Neighbourhoods
Central
By Sheila Livingstone
The nucleus of central Clydebank was J & G Thomson's Clydebank Shipyard, established in 1871 on the riverbank at rural Barns o' Clyde.
The New Town
The yard was moved to the area from Cessnock Bank near Govan. At first, the firm provided a ferry to carry their workers to the yard each day from their homes in Govan, Finnieston and Kinning Park. To provide homes closer to the workplace, the Thomsons built two four-storey tenements at the entrance to the yard on Glasgow Road in March 1872. A new community grew up around the yard and "Tamson's Town", as the tenements were known. The firm did not build houses on the riverside - the ground was required for industrial development - but it acquired land nearby and sold it to private developers. These speculators laid out Cunard Street, Union Street, Columba Place and Rosebery Place and built tenements there. The buildings were mostly of three storeys, with shops on the ground floors.
Demand for houses in the area close to the yard increased when Thomsons relocated their boiler works and foundry to Clydebank, and other industries opened nearby. When the Singer Manufacturing Co built a huge new factory at Kilbowie in the early 1880s, the demand for housing grew and new building spread up along Kilbowie Road and on land south of the Forth and Clyde Canal.
Education
Although the new town came under the jurisdiction of the Parochial Board of Old Kilpatrick, few public services were available to the first Bankies. However, Thomsons opened a canteen in a brick shed, or "bothy", that was also used as a church on Sundays and as a public hall in the evenings. Mrs Pitblado set up the community's first school as a private business in her room-and-kitchen flat in Clydebank Terrace. In 1873, after the passing of the Education Act, the first board school was established and located in a bothy at the shipyard, until a new school building opened in Kilbowie Road in 1886. Our Holy Redeemer Catholic school was also built there in 1889 and moved to Glasgow Road in 1905. At first, all Clydebank's schools were fee-paying.
Public Buildings
Although the area became a police burgh in 1886 and adopted the name Clydebank, the municipal buildings on the corner of Hall Street and Dumbarton Road did not open until March 1902. The complex housed municipal offices, a fire station, the court, the police department and the public baths. The clock was not added to the tower until the War Memorial was erected in 1931. A public library was opened on Friday evenings, in 1878, in Clydebank School. The present Clydebank Library, built with the assistance of the philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, was opened in 1913.
The Cross
The Cross, as the junction of Kilbowie Road and Glasgow and Dumbarton Roads, was the hub of the town. Two public houses stood on the corners, Ross's on Dumbarton Road and The Clydebank Bar on Glasgow Road. A fountain was erected at the Cross in 1906 by the Clydebank Co-operative Society to mark its Jubilee, and it became a popular meeting place. Men gathered there and at the Kilbowie Road canal bridge to discuss the latest topics and set the world to right. The young people tended to meet in the booths of the Italian cafes to enjoy milk-shakes, knickerbocker glories and peas and vinegar.
Shopping
At first, foods and other goods were brought to Clydebank by horse and cart. Late in 1872 the first shop, a grocer's, opened near the main gate, followed by a greengrocer's which opened in a bothy in the yard. Other merchants rented shops in Glasgow Road, offering a wide selection of goods. The shops opened for seventy hours a week, and Bankies could shop in them until midnight
On Pay Friday, Dumbarton Road heaved with housewives seeking bargains while their husbands visited the snooker rooms or pubs. Hawkers brought cage-birds, book barrows and quack medicines and set up near the canal bridge on Kilbowie Road. Street entertainers were popular and children haunted the sweetie wives. There were complaints that the fruit sellers at Douglas Street gave short weights and left a mess behind them.
Some men at the yard had experience of the Co-operative Movement in Kinning Park and Govan. In 1881 they held a meeting to inaugurate Clydebank Co-operative Society, one of the few independent societies still trading in 2004. A shop was rented at the corner of Glasgow Road and Canal Street. In 1885 they set up a Penny Savings Bank and in 1887 built their own premises in Alexander Street. A department store was added in 1917 and many other shops and services developed including an undertakers.
Clydebank's shopping centre moved north from the Dumbarton Road area during the 1970s. Many of the old shops were converted into houses and the first phase of the Clyde Regional Shopping Centre was built on the old railway sidings and disused land between Kilbowie Road and Argyll Road. The site was divided by the Forth and Clyde Canal and a bridge joined the north and south areas on Sylvania Way. Many chain stores and large supermarkets rented premises there. Throughout the 1980s and '90s additions were made to the leisure area, including a ten-pin bowling alley, the Playdrome with its large swimming pools and indoor skateboarding park and the UCI Cinema Complex. £21 million was awarded in 2002 to encourage the expansion to the range of shops and provide a roof over the main centre.
Clydebank Business Park
After the closure of the Singer Factory in Kilbowie in 1980, the Scottish Development Agency set up a Task Force to focus and co-ordinate efforts to revive the town's economy. An Enterprise Zone was opened on the old Singer site in August 1981, offering companies a variety of incentives to relocate to the area. The Clydebank Business Park has attracted a wide spread of offices, small businesses, large companies and hotels to the area. Scottish Radio Holdings (Clyde FM) has its headquarters there.
With the closure of Singer and the Clydebank Shipyard, the central area of Clydebank has changed as drastically since the 1970s as it did during the 1870s. A new Task Force, Clydebank Re-built, has great plans for the regeneration of the area which will allow the people access to the riverside. It includes improved roads, housing, hotels, retail outlets, leisure facilities and, at last, a pier.
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