Queen’s Park Glasshouse Proposed Refurbishment
While the animals once housed in the iconic Queen’s Park Glasshouse won’t be returning—much to the disappointment of many local residents and visitors—the question remains: what changes do residents hope to see now that the Glasshouse is set to be refurbished due to concerns about its structural integrity?
Inside Queen’s Park Glasshouse, looking out through a glass polarised
By Louise Devlin | Photo by Laura Vroomen
The Glasshouse in Queen’s Park was built in 1895 and was originally used to cultivate plants. In recent years, the building was home to a children’s soft play area, exotic plants, a fish pond, reptiles, insects and birds. Since 2017, the building has been partially closed following concerns around the structural integrity of the iconic dome.
The dome has been temporarily removed pending investment to refurbish the building. The future of the Glasshouse is currently under review with a feasibility study currently in progress. This study is being carried out by the Glasgow Building Preservation Trust (GBPT) and funded by Glasgow City Council, Scotland’s Rural College, the Architectural Heritage Fund and Glasgow City Heritage Trust.
GBPT recently closed their online survey which asked for the public to share their thoughts and ideas for the future of the Glasshouse. The results of this survey are not yet revealed.
Prior to the survey taking place, the latest proposal reported is to repurpose the building into a cultural and educational hub. Sadly, the animals have been rehomed and will not be returning. Local resident, Lynn Reilly, described how her son used to love visiting the animals, “we used to practically live there when Neil was little. It had a soft play and he absolutely loved the big fish.”
Many more visitors online expressed their disappointment that the animals won’t be returning. The rescued animals were a unique attraction in the area which brought many families to the Glasshouse all year round. It is unclear as to whether the soft play area will return at this time.
Last year, during the Glasgow International festival, an art exhibition took place which gained popularity among locals with many commenting online that they wished for more events like this to be held in the future.
The opportunity is there to make this a regular feature if the cultural and educational hub is the aim. Workshops or classes could also be provided in areas such as painting, crafts, sustainable and environmental education.
Recently engaged, Hannah Moore, hopes to see the Glasshouse restored into a community hub with a new event space perfect for an engagement party or wedding reception.
She said “Glasgow’s glasshouses are so beautiful and romantic, it would be lovely to be able to have such a special event in our local neighbourhood. Then in years to come we could visit and relive the happy memories. There is also the fact that the venue hire fee would go towards keeping a historic site running.”
There is so much potential to return the Queen’s Park Glasshouse to the local landmark it was once was and hopefully the feasibility study is favourable in it’s outcome.
The Glasgow Building Preservation Trust will be attending the bookfair in the Glasshouse on Sunday 13 April from 11am-3pm. Everyone is encouraged to attend to voice their opinions on the future of the Glasshouse and see the progress of their work completed to date.