Friends of Kelvingrove Park - ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

TUESDAY 2nd DECEMBER 2008

In the small hall, upstairs at Hillhead Library, Byres Road, Glasgow at 7.30pm.


Dog-walkers are great supporters of the Friends of Kelvingrove Park - dogs love parks! We would like to return the favour and ask everyone to look out for a dog called "Grissom" who slipped his leash on University Avenue and has been roaming around the West End for the last month. He is a black and white lurcher, if you see him anywhere then please call 07854 665 602 or .


The Friends of Kelvingrove Park are working with Glasgow City Council on a project to bring the sparkle of flowing water back to the Stewart Memorial Fountain.

Together with Woodlands & Park Community Council, Glasgow City Council's Land and Environmental Services, Scottish Water, Glasgow Heritage Trust and "Education Outreach" in Culture and Sport Glasgow, the Friends are hoping to raise awareness and improve knowledge of the fountain, which celebrates what has been described as "One of the greatest feats of civil engineering since the Romans" - the building of the huge 50 mile pipeline from Loch Katrine in the Trossachs to supply Glasgow with clean water.

Following the successful restoration of the Doulton Fountain at Glasgow Green, the plan is to have a recycling unit to support continuous water flow.

To support this project, the Friends of Kelvingrove Park, and Woodlands & Park Community Council are putting out an appeal for memorabilia: old photographs (especially of the eight large bird sculptures that were part of the design), also postcards, films, poems, paintings, sketches and other material that we could borrow, copy and return. Please send items to: Dennis McCue, Land and Environmental Services, 37 High Street, Glasgow G1 1LX. Tel. 0141 287 5142 or .



The West End Festival Parade arrives in Kelvingrove Park at 4.15pm on Sunday 15th June, and ends with a Samba Party in the park. "The West End Festival (WEF) is one of the major festival events in the Scottish Calendar and Glasgow’s largest cultural event, attracting over 110,000 people to free events and 39,000 to ticketed events in 2007."

On a related note, we noticed these letters to the Glasgow Evening Times newspaper under the headline "Bandstand is perfect park venue":
"FORGET all this talk of building a temporary stage at the Art Galleries for the West End Festival (Evening Times, June 6), let's renovate the existing Victorian bandstand in Kelvingrove Park and hold gigs. It would be a lasting legacy which could be used throughout the year. Granted it won't hold thousands of people but it would provide an excellent venue for smaller acts." - EH, Glasgow
"The Bandstand in Kelvingrove Park is an asset that this City of Culture should never have allowed to fall into disrepair. It is in an idylic setting within the Park, with a great natural sound system. EH is correct when he says it should be renovated and put to the use it was intended. This is a gem that our council should recognise if they have any real take on Culture within the city." - dan, West end

We have also been asking these questions, pushing and working with the council on this issue for years, but still no Bandstand restoration. It has a large auditorium but is a small building, comparatively easy to restore - please let's get the restoration started Glasgow City Council!

If you'd like to help, you can phone or e-mail the council via their website or contact your local city councillor via this webpage, http://www.writetothem.com/, and let them know that you support the restoration of the bandstand in Kelvingrove. Thanks for all of your continued interest and support.


Kelvingrove Park Ranger Service are offering free tours of the park: "Take a walk down memory lane with this pleasant and informative tour around this lovely park which has a history dating back to 1852". They also answer questions such as: "Where is the Elephants Graveyard?", "Are the Art Galleries back to front?" and "How did the Victorians clear snow from the bridge?". For more information contact the Council on Tel: 0141 552 1142 or E-mail: land@glasgow.gov.uk

Also see City Strolls for a different kind of city walk. City Strolls have a great archive of photographs of Glasgow and are regular users of Kelvingrove - there is also extensive background information on various threats to Glasgow's parks


The Botanic Gardens has been in the news a lot recently. The Friends of Kelvingrove Park support the Save Our Botanics campaign in the view that parks have been gifted to the people of Glasgow and should not be sold-off or leased, in this case for a nightclub. The City Council should concentrate more on wildlife and maintenance of the parks e.g. this story in the Evening Times illustrates how wildlife can take a lower priority. Also, private developments are not the only way we can have public toilets in our parks - a false "Hobson's choice" offered in previous 'consultations' on the issue.