Dennistoun
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Dennistoun is a large district in the Scottish city of Glasgow. It is situated north of the River Clyde in the east end of the city. It is made up of a number of smaller districts - Milnbank to the north, 'The Drives' in the centre of the area and Bellgrove below Duke Street to the south. There is also a small area of Victorian villas located west towards the city centre, which illustrates the Glasgow Corporation's original plan for the whole area.
Unable to attract the middle-class residents intended by its original developers, it established itself as a respectable working class area for families. After the Second World War, the area's Victorian tenements were refurbished and extended rather than replaced with high-rise modernist blocks as in other working-class districts such as neighbouring Calton and Parkhead, and this, coupled with proximity to the city centre and Strathclyde and Glasgow Caledonian universities, has contributed to the its gentrification in recent years; many of its residents are now students and young professionals.
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[edit] Transport
The district is served by Alexandra Parade, Duke Street and Bellgrove train stations (all on the North Clyde Line) as well as numerous bus routes, offering commuter services to the city centre and on toward the western suburbs.
[edit] Amenities
The community is well served by two shopping areas on Duke Street and Alexandra Parade. There are also two large supermarkets and two long-established italian delicatessans.
Dennistoun benefits from a large Victorian park, Alexandra Park, which is bounded by Alexandra Parade & Cumbernauld Rd. The Park takes its name from Princess Alexandra, the wife of the future King Edward VII, who officially opened the Park in 1870. The park was established in 1866 when the City Improvement Trustees purchased Alexandra Park from Mr. Walter Stewart of Haghill under special powers conferred upon them by legislation. Mr. Alexander Dennistoun, the proprietor of the adjoining estate of Golfhill, gifted five acres of land to the City Improvement Trustees. This ground was situated near the south-west corner adjacent to Alexandra Parade, which now forms the principal pedestrian entrance.
The park is home to a 40 foot cast-iron Walter MacFarlane Saracen Fountain which was gifted to the City after the 1901 International Exhibition and remained in Kelvingrove Park for 12 years after the exhibition. In 1914 Glasgow Corporation took the decision to re-site this magnificent piece of industrial architecture to its present location. The fountain was restored to its former glory in 2000.
Dennistoun also has one of Glasgow's original Carnegie libraries, deftly designed in the Edwardian Baroque style by James Robert Rhind.
[edit] Religion
The area has a proliferation of churches, including the Church of Scotland, Roman Catholic (including Our Lady of Good Counsel, designed by noted Modern architects Gillespie, Kidd & Coia), Baptist, Salvation Army, independent Evangelical churches, Brethren, Charismatic, and a Christadelphian presence. Dennistoun, like many other Glasgow communities, experiences sectarianism.
[edit] Schools
There are three main primary schools in the greater Dennistoun area (excluding Haghill): Golfhill Primary, located in Circus Drive, Alexandra Parade in Armadale St and St Dennis's in Meadowpark St. The only Secondary School in the area is Whitehill Secondary which is mainly fed into by pupils from Golfhill, Alexandra Parade, Haghill and a few from St James's. As it is a Non-Denominational school, most of the pupils from the Catholic St Dennis's go to St Mungo's located in the Gallowgate.
[edit] Famous Current and Former Residents
- Alex Kapranos and Bob Hardy of Franz Ferdinand
- Lulu
- Rikki Fulton
- Gordon Ramsay
- Frank Kelly from the comedy series Father Ted
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