Location type

Name and dates

Description

This was a two platform station in the west end of Glasgow. The station was below ground level with a fine surface building.

The design was superior due to the stipulations of the owners of the Botanic Gardens. This building was by James Miller. The building was 'Domestic Revival' in style and had Tudor chimneys, and due to the two onion domes on the building it was sometimes known as 'The Kremlin'. The surviving gatehouse building at the entrance to the gardens has some characteristics in common with the now lost station building.

The cutting containing the station is open at either end of the platforms allowing light to enter and the station may be glimpsed below from above.

To the east, the line ran under Great Western Road (Great Western Road Tunnel, below the pipes of the Loch Katrine Aqueduct) to Kelvin Bridge station and to the west it ran under the Botanic Gardens themselves (Botanic Gardens Tunnel) to Kirklee station.

The station briefly had a signal box from opening until 1909.

Great Western Road carried trams whose competition led to an early closure for the station in 1939. The line closed to passengers in 1960 and survived until 1964 as a single track line from Maryhill to Kelvin Bridge and the building survived as a cafe until a fire in 1970.

There were no goods facilities here.

Being fairly intact, the station is a popular urban exploration location, although the access to the railway tunnel is gated. It was used by the BBC for the daytime 'Garden Party' programme as a band venue in the late 1980s, early 1990s.

Local

The Friends of Glasgow Botanic Gardens

Tags

External links