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Note: text in square brackets is added for clarity and was not part of the location's name.

Description

This terminus was located at the junction of Pollokshaws Road and Cathcart Street (now Cathcart Road). Initially it was the Glasgow terminus of the Glasgow, Barrhead and Neilston direct Railway. An eastern portion was added to the station, opened with the Clydesdale Junction Railway and Hamilton branch. The terminus was on the south side of the River Clyde, a little distant from old Glasgow.

The original terminus was considered unsuitable by Joseph Locke with the impending opening of the Clydesdale Junction Railway of the Caledonian Railway, which would carry trains from England to Glasgow (replacing the very unsuitable Glasgow (Townhead) terminus in the north of Glasgow).

South Side was replaced by a new joint station designed by William Tite. Tenders for the new building were invited in 1849. It was modest but dignified. Track level was above street level and steps led up to two doorways. In front of the station was a carriage area, located in the 'V' of the junctions of Cathcart Road and Pollockshaws Road.

Two platforms on the west side of this new station served the Barrhead line. There were also platforms on the east side. The two sets of platforms were partly covered by a trainshed.

On the west side was a goods shed for the Barrhead line. On the east side was a goods yard for the Caledonian. Railway approach was from the south. South of the station, on the Barrhead line, was a goods yard on the east side of the line..

Use of the eastern half as a terminus for trains from England was brief, with Buchanan Street opening in 1849 and trains being diverted there. The eastern portion was then used for local trains such as those to Hamilton.

The line was extended north in 1876 by the City of Glasgow Union Railway from Langside Junction, leaving the approach to the old terminus intact on its west side. The building was demolished in 1873 to allow construction of the new line, although the station remained open. For the Glasgow and South Western Railway the CGU was part of a greater scheme which saw the opening of the joint line south to Kilmarnock in 1871 and its use to carry trains from England to Glasgow, culminating in the opening of the great Glasgow St Enoch terminus in 1876.

The preparation for the opening of the CGU led to the complete demolition of the east (Caledonian Railway) side of the station, that portion being replaced with temporary platforms to the south from 1873 to 1879. The western half offices and platforms remained in use until 1877, with the new line passing directly to their east, and following that remained relatively intact with their terminating platform and goods lines in use as South Side Goods until at least 1910, the former station approach becoming a recreation ground.

Nothing remains of the last of the passenger station, probably demolished in the 1940s. The goods station closed around 1966. Part of the site became a railway social club. The site is now a small industrial estate. A stone retaining wall remains on Pollokshaws Road close to Cathcart Road. A further small portion of wall remains enclosed within the estate, possibly the northern edge of the terminus.

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