A
BRIEF HISTORY
15th Century
University Founded
The University of Glasgow was the second in
Scotland to be established after St Andrews in the North East of the
country. In 1451 it was granted permission by a Papal Bull from Pope
Nicholas V in Rome to set up a place of learning for the Clergy of the
Cathedral, and for a town with a population of around 2,000 it would help to
build a reputation for excellence that would see many famous names pass through
its doors in the centuries to come. Adam
Smith, author of the wealth of nations; Joseph Black, chemist and scientist; Joseph
Lister, Surgeon and founder of Antiseptics; William Hunter, Anatomist and
Surgeon; James Watt, Mathematician and inventor of the Separate Condenser Steam
Engine; the list is endless and shows the enormous contribution the University
made in the growth of Glasgow as a city. Although it has moved from its
origins in High Street to more spacious accommodation in Gilmorehill, 2 miles
west, it continues to produce academics of the highest order from within its
famous Quadrangles. top 16th Century
Religious Reform
 Glasgow
is known world wide as a city with a religious divide. Today it is
divided mainly as a result of bigotry on the terraces of the football
field, but in the 16th Century it was to change from Catholic to
Protestant as a result of the Protestant Reformation which swept across
Europe from Germany, where Martin Luther was leading his revolt against
the teachings of the Catholic Church in Rome.
In Scotland
it was under the leadership of John Knox that the Catholic faith would be
abandoned by the citizens of Glasgow to an extent, that over two hundred years
later the number of Catholics in the city numbered no more than 30, in a
population of 45,000.
The Industrial Revolution of
the 19th Century saw Glasgow in need of a greater workforce than the local
population could supply. At the same time, a crop failure in Ireland and
the results of the Highland Clearances in Northern Scotland, saw a large influx
of mainly Catholic families settling in the city. With little or no money
and few possessions, they had to live and work in the poorer industrial areas to
the east of High Street where there are still areas of predominantly Irish
Catholics in the regions of Calton, Camlachie and Parkhead.
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17th Century
Great Fires
London had its great fire in 1666, but Glasgow had its own
great fire 14 years earlier in 1652. It started on the east side of High
Street and swept along by a strong wind from the North soon reached the main
crossroads where it went in all directions. The buildings were made
of timber and thatch and were very close together which made events impossible
to control when fire broke out. This fire raged through
the night and by the next day had burnt one third of the city's housing stock,
leaving over one thousand families out on the street and an estimated damage
total of £100,000. A national disaster, a plea was sent to London for
help in restoring the city but only a pitiful £1,000 was given by Parliament. New
laws were passed which saw any new building being built of stone and slate from
top to bottom and front to back and all dangerous trades removed to beyond the
city boundaries. This did not stop another fire in High Street in 1677,
only this time it was arson. A Blacksmith's Apprentice, fed up with
beatings from the owner, set fire to the workshop. Unfortunately, he
burned down 130 homes in the High Street with it.
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18th
Century
Tobacco Lords
 The
18th century saw Scotland uniting parliaments with England and this meant
that English trade routes to the Indies and America which had been closed to
Scots ships, were now open. Glasgow in particular seized the opportunity
to trade with the tobacco plantations of Maryland and Virginia, and by the 1730s
-1740s the city had a number of ships sailing from the port of Glasgow with
cargoes of linen, leather, metalwork and other goods not yet being manufactured
by the Colonists. By bartering goods and giving credit to plantation
owners, something the English Ships wouldn't do, Glasgow soon had domination of
the tobacco trade in Britain.
 By
1770 the city was handling two thirds of all tobacco trade in the UK and the
wealth being brought to the merchants saw the mansions and estates growing up to
the West of the old town and creating the new town or Merchant City as it is
known today. The outbreak of the American War of Independence in 1775 saw
the end of the Tobacco Lords era, but the emergence of the cotton industries and
improvements to the steam engine would see the city grow larger and wealthier as
the industrial revolution of the 19th century took Glasgow to greater heights.
top 19th Century
Second City of the Empire
Throughout
the 19th Century Glasgow's population and work force grew at quite a pace.
In 1820 it was around 145,000 but by 1900 it had reached around 750,000 making
it the second city of the British Empire after London. Throughout the
century Glasgow had become the leader in the industries of cotton, steam
locomotion and above all ship building. The problems of such a quick rate
of growth brought with it the pollution of industry and the poverty and slums of
its community. The worst affected areas were around the old Glasgow Cross
and High Street where overcrowding and poor sanitation made for high mortality
rates through infection and disease. But a new fresh water supply in 1855
from Loch Katrine and the arrival of the railways into the city through the
lands of the slums helped to relieve the problems.  The railway companies
demolished the slum housing and the City Improvement Trust rebuilt new tenements
on the reclaimed land. The industries of locomotives and ship building saw
the name of Glasgow travel around the world and its riches were shown off in
1888 when Queen Victoria visited the city at the event of the Empire Exhibition
and also to open the very grand City Chambers in George Square which had been
built to designs and standards befitting the stature of the Second City.
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20th Century
City of Architecture & Culture
  Glasgow
through the centuries has always managed to re-invent itself in whatever
direction has been necessary for it to continue to flourish.
From
tobacco to cotton, through production of locomotives and ships, the city and its
people almost seamlessly slipped from one trade to the next doing what needed to be done to survive.
That it is currently going through a phase of
being the centre of culture and architecture should be no surprise to
anyone who looks at the twists and turns of its history. The pollution and
slums of the industrial era have given way to today's
clean, modern city which is thriving in Tourism and the IT industries, but the
past is not forgotten.   There
are still the gems of 18th, 19th and 20th century streets and buildings to be
found amongst the modern landscape, if you know where to look. Over the
years Glasgow has been connected with some of the great Architects and Designer,
from Robert and James
Adam, David Hamilton, Alexander Thomson and Charles Rennie Mackintosh, all have
work with their names attached, spread throughout the city, and a walk around the
town with your heads pointed skywards is the best way to see them all.
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