There can be few 100 acres of ground to match the richness in historical associations possessed by Glasgow Green. Armies have marched across it, it has been the scene of festivities and sporting events, as well as of epoch-making political meetings. The Green can even stake a claim to be the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. The origins of the Green date to the 15th century when it was part of the common lands of Glasgow, where every citizen had grazing rights.

This is still shown in early 19th century drawings where, alongside the well-dressed citizens out for a stroll, the locals can be seen grazing their sheep. Once the Green was laid out in the 1820s as a park by the Director of Public Works, James Cleland, this tradition declined, though another, of using the Green for the washing and bleaching of linens, continued well into the 20th century. The demotic nature of the Green continued when it became the site of the Glasgow Fair. This was originally a trading fair, but over the years it became identified with the local industrial workers’ summer holiday and consisted latterly largely of amusement arcades (known as ‘penny geggies’), and of drinking hostelries.

The Fair declined with time but the Green remained the recreational choice of the lower classes, and many traditional sports took place there – shinty, golf, cricket – though in the later 19th century these were eclipsed by the new pastime of football, and Glasgow Rangers started life ‘on the Green’. The use of the Green for concerts like T in the Park and as the site of the annual International Pipe Band Competition can be seen as the continuation of this tradition. The Green was also the scene of religious meetings, assemblies of temperance organisations and of the suffragette movement. In 1832 an amazing 150,000 people gathered on the Green to support agitation for the Reform Act of that year. Subsequently it was the focus of the working class movement and the favoured haunt of trades unionists and political radicals.

Later attempts to curtail this right of assembly led to successful ‘free speech’ agitation on the Green in the 1930s. In 1746 the Jacobite army under Bonnie Prince Charlie retreated towards its nemesis at Culloden through Glasgow. Charles stayed at the Shawfield mansion in the Trongate, but his army was encamped on Fleshers’ Haugh, the eastern part of the Green, and here the Pretender reviewed his troops, diminishing in numbers and enthusiasm James Watt was an instrument mechanic at Glasgow University. Working on the repair of a model Newcomen engine, he took his lunchtime walk on the Green, and came up with the idea of a separate condenser for the engine. This development enabled steam power to be applied in factory production, and also paved the way for the railways and steamship navigation. A headless statue of Watt lay amongst the bushes of Fleshers’ Haugh for many years, but in the restoration of the Green it has been recapitated and placed beside the People’s Palace.

This is a museum dedicated to the working class history of Glasgow and is a mustsee venue. As well as its permanent collection of industrial and social history, the Palace contains information about the history of the Green and a series of leaflets describing its walks and monuments. Another palace, the Doge’s Palace as it is popularly known, or Templeton’s carpet factory, lies to the north-east. This must have been the most beautiful and extravagant factory in the world when it was built in 1889 to the designs of William Leiper.

The polychrome tiles and terracotta brickwork were meant to recall the palace of the Venetian ruler and thus not spoil the built frontage to the Green. A nearby gate commemorates the 29 workers who were killed when the partially built building collapsed.

To the west of the Doge’s Palace is found another of the Green’s superlatives, the Doulton Victoria fountain, the largest surviving terracotta structure in the world. It stands as a paradigm for the British Empire at the date of its construction in 1888. On top stands the monarch and below are her armed forces. Under that lie the main overseas colonies, and all is supported on a base which represents Glasgow, then the Second City of the Empire and its industrial capital.

The fountain was restored as part of the multi-million-pound refurbishment of the Green, completed in 2007. Little remains of the fashionable houses of the bourgeoisie and the University professors of the 18th century which at Charlotte Street flanked the west side of the Green. Glasgow’s medieval University was demolished in the 1870s by the Victorians to be replaced by a railway marshalling yard, and the fashionable followed the new centre of learning to the West End, as the East End became an overcrowded slum. But at 52 Charlotte Street one urban villa by Robert Adam remains, and has been restored as a hotel. At the western entrance to the Green stands the Maclennan Arch, being all that remains of the famed Adam brothers’ Glasgow Assembly Rooms.

The park has other fine memorials, including – to the chagrin of London – the first Nelson’s Column, constructed in 1806, and a drinking fountain to Hugh MacDonald, a passionate devotee of the Green and author of the 1856 book ‘Rambles Round Glasgow’. The area hereabouts was the scene of public executions until 1865. The condemned died ‘facing the monument’ (Nelson’s).

Before ending your urban safari you might like to seek refreshment in the Winter Gardens (behind the People’s Palace) which are yet another attraction of the Green, which is less of a park and more of a microcosm of a great city. One theory as to the derivation of Glasgow’s name is that it is a corruption of the Gaelic for Dear Green Place. For many Glasgwegians, ‘The Green’ is their dear green place.

field facts

People’s Palace and Winter Gardens. Tel: 0141 276 0708 www. glasgowmuseums. com