a "wally" close in Scotland was at Kizil Mansions at the corner of Glasgow Road and Whitecrook Street. James Dempsey built the tenement block in 1912. The tiles he acquired to decorate the close are believed to be the work of William de Morgan [1839-1917] a specialist in tiles, stained glass and pottery and member of the Arts and Crafts Movement.
The Scottish Special Housing Association built Whitecrook Hostel in 1942 for workmen who had been bombed out of their homes. The hostel provided accommodation for 250 men for £1 per week, which covered the cost of bed, breakfast, lunch and high tea each day. The Iona Community provided helpers.
The District Nursing Association opened a home for eight nurses in 1914. There was a clinic and an eye clinic at Cochno Street which became a men's hostel in the 1950s. The Sisters of Charity opened a convent in a detached sandstone villa in Millbrae Crescent in 1948 and established a hospice there. In May 1950 there were nineteen patients under their care. Two years later they moved to larger premises in Mill Road. In 1971 the Sisters built St Margaret's Hospice in East Barns Street, with accommodation for sixty patients and offering home care to another fifty. Queen Elizabeth paid a visit in 1986. In 1993 the building was refurbished and a second floor was added.