Neighborhoods in Brief

City Centre

Cathedral (Townhead) This is where St. Mungo apparently arrived in A.D. 543 and built his little church in what's now the northeastern part of the city center. Glasgow Cathedral was once surrounded by a variety of prebendal manses, and the so-called Bishops Castle stood between the cathedral's west facade and the Provand's Lordship, which still exists largely in its original form. East of the Cathedral is one of Britain's largest Victorian cemeteries, Glasgow's Central Necropolis.

Merchant City The city's first New Town development -- today southeast of the city's core -- Merchant City, extends from Trongate and Argyle Street in the south to George Street in the north. As the medieval lanes and alleys off the High Street were regarded as festering sores, the affluent moved to develop areas to the west. Now, it has become one of few inner-city areas of Glasgow where people reside.

Gallowgate The beginning of the city's East End today was once one of the streets that prosperous city businessmen strolled. The Saracen's Head Inn stood here and took such distinguished guests as Dr. Samuel Johnson and James Boswell in 1774 after the duo's famous tour of the Hebrides. Today the Gallowgate is best known for the Barras market and Barrowland, a one-time ballroom that now is a popular live-music venue.

Saltmarket While the first settlements in Glasgow were on the hill by the Cathedral, almost as early were dwellings in this area at the opposite end of the High Street along the banks of the Clyde. It served as the trading post where the river could be forded. The Bridgegate leads to the first crossing erected over the Clyde. Today it is Victoria Bridge. Constructed in the 1850s, it is the oldest Clyde crossing in Glasgow.

Commercial Center The biggest of the central districts of Glasgow, it includes areas of 19th-century development such as Blythswood and Charing Cross (although the latter was severed by the M8 freeway). This area offers Victorian architecture at its finest, and the city had a mind to tear it all to the ground until realizing in the middle to late 1960s that it had something of international interest.

Broomielaw It has been said: "The Clyde made Glasgow." From docks here, Glasgow imported tobacco, cotton, and rum and shipped its manufactured goods around the world. Today the Broomielaw, after becoming a rather lost and neglected part of the city center, is targeted for renewal, with luxury flats planned along the riverbank.

Garnethill Up the steep slopes north of Sauchiehall Street, this neighborhood is best known for the Charles Rennie Mackintosh-designed Glasgow School of Art. Developed in the late 1800s, Garnethill offers good views of the city and is also home to the first proper synagogue built in Scotland.

West End

Woodlands Centering on Park Circus at the crown of Woodlands Hill, this neighborhood is the first one just west of the M8 freeway. It is a mix of residential tenements and retail stretches, particularly on Woodlands and Great Western roads. South to the river lies the district of Finnieston. Its most visible landmark is the old shipbuilding crane, standing like some giant dinosaur. Along the Clyde is the Scottish Exhibition Centre. West of Woodlands is Kelvingrove, with the Art Gallery and Museum and the impressive park. Glasgow has more green spaces per resident than any other European city.

Hillhead With the Gilmorehill campus of the University of Glasgow, Hillhead is rather dominated by academia. Its main boulevard is Byres Road, which is the Main Street of the West End.

Partick The railway station at Partick is one of the few in the city to translate the stop's name into Gaelic: Partaig. Indeed there is a bit of Highland pride to the neighborhood, although no particular evidence that Highland people have settled here in great masses. Partick is one of the less pretentious districts of the central West End. To the north are leafy and affluent Hyndland and Dowanhill.

Southside

Gorbals This neighborhood, just across the Clyde from the city center, developed a reputation for mean streets and unsanitary tenements; so, the city demolished it in the early 1960s, erecting sets of modern high-rise apartment towers, which, in turn, developed a reputation for unsavory and unpleasant conditions. Today they are coming down and the New Gorbals has been developed on a more human scale, although the fabric of the place still seems torn and frayed. It is home to the Citizens' Theatre, one of the most innovative and democratic in the U.K.

Govan Until 1912, this was an independent burgh and one of the key shipbuilding districts on the south banks of the Clyde. It was settled as early as the 10th century -- another ecclesiastical focal point along with St. Kentigern's north of the river. The first shipyard, Mackie & Thomson, opened in 1840. But with the demise of shipbuilding, the fortunes of Govan fell too. Today, it is hoped that the Science Centre and other developments planned in the area, such as a new Transport Museum and new HQ for BBC Scotland, will revive Govan's fortunes.

Pollokshaws Along with Pollokshields and Crosshill, these neighborhoods form the heart of the city's more modern Southside suburbs. Pollok Park and the Burrell Collection are the primary tourist attractions, and Queens Park is perhaps better and more verdant than Kelvingrove Park, even if it lacks the monuments and statues of the West End's oasis.