Ruchill
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please discuss this issue on the talk page or replace this tag with a more specific message. This article has been tagged since January 2007. |
Ruchill (pronounced "ruch hill") is a district in the city of Glasgow. Located between the Maryhill and Possilpark areas of the city, it has traditionally been characterised by a high degree of deprivation and social problems. However from the late 1990s much of the poorer housing stock has been cleared to be replaced by newly built housing association and owner-occupied homes, changing much of the area's character.
One part of the area that is basically unchanged is High Ruchill, which unlike the rest of the area was never made up of tenemental properties, but semi detached housing instead. This part of Ruchill also never suffered the same concentration of social problems as the rest of the area.
There also existed at one stage a Ruchill Hospital in the area. The Hospital was opened in 1900 by the Glasgow Corporation to deal specifically with infectious diseases, with an initial capacity of 440 beds. By the time of its absorption into the NHS in 1948 it had 1,000 beds in it. As diseases like tuberculosis declined the nature of the hospital changed, so that in the 1960s it catered for young chronically sick, geriatric and psychiatric patients. In the 1980s it dealt with cases of AIDS and HIV after the onset of these illnesses. The hospital closed in 1998 and lies empty awaiting redevelopment. There have been recent reports that developers plan to build several hundred houses on the site of Ruchill Hospital.
Ruchill Church Hall, designed by the celebrated architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh is located to the west of the area, close to Maryhill Road.
Ruchill Park is prominent in the area, and is one of many public parks in the city. Sitting next to the abandoned Ruchill Hospital, the Park offers many views across Glasgow at its highest point and is the best viewpoint in the city. During WW2 an ack ack gun was positioned in the park and was used to defend Clydebank. The park has a very good collection of holly trees.
Ruchill Golf Course was popular for many years with golfers in the city but around 2000 the city coucil closed the facilty and money was issued by coucil to establish redevelopment plans however to date no plans have ever surfaced, the site currently lies derilict and overgrown. The golf course had two former train tunnels from the early 1930s running under some of the fairways, one named the "miley" by locals as it was around a mile long. The exit was at Maryhill Road and Ruchill St junction was eventually closed as a shopping development in the 70s required the area for foundations. One facinating brilliant hole required you to seven iron over the "miley" resulting in many youngsters earning their pocket money collecting the golf balls which went astray !
There is also a tunnel that links Ruchill to the Cadder area. The tunnel runs under the Forth & Clyde Canal which runs through the golf course. This tunnel is known locally as the Halloween Pen. It is not a railway tunnel but a tunnel used to herd sheep through in the past. Local children were always warned to avoid the Pen because the local rumour had it as you passed through the tunnel walls would open and the unsuspecting would be spirited away.
