RAILSCOT | Queens Dock

Queens Dock

Location type

Place

Name and dates

Queens Dock (1877-1969)

Opened on the Stobcross Railway.
Opened on the Queens Dock Railway Lines.

Description

This was a large dock to the west of central Glasgow on the north bank of the River Clyde. It was served by the Stobcross Railway. The dock was infilled and is now the site of the Scottish Exhibition Centre.

The dock was long planned, and by the time it was opened the railway serving it took a circuitous approach as Glasgow was expanding westwards. The dock was at, what was then, the western edge of Glasgow.

Stone from Craigleith Quarry in Edinburgh was used. Work continued both day and night and this construction may have been the first in Britain to employ floodlights at night.

The dock was the second major dock built on the Clyde after the Kingston Dock. Work began with the diversion north of Pointhouse Road in 1872. It was completed in 1877 and Stobcross Quay was finished in 1882. The Stobcross Shipyard of Barclay Curle closed in 1874 when the company relocated to Whiteinch.

On entering the dock there was a large canting basin at the west end, beyond which to the east the dock was divided by a large centre pier. The northern sub dock was longer than the southern. All quaysides were equipped with warehousing and railways (the northern largely only had railways).

In 1911 berth allocations were
Southern quayside
1 &3 J & P Hutchison for France and Spain
5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15 & 17 General use
19, east end of southern basin, General use
Centre Pier southern quayside
21, 23, 25, 27 & 29 G Smith & Sons for India, South Africa and other
Centre Pier, pier end
31 General use
Centre Pier northern quayside
32 P Henderson & Co for Burma and South America
22, 24, 26, 28 & 30 Cayzer, Irvine & Co for India and South Africa
20, east end of northern basin, General use
Northern quayside
2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 & 18 Mineral quays served by many sidings and cranes, the first large scale coal export facility on the north bank. From 1881 iron ore was imported.

The dock was closed in 1969 but remained intact with much silting at the east end. The western portion still saw some traffic, probably simply mooring. In the late 1970s and early 1980s the docks were actively filled with rubble from the east end, the steady infilling being obvious from the nearby railway to the north. Some of the material, 250,000 cubic metres, was from Glasgow St Enoch which was demolished at this time.

Little remains of the dock save the site of its entrance at the west end and the pumphouse, now undergoing conversion to a distillery (2017).

Nearby stations Exhibition Centre Finnieston [1st] Yorkhill Kelvin Hall Cessnock [Subway] Ibrox [Subway] Govan Govan [Subway] Kelvinhall [Subway] Kinning Park [Subway] Merkland Street [Subway] Partick [Subway] Partick Anderston Charing Cross [GC and DR]	Finnieston East Junction Stobcross Shed Kelvinhaugh Shipyard Stobcross Junction Kelvinhaugh Goods Kelvinhaugh Junction Kelvinhaugh Slipdock Kelvinhaugh Engine Works Kelvinhaugh Tunnel Stobcross Low Level Ground Frame Stobcross Quay Heart of Scotland Govan Graving Docks Tourist/other Scottish Event Campus Kelvinhaugh Signal Box
Location names in dark blue are on the same original line.

Chronology Dates

/ /1840	Clyde Trustees Buy land at Stobcross. This was to later become the Queens Dock and would be served by the Stobcross Railway from 1874.
/ /1860	Clyde Trustees Decide to build a wet dock (the Queens Dock) on their land at Stobcross. The North British Railway promotes the Stobcross Railway as a branch of the Glasgow, Dumbarton and Helensburgh Railway to serve it. (1860s).
/ /1870	Clyde Trustees Queens Dock authorised. (Also known as Stobcross Dock.)
/ /1874	Barclay, Curle & Co Company now based at the Clydeholm Shipbuilding Yard having sold the Stobcross Shipyard to the Clyde Navigation Trustees (the entry to the Queens Dock, opened 1880, occupied the site).
26/11/1894	Hamiltonhill Branch (Caledonian Railway) Lanarkshire and Dumbartonshire Railway Glasgow Central Railway Balornock Junction to Possil Junction, Maryhill [CR] and Stobcross (L&D railway no 4) opened to minerals and goods. This gave the Caledonian Railway an independent line to the Queens Dock lines.
/ /1904	Queens Dock Railway Lines New dock tramways and a diversion of Pointhouse Road authorised by the Queens Dock.
15/07/1968	Stobcross Railway Kelvinhaugh Junction to Queens Dock closed.
/ /1977	City of Glasgow Union Railway Glasgow St Enoch station starts to be demolished after having been a car-park. Rubble used to fill the Queens Dock (Glasgow).
/ /1987	Scottish Exhibition Centre (Glasgow) Opened on the site of the Queens Dock, which was filled in with the rubble of the demolished City of Glasgow Union Railway's demolished Glasgow St Enoch station.
/ /2002	Meadowside Granary Meadowside Shipbuilding Yard According to the developers a new development, 'Glasgow Harbour', will only be a success if a light rail system is extended from the city to the area. The site of the Meadowside Granary becomes flats, the Meadowside Shipbuilding Yard (intended office, leisure and retail developments) and Merklands Lairage sites are cleared and not developed. The sites are a mile downstream of Glasgow Harbour's Queens Dock and Princes Dock. During development the neighbouring cyclepath, the intact solum of the Lanarkshire and Dumbartonshire Railway, is cleared and partly redeveloped, it being explained that the embankment created a barrier between the development and Partick. The alignment from Smith Street to the Merkland Street Tunnel is obliterated.